Reducing crime and the fear of crime by reclaiming New Zealandʹs suburban street

People stay away from places where they donʹt feel safe. Today they tend to stay away from their own streets, the bones of the community. Many residents in New Zealand and Australian suburbs do not know their neighboursʹ names and hardly recognise their neighboursʹ children. In Australia, the alienation of residents from their neighbourhood is of such dramatic proportions that the Prime Minister announced a national committee whose agenda focuses on the question: Why are Australian suburbs so uninviting and hostile? In New Zealand, the government doesnʹt feel itself responsible for the decay of the suburb. Planning and urban design is not on the agenda since even state housing is seen more as a nuisance than a tool. Design restrictions are felt as limitations to the free market principle of the survival of the fittest (richest). Whatʹs wrong with the New Zealand suburb, is probably whatʹs wrong with many suburbs all over the world. People are fencing themselves off, even literally; they donʹt trust the public space any more. What once formed the lifelines of a community are now barriers in between. This paper concentrates on the important role of social surveillance in the neighbourhood street as one of the proven remedies for fear and crime, and will suggest how this social surveillance can be improved through planning and design. It will also look at design opportunities for the restoration of the feeling of communal attachment to a place; this is particularly important for the revival of the ‘communal responsibility’ through ‘shared ownership’ which in turn can activate better social surveillance.