ChetUbetcha: You can see the shrine grow over the years using Google Streetview!
[2011](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7946681,-122.2441721,3a,75y,289.92h,76.09t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sadpB6S4bTf2ZXvmmrvcTww!2e0!5s20110401T000000!7i13312!8i6656)
[2014](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.794695,-122.244191,3a,75y,271.22h,70.24t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s3LfrMV67lrmqzns9BEklEQ!2e0!5s20140101T000000!7i13312!8i6656)
[2017](https://www.google.com/maps/@37.794705,-122.2441701,3a,75y,271.22h,70.24t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sUnOTaNuzYnqmvzmyIoOBBQ!2e0!5s20170201T000000!7i13312!8i6656)
^^Edit: ^^Obligatory ^^thanks ^^for ^^the ^^gold! ^^Now ^^to ^^go ^^find ^^out ^^what ^^I ^^can ^^do ^^with ^^it…
sanguinesolitude: r/mademesmile
Though this guy might be playing the long game because now he gets free Vietnamese treats, which are bomb.
Gobeebop: LA face with an Oakland Buddha
Frptwenty: Ok, so we now know that the Shrine improvement reduces littering and crime. I wish they would just document all the building bonuses in the manual instead of forcing the player to find out by trial and error.
TooShiftyForYou: *“If I’d have thought Christ would’ve pulled it off—” Steven began jokingly, then interrupted himself. “Except Christ is so controversial with people. Buddha is a neutral dude. When Ace Hardware is carrying Buddha, it’s pretty neutral.”*
*Stevenson and his wife, Lu, say they are not religious at all, but believe in the power of positive and negative energy, and so decided to try a small Buddha.*
This is a fantastic example of positive energy being contagious and spreading among others.
Becca_Chavis: a bit of “useless trivia” I read in a behavioral science book that if you place any type of religious reminder that is manifested as a person of some sort in an area, it will reduce crime. So a Virgin Mary statue or image, or one of Jesus would have the same effect.
Another option is an image of a face, or just a pair of eyes overlooking the area would have had a similar reaction, at least regarding the reduction in crime and littering. Not the whole shrine thing.
Highfaluter: An excellent podcast from the resident who originally placed the statue is available here:
https://soundcloud.com/criminalshow/ep-15-hes-neutral
thndrstrk: The Oakland Buddha sounds like a sex act.
kkrunyon: Here’s the url to the best explanation and story about how this happened. It’s an interview with the guy who put the statue out there. http://www.thisiscriminal.com/episode-15-hes-neutral/
And it’s a fantastic podcast
hypoxicthoughts: Thanks for posting this! The thought of the neighborhood caring for the little Buddha has made me feel happy inside.
TheLobstrosity: I bet it’s a Pokéstop.
Coffeezilla: It makes sense that the buddha would have positive effect on crime, no one just does illegal shit with everyone watching unless they’re complete nuts. So if you have something that draws people to that area, crime will go down because the risk of being seen and caught goes up.
I’m sure the fact that the buddha now has it’s own security camera is enough of a deterrent itself.
oaklandskeptic: I lived around the corner from that spot for five years or so and watched it grow from the little concrete Buddha to the shrine it is now.
It was always a quirky thing on a road partition that otherwise are usually a dumping spot for renters moving out.
So cool learning crime reduced around there as well.
Deflated_Hive: They tried doing that same thing in hipster ville Culver City. Thing got vandalized so much the city removed it. Had a following for a year that resulted in some community building during the times it survived.
http://beta.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-buddha-vandalism-palms-20170711-htmlstory.html
Redarcs: This is so wholesome.
lordquas_: Watching this I kept thinking “This could be a Documentary now! episode”
icantfeelmyskull: This is really great! My only suggestion is running it through the CT scan first. It might in fact be a mummy sarcophagus. We all know how disturbing the dead goes. Oaklands been through enough lately
sandwormsrule: we need like 20 of these lined down the middle of International Blvd in east oakland.
Crusty_Irishman: That’s awesome.
fritobugger: In Hanoi almost every block has a small temple or shrine. I suspect the local Vietnamese population really appreciated this.
pippy3141: I don’t see the statistic that Crime dropped at all in the article? Where’d you find that exactly?
terriblespeller: Around the corner from my brothers house. The neighborhood has been gentrified a lot, might contribute to crime reuction
Higher_higher: If you build it, Vietnamese people will come and drop the crime rate.
twitchosx: You know, I’m not religious whatsoever, but this shit is cool as fuck. Just be chill. The thing I worry about is some punks that think it might be funny to fuck it all up for fun. And really, I shouldn’t have to think like that because that’s fucked up.
sillycephalopod: You get this from criminal?
throwawayinsnow: Lovely read right before bed. Thank you for sharing!
hewaslegend: The house across the street used to have a full sized pirate ship in the driveway. The top deck was only accessible via a rope bridge out a second story window in the house. The neighbors complained to the city and made the owner tear it down.
pcpoet: I think this is great and I am a Christian. I am guessing that a good percentage of his neighborhood is Buddhist. I don’t think Christian iconography or Muslim would of worked in the neighborhood but the shrine put a community stamp on the neighborhood allowing a shared experience within the community to solidify the community into caring about there community.