Crime Policy

The major approaches for preventing and handling crime in youths, are after school programs like camping trips where they get to bond with other kids and their counselors get to know them better and work with them personally to help them with their problems. The church is another approach in preventing crime by engaging youths in group meetings with other youths and parents to aid them in changing their troublesome views of life into better ones. Also there are youth sports where it encourages team work, leadership opportunities, and chance to meet other people from other cultures. Community based programs where they can socially interact with one another and discuss their problems and fears. 

The police force can handle neighborhoods by implementing a community policing model that is more focused on individuals in the community by interacting and getting them involved in public safety. The police can also implement rehabilitative programs for those charged with lesser crimes as an alternative to jail time for those who want a second chance. Also police can work with community leaders and hear their ideas on how they can cooperate together to create answers to problems. 

The law SB 1474 harms the objectives of police because it will allow, if passed, for students to carry weapons on campus whether they are trained or not. This can jeopardize the life of everyone on campus because in a critical situation police won’t be able to tell the difference between the suspects and the victims. The SB 1070 law will cause harm by negatively affecting police efforts in working with the community by creating mistrust between the Hispanic community and the police.

Housing and Economic Development

The strengths of my city are first the land that is available for new businesses is located in the downtown area of the city which is where all the citizens go to the restaurants, shopping, and have a few drinks and fun at the clubs. The five star hotels around are of extreme luxury, you’ll get treated like a king/queen. The land available has many resources around it which is; water & electricity, the airport, the light rail, and the freeway just a few blocks away. There is also a lot of recreation in this area for example, you can go jog at the park or play a sport in the green fields of the park. I would propose to the city council that it will benefit the city if new businesses open here like bring more revenue to fix messed up streets and make the city greener and help improve more the economy. The citizens of the communities around the downtown area will also benefit from the more variety of businesses and job opportunities.

I would consider applying for a HOPE VI grant for my city because this would help those families in need that don’t have a place to live or cannot afford a house. My thought about the program are that it is a good way to provide families with a place they can call home. It’s nice what the program did to those families that lived in the Mathew Henson community and the HOPE VI should continue to do that with other communities around that may need a better living house. The impact that I see it having for low income residents is that they will have a better house to live in and for the community at large it will make it look much better in regard to poor housing and poverty.

Education

The core problems and causes surrounding education in America are the schools, teachers, and parents. The schools are one problem because they need to be adequate and not overpopulated. The teachers have to the capacity and sufficient knowledge to be able to teach well to the students. The parents are a problem too because if they do not tell their children to study and do their homework, then who will? The videos point to concrete solutions in parts reflecting that the schools/teachers should improve their teaching methods and have more students at a higher school level. The political system has affected the educational one by trying to fix the problem, but in reality no solution has risen to this problem. I think that a more centralized educational system might work and make a positive difference on how the children learn new things. In my opinion the changing of paradigms might or might not solve the problem with school finance and family support, but that can be an initiative on trying to fix the educational system.

The videos on education explain that the culture has changed because in the past it was considered that if you had a good education you would be able to obtain a career. Now it has changed, because many kids dropout of high school and not go to college. They end up not having the lifestyle or future they wanted because they did not pursue the career, major, and goals they had. For me it is very important the idea of graduating, getting my degree, and work on a career I’ll enjoy. In accordance to the videos the education is not the same, some kids learn at different ages, while working in groups, or alone. The structure of the education system needs to improve; they have been saying in the past years that their working on improving education, but in reality nothing is being done. When I was young I remember writing my goals down on a booklet we had to do and one of my goals was to graduate from a university, and here I am about to accomplish that goal. It is up to the student to decide whether they want a difficult future or a future where they can obtain what they want. It is also different on some kids for example, kids whose parents give them everything they want, and do not appreciate it; they get bad grades, and get into trouble. On the other hand, some kids that do not have their parents buying them everything and know that it is because of the lack of money tend to achieve their goals more than others. They try to do their best and look into their future at a young age so that when their sons are born, they do not go through the harsh obstacles they went through.  

Homeless Individual

I am a homeless individual and decided to live in the downtown area of Phoenix, Arizona. I decided to live there because in this place there are more tourists and more money. The concentric zone model helped me decide where my location would be, zone one is the central business. I chose to locate myself in the central zone part of the city where more people are visiting because of the design and structures of the buildings. My exact location where I would sleep would be outside the bars, clubs, and restaurants to facilitate my begging and follow my diet.  Every time I ask someone for a dollar they say, “Yes here you go sir.” With the money I make in one day I go buy myself some fresh fruits from the markets. The downtown area is growing fast that is why I decided to live there; there is transportation available like the light rail, taxis, and buses. There is also less crime in this area because more patrol cars will be supervising the area to stop crime. The environment is greener than before which makes it more pleasant. There are Internet signals at almost everywhere around the downtown part of the city; the problem is that I would have to beg for money a lot more to be able to afford a laptop.

 
Phoenix has been on construction the last few years to make the downtown area a more habitual place. The Civic Space Park that is located across from Arizona State University is an example that the city wants to improve on how it looks. Also other buildings that were built make it look more clean and newer. Overall the changes that brought my decision to locate in this area are that perhaps the downtown area keeps growing more so more people can check it out and help out if they can.

Intro

The readings sound interesting because one of them talk about how the cities are placed like the buildings, roads, and houses. In the central part of the cities the most luxurious buildings are placed and around them the good looking houses. For example Phoenix, they have nice buildings in the downtown area, but around this area they have old houses that were made back in the 50s. I heard that a couple of years back the downtown area did not look the way it looks today. The city is slowly fixing up downtown to make more tourists want to come back. That is what I kind of understood from the readings and how the houses and parks are there for.

Urban Policy 240

Hi my name is Brian Bernal, I’m majoring Criminal Justice & Criminology. My decision for choosing this class is because it counts as an interdisciplinary study which is a requirement for my major. I am the first one in my family to attend a university, right now I do not work but will like to.  This is my third year at ASU and I really like all the courses that I have taken. I’m planning for my career to work as a law enforcement officer to be able to help out the public in need of security and justice.