Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Putting the Right Feet Forward

Jane Jacobs's concept of "eyes on the street" suggests that the safest streets have a multiplicity of uses--as many as possible--that draw many people for different purposes all day and evening. It's analogous to the concept of "safety in numbers" that the BIA tries to incorporate throughout its activities (we even hand out small stickers for telephones that carry this title).

Eventually we hope that downtown Tacoma will evolve to the point where enough eyes will be focused on the street to ensure public order around the clock, but until then we have other strategies to recommend. One of these is signing up for the Downtown Secure Net, an e-mail alert system that links virtually (and virtually links) every building in downtown.

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