Identity

Streets assume the role of a town square for its regulars. The interaction among the people who live and work on a particular street—“eyes on the street”--can reduce crime, encourage the exchange of ideas, and generally make the world a better place.

Much as a string in a jar can precipitate a beautiful, delicate crystal, a street can serve as the catalyst for neighborhood culture and solidarity. New Orleans’ Bourbon Street is famous not only for its active nightlife but also for its role as the center of the city’s French Quarter. Similarly, the Bowery in New York City was once known as the center of the nation’s underground punk scene. Other streets have marked divisions between neighborhoods of a city. For example, Yonge Street divides Toronto into east and west sides, and East Capitol Street divides Washington, D.C. into north and south.

Streets also tend to aggregate establishments of similar nature and character. East 9th Street in Manhattan, for example, offers a cluster of Japanese restaurants, clothing stores, and cultural venues. This phenomenon is the subject of urban location theory in economics.

A road, like a street, is often paved and used for travel. However, a street is characterized by the degree and quality of street life it facilitates, whereas a road serves primarily as a through passage for road vehicles or (less frequently) pedestrians. Street performers, beggars, patrons of sidewalk cafés, people-watchers, and a diversity of other characters are habitual users of a street; the same people would not typically be found on a road.

In rural and suburban environments where street life is rare, the terms “street” and “road” are frequently considered interchangeable. Still, even here, what is called a “street” is usually a smaller thoroughfare, such as a road within a housing development feeding directly into individual driveways.

If a road connects places, then a street connects people. One may “hit the road” to see the wonders of the world—Jack Kerouac famously chronicled one such journey—but the latest bling will “hit the streets” before it ever appears on a road. It is “on the street” where one hears an interesting rumor, where one bumps into an old acquaintance, where one acquires smarts. Nobody has ever seen a “road” vendor or a “road” performer, and you’ll never find yourself on a long “street” to nowhere. The street, not the road, is home to the homeless, and even Kerouac’s hero finally returned to find his friends on a New York street.

A town square is a little more like a street, but a town square is rarely paved with asphalt and may not make any concessions for through traffic at all.