Response to The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety

    

    In her article, The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety, Jane Jacobs poetically says about her neighborhood, “We are the lucky possessors of a city order that makes it relatively simple to keep the peace because there are plenty of eyes on the street. But there is nothing simple about that order itself, or the bewildering number of components that go into it.” This perfectly summarizes her opinions that a safe city requires busy sidewalks that feature many restaurants and small businesses and any other activity that would create a lot of “eyes” on the street. I was surprised by her point of view that the main distinction between the suburbs and the city is the overwhelming amount of strangers on city streets. However, it is so true that you are not likely to know many people walking by your neighborhood, even right outside your front door in an urban environment. The marker of a safe city is one where residents and visitors feel safe in the presence of all these strangers. Surprisingly, these ideas were against the status quo at the time Jacobs wrote them. Now they seem like common sense. Maybe it is such a famous phrase that I remember it subconsciously. Either way, people having their eyes on the street indeed creates a safe city street. What keeps people attention on the street is the vibrant activity that results from mixed-use buildings that are active both day and night. After the stores close up for the night, restaurants take over in the night. The street is always active. An excellent example of the importance of mixed-use is when a city's downtown is full of office buildings that are alive during the day but dead after 5:30. It creates a potentially unsafe situation. Cities should be planned with this in mind in order to create a lively neighborhood identity that inherently protects itself without trying.