The Unexpected Possibilities Around the Use of a Gate

In reading the excerpt from Jane Jacobs' The Uses of Sidewalks Was the power of the idea of the clear demarcation of  public and private space. This is something that I've observed for sure. In European cities, private areas are clear. There's usually a security door, wall, or gate that you must navigate through before you are invited into the private realm. But this level of security is usually directly adjacent to the public sphere. This puts the presence of the private directly adjacent to the public and gives the resident in the private space a stake in the security and life of the public. I think that my unexpected realization comes in my mistaken desire to "blend" public and private. This strategy however makes it incredibly difficult for the private "eyes on the street" to be on the street. The creation of a semi-public-private zone removes the private eyes from the public zone and therefore reduces the activity on the street and safety.


I haven't the time to get into every thought of mine that has stemmed from this reading. So here are others thoughts in brief:

-Zoning in a dense urban context fails the safety of the city. e.g. "this area is for nightlife, this area is for business, etc."
-When I lived in Atlanta, my car was in a deck 5 blocks from my apartment, I took an inefficient route that took me by the only two restaurants open after 10pm if i needed to get to my car after that time.
-Contemporary mixed use developments don't solve the problem of complexity in urban life because they are usually built on an "island" and don't address how they interface with there periphery

-I lived on this street in Atlanta in one of the buildings on the left, this street only has lunch places and is completely desolate after 5 pm. 

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