this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2025
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Oh there is a reason
These commies blocks don't just look ugly, they tend to become a crime riddled dump
Then again, you can also build affordable housing that doesn't look like a prison system?
They are very common in Germany and are in general really safe, the only crime going on there was smoking pot (which is not a crime anymore). I myself did not grow up in one, but many friends have and I still frequently visit people there. Floors, stairs and elevators are clean, neighbours greet you, when someone new moves in its common to help them as a neighbour.
Recently one of these houses was in the news "weißer Riese" in Duisburg because of crime. Now Duisburg is basically Germanys Detroit, used to be a coal mining city and has nothing else going on for it (still the homicide rate for Duisburg is 20x lower than for Detroit lol). And this house is 55years old and has been neglected by the developers, so rent for an apartment there is basically the lowest of any German city and in Germanys most undesirable city and somehow people wonder why there is some crime and this becomes the stereotype for all "commie blocks".
But for every commie block like that you get 1000 others that are really safe and clean, offer cheap rent, are energy efficient as fuck, some even have their own bus or train stations, big playground in the middle and usually more on the edge of the city so closer to nature.
This stereotype thing about commie blocks always reminds me of the american homeless people sleeping in tents in front of the "victims of communism" museum...
I lived in one for a year. It was rather depressing, but one could see the potential if they were better managed.
All the Projects in major cities are an example. But it isn’t the buildings’ fault. It just putting a lot of poor people with lots of problems all in one place tends to concentrate all the ills that go along with poverty.
It will surprise you, but this is other way around. Hruschevkas have less crime than modern humant colonies.
The alternative, tent cities like skid row, are pretty crime-heavy. I've never heard about commie blocks being especially crime ridden, but I guess you have good reason to say what you did and aren't just pulling it straight out your ass.
Cabrini Green immediately comes to mind. The police used to get sniped in the parking lot.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrini%E2%80%93Green_Homes
The Bijlmer in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, exactly the same
I'm not sure about the point you're trying to make but the bijlmer, while having had a tricky past, is now a perfectly safe neighborhood. You really can't point at the Dutch to make this point (if I understood this thread correctly, it's early). They work hard at making these areas mixed use, promote cultural mixing etc. Paris on the other hand not so much.
Right yeah the whole project was a total disaster, there's lots of info about all the ways it was badly done. Similar bad ideas as the French basically just putting all the "undesirables" in a bucket on the side. My point is they corrected course about it same as they did in Osdorp, like sure these days gentrification and housing prices in the whole Randstad are just insane so the dynamics are different but I do think it also starts with an actual will to do good urban planning corrections originally. I'm just saying, the Dutch are a bad example because they're some of the best in the world at this stuff.