Safe cities

Ordinary people are natural experts on safety in their own communities, write Gerda Wekerle and Carolyn Whitzman in this important new book. The key to creating a city where people feel safe, they say, is to give citizens input into developing safer environments for themselves. Safe Cities offers a set of easy-to-follow guidelines that can be utilized by planners, architects, developers, and police departments to improve urban safety. It includes actual success stories of the ways in which ordinary people, working in partnership with local governments and government agencies, have taken the initiative to fight back against violent crime. The authors detail, among other things, how such partnerships have helped to redesign public housing projects; convinced transit authorities to develop security plans responsive to users' concerns; persuaded administrators to design and plan for urban safety in parks and open spaces; required better safety measures in underground parking garages through by-law enforcement; and conducted their own safety audits of schools, housing, and neighborhoods.