Age distribution of victims and offenders is clear -- it's clearly poor young men just out of high school who can't go to college or get jobs that join gangs, to kill or get killed,
<blockquote>Homicide Type by Age, 1976-2002
Gang related
Victims Under 18 25.4% 18-34 67.4% 35-49 5.9% 1.3%
Offenders Under 18 30.4% 18-34 67.7% 35-49 1.6% 50+ .3%
<http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/teens.htm></blockquote>
The sort of jobs that such young men could have gotten (manufacturing, warehousing, etc.) have disappeared from their neighborhoods (to be located in US suburbs or other countries), and new low wage jobs -- retail, personal care, clerical jobs, etc. -- that still exist in cities are traditional women's jobs for which employers still prefer women to men. There still exist that manly bastion of blue-collar jobs in cities: construction. But either whites in white unions or undocumented non-union workers tend to get them more often than US-born poor men of color.
What's the solution?
We don't seem to be able to generate enough enthusiasm for higher gas taxes among leftists here, let alone the general public.
John and Nathan might say that here eminent domain is potentially useful. Indeed, there seem to be instances of uses of eminent domain that come with guarantees of a few jobs -- but the emphasis is on "a few":
<blockquote>In south Los Angeles, where the city redevelopment authority planned to displace 75 households to make way for Super K- mart, a fast-food outlet, and a FedEx depot, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) stepped in to hammer out a community- benefits agreement outlining terms on which development could proceed. After K-mart went bankrupt, the project went back to the drawing board and emerged with guarantees for 250 living-wage jobs, local hiring, new affordable housing, and a community center. The tenants and homeowners will still have to move, but LAANE and the development authority ensured that they will receive long-term housing subsidies that in many cases will leave them more stably housed than before. LAANE and other L.A. groups have also successfully advocated for better relocation arrangements and higher- wage jobs on two other eminent-domain projects, including the Staples Center arena. Developers and the city would rather cut such deals than face lengthy litigation. In Brooklyn, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) incurred the wrath of Prospect Heights homeowners by coming out publicly in favor of the basketball-arena project. ACORN and allied labor unions made their support contingent on large commitments of new affordable housing, child care, and senior centers, plus requirements to hire and train local and minority construction workers for union career tracks. Displaced tenants will be relocated and then placed in the new luxury housing at their old rents. The deal could have been better, one can only imagine, if construction and service workers' unions with an interest in the project's approval had not been in the picture.
<http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww? section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10029><blockquote>
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>