Chapter 3. The Uses of Sidewalks: Contact
Probably the most important thing to
understand in this chapter is the idea of casual
contact which “implies no private commit-
ments.” The emphasis here is Jacobs’. Jacobs
describes an intermediate level of contact
somewhere between “togetherness” and total
anonymity. Certain types of people and
institutions foster it, and we’ll try to
understand what these are. Because most
of us have never lived in the type of com-
munity Jacobs describes we’re going to have
to work hard to imagine what life in it would
be like.
This type of hot dog stand is gone, perhaps,
but a contemporary version can be found in the
downtown areas of many major cities. When the
weather gets more springlike, you'll Dell's
Lemonade making a presence on Public Square
in Downtown Providence.