2007.12.18
The story behind city quadrants and the crime report
Roanoke officials are not giving the city quadrant on addresses of crimes in news releases and in the police department's online crime report because City Manager Darlene Burcham doesn't want to further stigmatize certain parts of the city or further stereotypes about the quadrants.
By quadrants, I mean the NW, SW, NE or SE you see on street signs or on the end of mailing addresses.
Read about this city policy in Roanoke Times police reporter Reed Williams's story from today's paper.
The story explores the tension between Burcham's desire not to perpetuate stereotypes and the need to give the public complete -- and unconfusing -- information about crime in the city.
The reality of street names in Roanoke is that many streets cross from one quadrant to another, and there are numbered streets of the same name in multiple quadrants. If someone told you to meet them on 8th Street, you wouldn't know whether to go to Southwest, Southeast or Northwest. And it's not only numbered streets. Campbell Avenue, which I see out my office window, runs from Southeast into Southwest and has a 200 block, 300 block and etc. on each end.
As Reed and I discovered researching the origin of the quadrants, avoiding such address confusion prompted the creation of the quadrant system to begin with in 1888, as reported by Raymond Barnes in his history of Roanoke. The city adopted a plan to give all east-west running streets names, and all north-south running streets numbers. The quadrants allowed residents to know which 8th Street was which. You can read some background on the city's thinking online in the 1907 Roanoke comprehensive plan. Scroll down to page six.
Interestingly, Burcham and her staff were not aware of the origin of the quadrants. A city policy attributed the quadrants to the U.S. Postal Service, officials of which denied responsibility, and apparently correctly so.
The conflict here is interesting. Which is in the greater public interest, not contributing to stereotypes of city areas, or giving residents complete information about crimes in their city?
Two points that follow a common theme:
1) The quadrant system could only be conceived by a political body. It's confusing. It is not extensible. It creates confusion and reduces clarity.
2) "City Manager Darlene Burcham doesn't want to further stigmatize certain parts of the city or further stereotypes about the quadrants."
I suspect this isn't entirely true. Not sure what the real reasoning is behind this, but the short fact is: it's stupid. Factual data makes no stereotypes. Black people are no more prone to crime simply being black, just like I'm not rich and heartless because I'm white. In fact, I had classes in college with an asian guy who was *not* good a math. This type of behavior only enforces stereotypes.
Common theme: Politicians appear to lack basic reasoning skills.
Comment by Ed S. — December 19, 2007 @ 10:46 am