Why fix what is broken?

The pool is sparkling blue and there is not a broken window in sight. Talk about a feel-good day.

And how amazed this household was when we started counting the broken panes: a staggering 13 of all shapes and sizes.

I was relentless: if it is cracked, it goes – but there were only two of those.

The rest were jagged holes where pool balls, screw drivers and the occasional fist went through. No more.

Tonight, for the first time in aeons, not a drop of rain will make it into this house; no wind will come howling through.

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We will sleep warm with warm hearts. Because Rudy Giuliani was right all along: fix your broken windows.

Remember him? Mayor at the time New York was synonymous with crime and grime?

Well, he fixed that during his reign in the ’90s.

Maybe not, like me physically, but his approach was simple: if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, the rest of the windows will soon be broken.

This is as true in nice neighbourhoods as in rundown ones. One unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares.

Giuliani controversially used this theory to combat rising crime levels: he started with the one broken pane.

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He told police to target minor crimes such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking, jaywalking and fare evasion to help create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness.

And it worked, despite the great public debate which claimed broken windows policing has become associated with controversial police practices, such as the high use of stop-and-frisk in New York City in the decade up to 2013.

You can thank George L Kelling and Catharine Coles who, in 1982, published the article Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities.

They claimed an ordered and clean environment, one that is maintained, sends the signal that the area is monitored and that criminal behaviour is not tolerated.

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Conversely, a disordered environment, one that is not maintained (broken windows, graffiti, excessive litter), sends the signal that the area is not monitored and that criminal behaviour has little risk of detection.

And I have to agree: it is not so much the actual broken window that is important, but the message the broken window sends.

I am less maplotter. Go fix yours.

From graffiti to gothic mythology, Rammellzee is remembered in New York