Monday, August 8, 2011

Long term impact of the London riots

Many hours of riots in more and more areas of London, England, I prefer to say, over UK.

Of course, there are the usual reasons to condemn the riots: the property damage, the property damage.

Of self-interest to the people in the riot-affected areas:
have they considered the long-term impact of the riots on the low-income neighborhoods that they live in?

Here in cities of the United States, one can see in areas that had rioting in the 1960s it took a generation to get businesses to come back to the neighborhoods.
The neighborhoods are often bereft of banks, movie theaters and nice restaurants.
What is left in the low-income areas of Brooklyn or the Bronx of New York City or in downtown Newark, New Jersey? Just cheap delicatessens (cornershops or snack shops in British parlance), hair salons/ barber shops, and fast food. Not fun places to visit or to move to.

Maybe the rioters/ hooligans/ ruffians/ gangs would want to consider whether they want their neighborhoods to have decent commerce in them for the next twenty years.

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