“Now is the time to act, and I hope zoning can do its part to raise awareness,” he said in an e-mail.
Barrett cited the famous article titled “Broken Windows” by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, which appeared in the March 1982 edition of The Atlantic Monthly.
“Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.
“Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars,” the article stated.
In 1996, George L. Kelling and Catherine Coles published their book “Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities,” which was based on the Atlantic article.
According to the book, a successful strategy for preventing vandalism is to fix the problems when they are small.
Repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage.
Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to accumulate — or for the rate of littering to be much less.
On Saipan, Barrett said “there seems to be a high degree of tolerance…for trashy appearance, zero maintenance, and uncared for property.”
He added, “Anywhere else that looked as bad as some of the places on Saipan look now would be a very dangerous place to live…and certainly would have no chance of attracting investment.”
Barrett said his office is “given the authority to abate public nuisances under Sections 1209 and 1409 of the current [Saipan zoning] law,” Barrett said.
“I believe that graffiti is a result of the general lack of pride people have for their surroundings, and the utter disregard for the public realm,” he added.
“This attitude must change before there is any hope of dealing with graffiti. The two are in a constant negative feed-back loop.”
