Sidewalks: Not Just for Walking, Karen A. Franck

This article describes the various functions of sidewalks as places that foster community cohesiveness, socializing, and commercial activity. The author notes the importance of these functions to a community then goes on to explain that urban redevelopment in many places are passing regulations that foster an apparently clean sidewalk. These regulations counter the many functions of sidewalks as the author previously explained. She ends off with the argument that if these sidewalk functions are lost; the liveliness of a community will also suffer. It’s ironic that the same regulations that are used to “clean up” different neighborhoods, namely minority neighborhoods may also impact the ways in which these populations live their lives and come together as a community. Is there a happy medium or is the only solution simply that one must be sacrifice the other functions of sidewalks for clean neighborhoods?