A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Syracuse, sidewalks, and snow: the slippery realities of public space
Authors: Rannila Päivi, Mitchell Don
Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
Publication year: 2016
Journal: Urban Geography
Journal name in source: URBAN GEOGRAPHY
Journal acronym: URBAN GEOGR
Volume: 37
Issue: 7
First page : 1070
Last page: 1090
Number of pages: 21
ISSN: 0272-3638
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1153244
Abstract
This article addresses sidewalks as particular kinds of public spaces. Sidewalks of residential areas have been understudied; debates have tended to concentrate on pedestrian flows in commercial districts. By discussing the snowy sidewalks of Syracuse, New York, this article asks how sidewalks appear in law, and how responsibility for sidewalks is divided between governments and property owners. According to law and ordinances, sidewalks are responsibility of adjacent property owners. Unofficial monitoring has turned property owners' sidewalk responsibilities away from questions of liability to questions of morality. Sidewalks evince a moral order, where questions concern not only pedestrian flows or laws, but also attitudes of others. A snowy sidewalk appears as a contested moral order, whose publicity is questionable because of the sidewalk's reliance on private responsibility and policing. In the end, then, this article provides insights into how laws concerning public space are both maintained and questioned in everyday practices, and how the regulatory systems advance-or hinderthe publicity of public spaces like sidewalks.
This article addresses sidewalks as particular kinds of public spaces. Sidewalks of residential areas have been understudied; debates have tended to concentrate on pedestrian flows in commercial districts. By discussing the snowy sidewalks of Syracuse, New York, this article asks how sidewalks appear in law, and how responsibility for sidewalks is divided between governments and property owners. According to law and ordinances, sidewalks are responsibility of adjacent property owners. Unofficial monitoring has turned property owners' sidewalk responsibilities away from questions of liability to questions of morality. Sidewalks evince a moral order, where questions concern not only pedestrian flows or laws, but also attitudes of others. A snowy sidewalk appears as a contested moral order, whose publicity is questionable because of the sidewalk's reliance on private responsibility and policing. In the end, then, this article provides insights into how laws concerning public space are both maintained and questioned in everyday practices, and how the regulatory systems advance-or hinderthe publicity of public spaces like sidewalks.
UTU Research Portal