Activity # 2 - Maria Popa

I’ve never been to Staten Island before yesterday, and if it wasn’t for this assignment I probably never would have gone. I cannot say that I was impressed by Staten Island, but nonetheless it was an experience and now I can say that I’ve been to every borough of New York City.

First, I was very surprised by how many tourists equipped with New York City maps and video cameras took the ferry to Staten Island. I always thought of the island as a mostly residential area, but it perfectly fits Jacobs’ idea of a “mixed-use” neighborhood development. Tourists are attracted by the free boat ride and spectacular view of the Statue of Liberty, and the attractions located right outside the St. George terminal such as the Staten Island museum, the ballpark, city hall, and fast food restaurants as well as ritzy steak houses.

Yet, Staten Island mainly caters to its residents, not tourists. The hill across from the waterfront and the ferry terminal is covered with apartment buildings, and at the bottom of the hill there is a police station with about 20 cars out front (to assure a sense of safety as soon as someone steps on the island, I suppose) and a small shopping plaza. The plaza has everything from fast food – Popeye’s, a steak house, a Laundromat, a liquor store, a wine and beer store, a tax office, and a gym. The shopping plaza is neighbored by the police station on one side and a couple of buildings decorated “office space for rent” posters, on the other.

Despite the sidewalks, the shopping area, the playground, and the nearby police station, I was the only person walking up and down the street, and could not help but feel uneasy. I saw no one walk in or out of any of the stores or offices I mentioned above. The streets were busy with cars, but the sidewalks were empty. This made me understand what Jane Jacobs meant when saying that “the simple needs of automobiles are more easily understood and satisfied than the complex needs of cities” (7). The streets were spacey enough to prevent traffic jams, while the sidewalks were narrow and did not encourage any street activity.

Although the street seemed to have everything a resident of the neighborhood needed it was incredibly empty for a Saturday afternoon. I don’t know where all the tourists from the ferry went, because they weren’t on the street. The area’s residents weren’t there either, even though there were plenty of apartment buildings just behind the shopping area. And despite the police station, the street still felt unsafe because there were no pedestrians whatsoever. Jane Jacobs would attribute this mainly to the lack of “eyes upon the street to ensure the safety of both residents and strangers” (35). This proves Jacobs’ argument for higher density, because if the city had a higher density and instead of a shopping plaza, these shops were on the first floor of apartment buildings, the street would be used for a variety of reasons and by a variety of people. The continuous number of people on the street would add to the “number of effective eyes on the street and to induce the people in buildings along the street to watch the sidewalks in sufficient numbers” (35) thus making the street safer.