Eyes on the Street: Urban Presence as a Public Good

When we think of the public goods that constitute our public safety apparatus, our minds are usually drawn to things like police and sidewalks. We've discussed both of these examples at length in class, highlighting their non-rivalrous and non-excludable characteristics, alongside their contribution to public safety. While these are indeed public goods, there exists a far more consequential public good that we often omit from our conception of this so-called public safety apparatus: our eyes.

The constant presence of eyes on city streets, that is, people occupying city streets and sidewalks, is perhaps the most effective public safety method of all. Jane Jacobs characterizes this idea as "eyes on the street" and explains it extensively in her book the Death and Life of Great American Cities. The argument goes, that the presence of other people on city streets serves as a deterrent for potential criminals and people up-to-no-good. In this sense, we are our own police, and also the first line of defense against crime. Our eyes, then, are a public good because they serve as the "eyes on the street" which deter crime, and this benefit is both non-rivalrous and non-excludable. It's non-rivalrous in the sense that our "consumption" of crime deterrence does not prevent others from the same indulgence. It's non-excludable in the sense that we cannot exclude others from "consuming" the crime deterrence that our eyes offer.