You might get less people killing each other, and you might get a small amount of famous athletes or artists, but are you significantly improving the lives of those people and preparing them to work in a modern economy? Midnight basketball and street art might merely be bread and circuses, a way to keep that demographic quiet and avoid troubling more privileged levels of society.
I'd say that lowering the rate of murder is significantly improving the lives of the people it applies to. Not to mention the sense of belonging people get from a cultural center. This methodology works because people are happier. There can be no downside to that.
I suspect in any other context the idea that kids are playing more basketball or doing more art while growing up would be looked at as a huge positive.
However, because a lot of kids from “bad areas” are looked at as criminals by virtue of the place they were born and raised, their playing sports and doing art is looked upon negatively, because they are “not being prepared to work in a modern economy”.
As an aside, Id argue that in a modern economy it’s impossible to prepare kids anyways, because it moves so fast that we don’t know what it will look like by the time they are adults. As a result, a well rounded education, which includes sports and arts is the only way to prepare children for a modern economy, even if we are ignoring the mental and physical health related benefits.
"Less people killing each other" is a perfectly valid end in itself, obviously. It improves the lives of the people who don't get killed, the people who don't go to prison for murder, and all their families and friends.
Maybe they could do more beyond that. But being cynical about a big drop in murders is kinda weird.
The cultural center, much like schools, can become a means to invest in the education of a community. Build a computer lab, hire tutors, and then... Oh crud, all the poor people cant afford to live there anymore.
Also of note, we can also draw a similar analogy to Motorcycle clubs in the US, though such demands more wealth from each individual than community centers.
This "all the poor people cant afford to live there anymore" doesn't apply to latin america, most (only chile misses this) the countries have free education at every level, the budget for a school is the same no matter if its a poor or a rich area.
