Jane Jacobs' Concept of Sidewalk Safety and Socialization

In Chapters 2 and 3 of Life and Death of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs describes the nature of sidewalks in relation to safety and contact. She compares the notion of safety in the city to how people feel exploring it from the sidewalk. In addition to discussing how overall safety in cities is determinant of the safety of the sidewalks, she also compares the sidewalk itself as a means of social contact within cities. Jacobs views cities and their sidewalks as a determinant of safety and social construction.

In Chapter 2, Jacob simply states "A well-used city street is apt to be a safe street. A deserted city street is apt to be unsafe." (pg. 34). This can be seen in nearly every city I have ever visited, as I'm sure many others can attest to, that crime rates are higher in more desolate parts of the city, where there are less people to observe and report mischief. Even without having to observe crime statistics, someone can understand this statement to be true by recalling their own personal experiences. I know that I always feel safer walking down the street in areas that are more heavily populated and are well lit, where someone would have to be extremely bold to commit a crime in the open. Even if someone were to act so boldly, they are infinitely more likely to be caught on a well-populated sidewalk.

This reminds me of a time, while living in Indianapolis, that my friend and I went down to the shops on Mass Ave around Christmas time. It was after dark, but due to the mixed uses of the street - residential apartment complexes, bars, restaurants, shops, etc. - there are typically people out and about at various times of the day. As we are in a shop, a man runs in and grabs a handful of items off the shelf and runs out. One of the store clerks quickly calls the police to report it as the other clerk proceeds to call the surrounding stories to inform them to be on the lookout for someone out stealing or causing mischief in the area. This is one great example of how well-used streets develop a sense of community that helps each other and enforces the sidewalk safety in that area.

A little while later, maybe fifteen minutes, we hear shouting from the toy store across the street. The same thief had gone into the toy store and grabbed a shopper's purse and attempted to run away with it, however, a group of strangers had banded together to stop him. The clerk from the toy store, a man that had also been shopping in the toy store, a couple that had been standing outside as this took place, and a clerk from the clothing boutique next door all came together to stop the thief. They were able to surround him and get the woman's purse back, as well as the goods he had stolen from the area, just as the police arrived. This is just one example of how a community, only tied together by sharing a street and a sidewalk, helps enforce order and safety. Jacobs talks specifically about how storekeepers are such an important aspect of keeping things in order and watching the sidewalks and streets because it is beneficial to them to keep their business running.

In Chapter 3, Jacobs talks about sidewalk public contact and how it directly acts with, and affects, sidewalks:

The sum of such casual, public contact at a local level - most of it fortuitous, most of it associated with errands, all of it metered by the person concerned and not thrust upon him by anyone - is a feeling for the public identity of people, a web of public respect and trust, and a resource in time of personal or neighborhood need. The absence of this trust is a disaster to a city street. Its cultivation cannot be institutionalized. And above all, it implies no private commitments." (pg. 56).

Jacobs is talking about how people on sidewalks in cities act with a certain sense of duty to each other and to the community. Without that sense of respect for the neighborhood and responsibility to it, city streets become disastrous, chaotic, unsafe, and most likely, eventually unused.

Finally I would like to discuss another matter of contact that Jacobs touches on in Chapter 3 - sidewalk safety and contact as related to segregation and racial discrimination. Jacob states:

Sidewalk public contact and sidewalk public safety, taken together, bear directly on our country's most serious social problem - segregation and racial discrimination. I do not mean to imply that a city's planning and design, or its types of streets and street life, can automatically overcome segregation and discrimination. Too many other kinds of effort are also required to right these injustices. But I do mean to say that to build and to rebuild big cities whose sidewalks are unsafe and whose people must settle for sharing much or nothing, can make it much harder for American cities to overcome discrimination no matter how much effort is expended. (pg. 71 - 72).

Some will argue that we don't experience the same issues that Jacobs describes in her book, however I would argue that in so many of our cities today, it most certainly does still prevail today. In every city I can think of, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and New Orleans, a racial divide still exists and discrimination most certainly is a problem our nation must still overcome. Finding new ways to move forward with these social issues, the safety in cities, how the life of our sidewalks affect our everyday lives, and many more problems, I believe, relies heavily on urban planners and other government officials.

#urban #JaneJacob #TheDeathandLifeofGreatAmericanCities #sidewalksafety #Indianapolis #MassAve #discrimination