Sidewalk

Disorder—or rather, the perception of disorder—is a constant presence in the book. Whether or not that is a good thing depends one’s perception. Jane Jacobs perceived a little disorder as integral to the functioning of a healthy sidewalk economy: “seeming disorder of a busy street is the very basis of order […] in sidewalk use, bringing with it a constant succession of eyes” (116). In fact, some minor disorder in the form of busy street activity was conducive to bringing about safety through a greater number of “eyes on the street,” or “public characters” who would look out for the safety of others and deter crime through their presence.

However, in the years since Jacobs’s publication of The Death and Life of Great American Cities—which becomes an influential text for sociologists studying urban life—the individuals composing the sidewalk, or the “eyes on the street,” have changed, and thus, so has the perception that some civic disorder as a public good.

When the “public characters” have the same background as a person, then that disorder—as in the case of the white Romps on Jane Street—is acceptable. But when their background differs totally from the residents around them—as in the case of the largely poor, black vendors and the upper-middle-class white residents of Greenwich Village—it becomes much easier to see disorder (broken windows) through racialized stereotypes.