Margaret Decker

  • Keeping Students Safe: Positive Results from Chicago’s Safe Passage Program

    Keeping Students Safe: Positive Results from Chicago’s Safe Passage Program

    In the effort to reduce violence in Chicago, one important focus area is keeping students safe on their way to school. In 2009, the city launched the Safe Passage program as a novel method of addressing this issue. Safe Passage hires civilian guards and places them around schools during the…

  • Housing and Opportunity: Impacts of Chicago’s Public Housing Demolition

    Housing and Opportunity: Impacts of Chicago’s Public Housing Demolition

    Chicago’s history of low-income housing policy is complex. The Chicago Housing Authority used to manage 17 large housing projects for low-income residents, but during the 1990s, due to high crime, poverty, drug use, and corruption and mismanagement in the projects, plans were made to demolish them. By 2011, all of…

  • The Impact of Gentrification on Homeowners

    The Impact of Gentrification on Homeowners

    When wealthy new residents move into lower-income neighborhoods, they often renovate homes and open upscale businesses. This drives up property values, property taxes, and rent. This chain of events may force current lower-income residents to move out. Gentrification is a major issue nationwide, and cities are searching for the “magic”…

  • Preventing Opioid Abuse Through Mandatory Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs

    Preventing Opioid Abuse Through Mandatory Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs

    A new study suggests that mandatory physician-led monitoring of opioid prescriptions may be an important tool in the effort to combat opioid abuse. The opioid epidemic is an increasingly serious problem in the United States, with over 50,000 people killed by opioid overdoses in 2017. President Trump declared the crisis…