This year, I live in Bromley Hall, which is the tallest building in all of Athens. The deciding factor for me wanting to live in Bromley was a closeness to uptown Athens. I truly enjoy going to local coffee shops and grabbing a bite to eat at a cool restaurant off campus. One thing I did not factor in was the amount of alleyways I would be traversing if I wanted to get anywhere fast. My preferred one is right next to the Chipotle on Court Street; it leads straight into my favorite fast-casual “Mexican” chain from the front door of my building. It is not a terribly long alleyway, only running the width of one city block. However, when I walk it, especially at night, I do have this feeling of uneasiness, one that I very rarely get when walking in Athens. Sure theres empty beer bottles on the ground, but that’s just Athens. Why is this space so unnerving?
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| The Alleyway between Voigt Hall and Chipotle. Photo taken by Sean Michael. |
Alleyways are, at least in principle, an important aspect of city infrastructure. The back alley is where the unsightly aspects of city life tend to hide. It is where trash is collected and it is often where fire escapes reside. When most people think of alleyways, they think of the dark and dangerous narrow back roads of New York City where crime goes unreported. This is largely a misconception, not in the least bit because New York City has almost no alleyways. It is actually fairly easy to recognize this when in the city because unlike Chicago which has a plethora of alleyways, the trash in New York is on the street for the world to see. Evidence is also rather inconclusive on whether alleyways truly increase crime. So then why do we feel unsafe in these spaces?
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| The alleyway behind the Union connecting Bromley Hall and Chipotle. Photo taken by Sean Michael. |
A part of that answer is how alleyways are designed. In urban planning, perception of street safety is largely contingent on the principle of “eyes of the street.” This means that windows look over the street and there is no point where you feel like you're entirely invisible on the street. Any loud noise in an alley can be starling because no one except you and whatever else is in the alley can hear it. Alleys are narrow with buildings casting shadow over the walkway on both sides, at the same time they are desolate with less people walking than a normal street. In Athens, the buildings butting up against the alley largely do not have windows looking out to them, even the doors lack any semblance of watchfulness. Further, they often lack street light amplifying an unnerving feeling. Alleyways are not friendly to pedestrians.
There is also a more subconscious reason why safety feels lacking in these spaces: racial connotations. In many major cities, alleyways and crime are often dog whistles for black residents nearby. Washington D.C illuminates this racial connotation. In comparison to white residents who most often lived in “street facing” residences, black DCers in the post civil war era were almost entirely confined to living in residences that opened up into DC’s back alleys. In the post WW2 suburban boom, as white residents fled the urban centers, alleyways and the cities they existed in became linked in the white mentality with black residents. Suburbanites also began to associate a real spike in crime that came as a result of white flight and urban disinvestment with Black Americans in cities rather than the policies they supported to maintain their power hegemony.
American society is still even today very racialized. Just as alleyways hide the unsightly infrastructure of cities, they also represent the spatial attitudes we hold about who belongs where.
-Sean M.
I really enjoyed what you have written and the way you were able to describe the uneasy feeling of more isolated/less visible locations such as back alley ways. The part you where you brought up the history of alleyways in the context of segregation and disinvestment reminded me a lot of the reading on the Idea of Chinatown by Kay J. Anderson in which the author describes the separation of Chinese residents from the white majority group within an urban setting in which Chinese immigrants lived in cramped and unsuitable housing.
ReplyDeleteWith black DCers living in almost exclusively back alleys I feel as though the Chinese suffered a similar fate during the time period by being treated as an "other" within American society and being separated. This idea of keeping certain groups separated by means of city structure is a major problem within the framing of place and as seen in the Idea of Chinatown article it is used as a means of forcing certain groups to be out of sight and to enforce the power and place in society of the dominant group or social class within society, such as reserving better housing for white families. Housing can also be used as a way to drain money from families as seen with the high rent prices for inadequate housing in Chicago with the kitchenets of the past.
Hi Sean,
ReplyDeleteI find your post to be super interesting, and your point about alleyways representation of spatial attitudes of belonging is fascinating. It definitely aligns with Wood and Back’s assertions that the rules of place are evident as soon as we enter a place. Alleyways are interesting places because their rules are often unrealized by common passerby. Because they exist outside of traditional routes, alleyways serve as a kind a wild west amongst our busy streets. As soon as one enters an alleyway, they can recognize the rules there are much different than they were on the street. Alleyways exist adjacent to what is familiar and mundane, but, by the nature of their seclusion, the rules change entirely as soon as one enters them. One becomes more alert of unfamiliar noises, their pace does not linger, and they are sure to take a full security glimpse of the area in front and behind them when inside the alleyway. Furthermore, as you have touched on, one’s presence in an alleyway can project different signals depending upon one’s level of societal privilege, as explained by Cadogan. While many people of Caucasian ethnicity utilize alleyways as shortcuts and their presence within these passageways goes unquestioned, some people of color’s presence in alleyways can be deemed as threatening or troublesome by authority figures. Therefore, people within such identity categories are forced to develop an awareness of the perception that their presence in particular places gives off in order to protect their wellbeing. Additionally, building upon the work of Hansen and Philo, alleyways also inadvertently restrict the access of people with handicaps. Because of their hidden and desolate natures, alleyways are not usually handicap accessible, therefore, the utilization of alleyways as a shortcut is a commonly unrecognized privilege itself. Those with handicaps are forced to take the traditional means of travel around a place, which are often the most crowded and fast paced settings with further complicates a disability, and do not obtain the benefit of shortcuts.
Sean
ReplyDeleteYour post reminded me of my experience living in los Angeles, specifically Santa Monica, where allys are prolific.
I came from a small town where people walk on the street for exercise and greet their neighbors who are sitting on the front porch, but after 2 years in Santa Monica, we hardly knew any of our neighbors.
While the street we lived on had ample free parking and each house had a front yard and a sidewalk that could be used to access the city park that was at the end of the block, you almost never saw people in front of their homes, the accessed them through the garage, located at the back of the back yard which was fenced.
Everyone on the block drove to work, to the gym, to the park even, and the ally allowed them to do it with out ever exposing themselves to their neighbors. The mobility of the car allowed them to create communities based on work, or hobbies with people from around the city while insulating them from community based on place.
There was one person in the neighborhood that we saw regularly and developed a friendship with, the guy who lived across from us but one street over, he was often working in his garage with the door open when we came home to our garage.
John
Hey John (and Sean!),
DeleteYour comment reminds me of an academic article I read in an Urban Ecology tutorial last semester, called "The Forgotten and The Future: Reclaiming back alleys for a sustainable city" by Jennifer Wolch. The research focused on resident perceptions of LA's alleyways and the possibility of turning these alleyways into usable pedestrian greenspace. The article really stuck with me for its implications for urban greenspace implementation (particularly in neighborhoods where there is not much space for parks), but it also had a lot to say about the usage and perceptions of LA's alleys: the researchers found that most residents, particularly women, perceived alleyways as highly dangerous and frequented by 'dangerous people' (which ties back to what Sean and others mentioned about an association of alleys with people of color and danger), but in reality alleys were rarely used except for accessing cars. The article argued that converting some alleyways to greenspace would help create a safe social space for nearby residents, and I wonder if that would help with the feeling of disconnection from neighbors you described? It's interesting to think about how our spaces are built to encourage or discourage human interaction, and who our spaces are meant for. Many talk about how car-centric cities have eliminated 'third spaces' to meet and engage with people in their community, which relates to your point about car mobility allowing people to socialize further from their homes. It's very cool to hear about your experience with this personally after reading about LA's alleyways in the article!
Hi Sean! This post was well thought out and the pictures are a nice touch!
ReplyDeleteSomething that I would like to add to this post is looking through alleyways through an embodiment lens. As a woman, I felt surprised not to see any mention of women and alleyways in the post. Walking at night is a dangerous thing for a woman, and alleyways are worse. In alleyways, there is a lack of light, a lack of witnesses, and a rising potential to be attacked. Connecting back to the class reading, a quote that stuck with me was, “It was almost always men I saw. A lone woman walking in the middle of the night was as common a sight as Sasquatch; moonlight pedestrianism was too dangerous for her.” (Cadogan, 2016). I walk alone at night but always make sure that I am on the phone, stay in well-lit areas, and have my location services turned on so that my friends can track me as I walk home. I also take precautions such as carrying pepper spray. If I see a man walking alone I look directly at him, to let him know that I am aware of his presence. Warnings have been instilled in me growing up to let them know you know that they are there, to walk in well-lit areas, to remain on the phone, and to always be alert. If you seem aware of your surroundings and look prepared to protect yourself, you are less likely to be targeted. Women walking through alleyways are a prime example of fear through the lens of embodiment.