Crime kills cities. Crime also kills the soul of cities.

When people face danger each time they go outside, they going outside for more than the minimum. They sometimes engage in the mind-destroying habits of denial and delusion about their situation. That is what kills cities.

Cities are more than just raw population statistics. They also encompass the daily rituals of binding from common participation. When people pay the mass transit fare, they buy into the maintenance of the system they use. When they go out to eat, the experience of spending time with friends binds people together.

Constant fear and danger erode that. When enforcement of laws is uneven, resentment festers. When enforcement of laws is unpredictable, people retreat from public life. This is why the attempt in recent years to gut the police force is so terribly destructive.

I saw this in D.C. during the 1990s. Although children in my neighborhood had physical access to all the great possibilities of the museums, the libraries, and more, they didn’t take advantage of them. They were more focused on surviving. Or it may have been partially an effect of the way stress chemicals damage children’s brains.

Growing up in Romania, I watched the tyranny of communism destroy opportunities for the future. The tyranny of crime in D.C. does the same thing. People who live here know this. Crime is the reason most people move out of D.C. It is also why

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