Alleyways in the City

Alleyways today are commonly known as "avoid" zones. What I mean is that, if you're walking home to your apartment that is a few blocks northeast, you most likely won't take the shortcut between the restaurant and the other apartment complex. Why? Because frankly alleys appear what people today call sketchy. Riddled with dumpsters and graffiti, alleys are areas that most people avoid because they have a bad reputation of being the location of illegal activities and hobo-hangouts. I believe that the stereotypes associated with alleyways could be solved with the broken windows theory that modernizing and maintaining alleyways would deter crime and anti-social behavior.  

Jacob Riis dedicates a whole chapter in his photographic collection How the Other Half Lives to downto wn alleyways. He describes them as the worst parts of the city, the areas where the tenements spill out into the streets and cause violence and general trouble in the city. He writes, "A man lies dead in the hospital who was cut to pieces in a 'can racket' in the alley... The sway of the excise law is not extended to these back alleys..." (34). Both in the last century and now alleys have been accepted as generally corrupt places. Shielded in darkness, they almost welcome the presence of shady activities. Riis points out that the light hardly reaches the alleyways: "the rays of the sun, rising, setting, or at high noon... never shone into the alley from the day the devil planned and man built it" (36). Building wider spaces in alleyways would allow for more sunlight to perforate the area. I understand that alleys are also used for social services such as waste removal. But many are left unused and host cracked walls and weed-infested grounds. Placing benches and painting murals on the walls could potentially invite more pedestrians to stay use alleyways as a path or even a stop. If this were to happen, according the the broken windows theory, it would decrease the amount of crime committed in the alleyways and while increasing the beauty of an urban space.