Rosa Bonilla

Rosa Bonilla

This photo was taken on the corner of Bunker Hill St and Pearl St in Charlestown on a Saturday morning. It depicts two houses side by side with their doors visibly open and with no sign of the residents. I was very surprised to see this as I was walking by, but was even more surprised to find six more doors just like them as I continued to walk around the neighborhood. I found this very interesting because it implies that homeowners feel safe on their streets and trust their neighbors. The map I am using shows the economic characteristics of the neighborhood. I think this is very interesting to look at in conjunction with the photo because the map shows the differences in income between residents in the neighborhood and there are significant differences across the neighborhood that I was able to witness as I walked. However, I found that no matter how affluent the collection of houses seemed, open doors appeared with the same frequency. This led me to believe that the safety of a neighborhood is not determined by how rich or poor the homeowners are, but rather by some other factor or combination of factors. Jane Jacobs suggests that this factor might be usage of the sidewalks on those streets, a theory that is supported by the thin yet fairly constant stream of people walking past me on the sidewalk.