»In which bad things happen without good lighting

Although I notice some correlation between outdoor floodlights and an absence of crime in the neighbourhood, I would stop short of figuring that good lights alone will fend off Skid Row:

But the lots, which are poorly lighted, are magnets for drug users, prostitution, homeless camps, graffiti and other illegal activities after hours. Neighbors and city officials believe that if the area were well-lighted and more people used it throughout the day, drug dealers and prostitutes would not frequent the lots.

For example, I walk along a one-mile stench^W stretch of Market Street, between Sixth and Church, several times each week. Morning, noon, and night, crack fiends, dealers, users, relics, and paraphernalia dot the sidewalk; urine, vomit, and god-knows-wot stick to the sidewalks (despite the elaborate street-cleaning scheme the city embarks on, late anight); streetwalkers, charlatans, harlots, panhandlers, and junkies stretch out in doorways and on corners. And all of this happens on a street that is not only well-used, but a synecdoche for San Francisco itself. Bring on the floodlights, bring on the Farmer's Market (who will buy $6/lb organic apples beneath an overpass? "This heirloom tomato is known as 'Exhaust-fume orange' ; you will love it"), bring on the skate park. Just so I can later pull out an I-told-you-so, you don't win friends by building skate parks. Kids and skate rats will still be shooting the steps at the Armory down the street. The way to make the acreage under the overpass useful is to not build the (elevated) freeway in the first place.