Life on the Sidewalk
Sidewalk Personalities Play a Role in Public Spaces
- Not just BOOK vendors (Hakim and Jerome)
- representatives of their community
- trusted gate-keepers
- people with information (directions, advice, suggestions, warnings)
- mentors/counselors
- Hakim in the role of "old head" (African American tradition of mentor
- informal relationship between old men and younger children and adults
- teach, support, encourage and socialize young men to be responsible Black adults
- can also be young women
- replace or enhance relationship of father
- voluntary relationship
- old head represents positive values for young men
- not just very successful people, but people they can relate to as role models
- "Black Spaces": How are they defined?
- content of conversation
- types of books
- patrons
- location
- class
- Old Heads and the exercise of "influence"
- advice need not be followed for the relationship to maintain itself
- crux of relationship is the importance of continued conversation
- young men are willing to listen to older men and older men are also wanting to listen to younger men
- tolerance expressed by Hakim when advice is not taken
- Influence comes from knowledge and experience-perceived wisdom
- influence comes from legitimizing his claims with facts (read the NYTs because...)
- Influence comes form his "consciousness"- his value of advancement of the African American people
- some have lost prestige because they understand the manufacturing, not the street economy (Hakim understands the street and its (lack of) opportunities).
- New Old Head (often younger from street/drug culture)-underground economy
- replace old heads as legitimate
- occur as churches and community centers disappear
- Hakim is an old head located squarely in the new urban society
Highlights the importance of the informal social relationships found on the sidewalk. The success of a city requires that people take a modicum of responsibility for each other even though they have no ties.
- Magazine Vendors: (Marvin and Ron)
- "Fuck it" versus "Opportunity" : selling magazines on the street and being "unhoused" describes a varied and surprising set of experiences
- Unhoused -is how these men describe being homeless
- "choice" made but out of necessity
- inevitability?
- "Fuck it!" attitude which makes one abandon to a tleast some degree social norms (giving up on society)
- lack of opportunity as opposed to why Marvin adopted a life outside of the formal economy on Wall Street to sell books
- negative impact of drug use (self-medicating for DEPRESSION)
- unlike middle classes, have no access to mental health benefits/treatment
- "Fuck it" leads to:
- participation in informal economy
- magazines
- panhandling
- selling drugs
- becoming unhoused
- separating oneself from family and friends
- having to "hustle" instead of having a formal job with a paycheck
- involves earning money through savvy art of bartering for prices
- creating, building, and maintaining good relationships with "customer" base
- making your quota (amount of money you need for that day-when you go home)
- creativity
- being in control at all times
- no longer looking for job in the formal economy-POLITICAL justification (indifferent society, racism and discrimination)
- having SOME interaction with the criminal justice system
- Four major results one feels BODILY:
- affects all major aspects of physical existence (requires a fundemental re-socialization of the BODY)
- become indifferent to that was once basic and natural (bathing/sleeping in a bed)
- extreme embarrassment or shame for having hurt someone (drug and alcohol use, incarceration, unemployment, violence) and distance from family and friends (NOT A TOTAL FUCK IT!)
- FREEDOM that comes from having given up all responsibility to others
- EXTREME FUCK IT (rarely found in the sidewalk economy)
- Potential for various sorts of vandalism (Stanley Cohen)
- Acquisition Vandalism
- damage done to acquire money or property
- Tactical Vandalism
- conscious tactic used to advance some end other than acquiring money or property
- Vindictive Vandalism
- property destruction in the form of revenge
- Malicious Vandalism
- action enjoyed for its own sake
- Rehabilitative Forces of the Sidewalk
- sidewalk may encourage or discourage retreatist behavior-did not find wholesale retreatist behavior, but a balance
- attitudes
- its never too late to turn your life around
- found opportunities to take control of a small part of their lives
- to support themselves
- devise new goals: can affect aspects of life outside of sidewalk economy
- develop deep and caring relationships
- develop self respect
- Bargaining as a means of self respect (GOOD HUSTLING)
- morality of prices (no one undersells the other)
- rules for respect between customer and vendor (minimum expected price and rules for special pricing)
- staying in charge
- take control of exchanges in an otherwise uncertain position for making money
- Self-Respect
- ability to use ones ingenuity and resiliency to maintain self-respect while engaging in economic make-shift
- getting over: getting the better end of the deal
- self direction of work and being your own boss (independent)
- friendly and supportive relationships between vendors and vendors and their customers
- diverse interactions where many segments of society interact
- otherwise separated by social and economic inequaity
- redistibuting written matter to people that dont have access otherwise
- motivate each other to live better lives through mentoring or sponsorship
- no strict code of conduct but instead ENCOURAGEMENT to do better (Marvin does this with Ron as the OLD HEAD).
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