I have a feeling these ideas won't be popular but ...
On top of wanting an exciting city with affordable housing and good public transportation. I want to live in a city where I feel safe. Safe from physical harm, safe from theft, safe from bad police, safe from being spied on, safe to participate in "quirky" things.
Tokyo is partly that city. I can go to strange fetish clubs, burlesque, punk rock, cosplay, etc and no one bats an eye. But I'm unlikely to get stabbed, unlikely to be pick pocketed, if I drop my wallet I'm likely to get it back with all my money. If I go to a cafe/coffee-shop I can leave my wallet/computer on a table for 10-15 minutes and expect to to be there when I get back.
Why does it feel like every other city outside Japan except maybe Singapore I can't do that?
I'm in Berlin right now and I love the variety of things going on but I hate that a high percentage of people destroy the commons. Street Art Yay! Tagging Boo! Broken glass everywhere where people threw their beer bottles. Pick pockets all over. People trying to steal your bags right out from under you.
In LA/SF/NYC and Berlin almost all public restrooms for men are some level of destroyed.
How do you get people to care about the commons and stop destroying things just to be dicks?
Please figure out how to design that kind of city.
I understand that Tokyo is like that in large part because of very strict laws against actions like what you describe. Turns out very strict punishment is a good deterrence, but some might argue that the ends do not justify the means. There's no free lunch.
It's possible it's strict laws but I doubt it. It seems cultural. People in the west actually enjoy destroying things and being dicks for fun. Prank calls, ordering pizzas for strangers is practically a rite of passage. Nearly every teen movie has some segment about doing something bad and getting away with it (bad = destruction of someone else's property). Tagging is also seen as a rite of passage. Kicking in bathroom doors. Flushing with your shoes. Clogging toilets with paper is all seen as something that's supposed to be fun to do. Buying dresses, wearing them and taking them back is yet another rite of passage. No one considers that someone has to pay for that stuff. That by doing any of those things you're make the place you live a worse place.
> the ends do not justify the means. There's no free lunch.
On top of wanting an exciting city with affordable housing and good public transportation. I want to live in a city where I feel safe. Safe from physical harm, safe from theft, safe from bad police, safe from being spied on, safe to participate in "quirky" things.
Tokyo is partly that city. I can go to strange fetish clubs, burlesque, punk rock, cosplay, etc and no one bats an eye. But I'm unlikely to get stabbed, unlikely to be pick pocketed, if I drop my wallet I'm likely to get it back with all my money. If I go to a cafe/coffee-shop I can leave my wallet/computer on a table for 10-15 minutes and expect to to be there when I get back.
Why does it feel like every other city outside Japan except maybe Singapore I can't do that?
I'm in Berlin right now and I love the variety of things going on but I hate that a high percentage of people destroy the commons. Street Art Yay! Tagging Boo! Broken glass everywhere where people threw their beer bottles. Pick pockets all over. People trying to steal your bags right out from under you.
In LA/SF/NYC and Berlin almost all public restrooms for men are some level of destroyed.
How do you get people to care about the commons and stop destroying things just to be dicks?
Please figure out how to design that kind of city.