My Cup of Tea

I found The Uses of Sidewalks –Safety to be an intriguing reading. The pieces style, topic, concepts, and ideas were all things that caught my attention. Not only did this reading catch my attention, but it held it throughout.

Jane Jacobs’s style of writing is one that appealed to me. She does not write in a way that is too technical, going above and beyond what the reader needs or wants to know. She writes in a style that speaks directly to the reader. Her writing is personable.

“A well-used city street is apt to be a safe street,” says Jacobs in the middle of the piece. I have to admit I don’t think I would have ever come to this conclusion on my own, but after considering this idea I found that I completely agree with it. It makes sense that the streets and sidewalks that are not used by as many people are unsafe because since there are not many people on them there is no one to watch out for one another.

There was another piece of this writing that caught my attention. I know that what I am going to say about it is a bit of topic with all the other things that I am saying, but personally I just found it amusing. At one point Jacobs says, “To be sure, there are people with hobgoblins in their heads, and such people will never feel safe no matter what the objective circumstances are.” Immediately when I read this my mom popped into my head. I love her to death, but she always…always thinks that something bad is going to happen in every situation. No matter how simple or safe a situation my mom will be the first to think of something that could go wrong. “Be careful!” is her favorite thing to say.

I also found Davis’s writing to be one of interest to me. It was written in a way that appealed to me, just as in Jacobs’s piece. This piece addressed an important issue in our society, the way we try to temporarily sweep the “garbage” under the rug (as Davis puts it). It is a horrible reality of our society, one that we should be ashamed of. Maybe if we would all take a stand on it like Davis attempted to in this article something would finally be done about it.