New Uses For Sidewalks

(Jacobs) The most habitable cities are those that feature a diversity of uses, ensuring that many people will be coming and going on the streets at any time. -respectable eyes dominate the streets and are fixed on strangers, who will then not get "out of hand."

  • Not always true!
  • more diverse and complex than what she describes
  • varies as to denizens:
    • time of day
      • weekdays in West Village/White Upper Class
      • Weekends: black and hispanic youth
      • unhoused-all the time
      • All intersect at some point in places like Washington Square
        • used to be drug dealing central, but after cameras were installed by NYPD, drug dealing has moved to 8th street by the basketball coursts
    • Every city has a DL (down low) section, where those who wants to test or exceed the limits of the social order go
    • people are separated by great social and economic differences
      • show both social solidarity and cohesion; as well as show tensions
Structural Inequality and the demographics of the Sidewalk

  • disproportionate number of sidewalk denizens are people of color
  • most have been incarcerated for crack and other drug related offenses
  • crack cocaine penalties are 100X's as stiff as those imposed for using and selling the significantly more expensive powdered cocaine used by wealthy white people

History of the Sixth Avenue Sidewalk

  • need the local history and social forces to understand how the sidewalk vendors and unhoused became a cohesive part of this upper-middle class neighborhood
    • Day Labor (used to be sustaining for addicts and ex-convicts) now it is in decline
    • Immigrants (new comers) have taken over these jobs
    • Lives are not chaos, but organized around structured and cohesive norms and goals
  • Penn Station: public are functions as a PASSAGEWAY that links many accessed establishments (stores, social services, newsstands, restrooms, shelter)
    • can be in the concourse without a ticket
    • offers amenities to day to day survival
    • provided opportunities for "additional means of support"
  • The commuters and station shop owner saw no use for unhoused, so they cracked down on the eyesore and embarrassment that they created
    • began sleeping in train cars (and subways) and reentering the station in the morning
Coping with The Environment
  • Amtrak created policies about BEHAVIORS (all ties to the behaviors of the unhoused) and ENFORCED them in order to remove homeless population.
  • as a result of the lawsuit won by homeless advocates (ironically)-STREETWATCH case
    • no smoking
    • no drinking alcohol
    • no sleeping on the floor/lying in a way that blocks access to others
    • special bathroom rules
    • no panhandling or begging
    • no going through the garbage
  • Changed DESIGN of station to remove niches when panhandlers hung out/sleep/etc
  • Construct fencing which limits access to niche areas in and around the station

New Rules in District
  • in the name of the first amendment, local councilman gets a bill passed that exempts street vendors who sell literary material from new restriction banning sidewalk vending
  • unhoused and others transfer from PENN Station to this neighborhood and take up book and magazine vending
  • satisfied newspaper and journal circulation managers
Law As Technology
  • after the municipal law passed city council, it must be under law published in the city record. LOCAL LAW 33...not easy to find before www.
    • Councilman Edward Wallace on behalf of a lone poet who used to print his own chap books and sell them supported by big corporate publications
  • current vendors of leather and incense etc. found out there would be a crackdown and were told they could only sell written matter.-COPS told them
  • first two to convert over-Marvin and Al. became role models for others
  • RATIONAL choices
  • sever restrictions on PANHANDLING which followed created a third wave of book and magazine sellers
  • Culture
    • teach each other about the law, but also about literature and the selling of literate matter
How Sixth Avenue Became a Sustaining Habitat
  • sustain the daily lives of unhoused men
  • value: its utility in relationship to other attributes of the setting
Basic Characteristics
    • density of people
    • convergence of transportation lines carrying many people from various parts of the city
    • people willing to make donations
    • cheap or free food
    • places to sleep
    • "Amtrak niches" (Richard Rubel)
    • abundance of high quality recycled trash in the neighborhood
    • sympathetic local residents willing to donate used books and magazines 
* common to Penn Station except the final two which are particular to Sixth Avenue

Hunt Through Recycled Trash

  • can find high quality magazines in the trash
    • looking "out on the hunt"
    • early morning you can hear the rattle of stolen shopping carts collecting
    • pride in leaving trash neat and orderly
    • building managers make accommodations for the scavengers by leaving the printed matter easily accessible
    • against the law to trash pick, but not enforced unless it poses an environmental hazard
    • know where the GOOD MATERIAL is
    • compete with CAN SCAVENGERS created with recycling laws
A Working System (summary)

  • common history and collective self consciousness
    • police officers
    • vendors
    • unhoused others
    • residents
    • complimentary sustaining elements
    • Local Law 33












































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