Chapter 3

In chapter 3 we can learn how important sidewalks are for a well functioning city. The first thing Jacobs mentions is “trust”. The interaction with other people forms a feeling of trust between neighbors because it occurs by-the-way to people’s daily activities. Also privacy is a very important element according to Jacobs. Most of the people do not want to share their private life and when they don’t have other option, they prefer to isolate. For example “togetherness”, which is an old ideal of planning theory that force people to interact and share some things many people are not willing to, such as their privacy. People in these cases limit themselves to a small number of friends or they just prevent these kinds of relationships because they do not feel secure with the people living around them.
Public characters play an important role in the neighborhood; they spread news, they can help with the interaction between neighbors, most of the time indirectly and they also can help people find jobs among other things. These people, as Jacob mentions, “combine a feeling of good will with a feeling of no personal responsibility about their private affairs”. People are willing to have these relationships in which there is trust and privacy at the same time.