Chapter 2 introduces the Kitty Genovese incident that occurs in a public street pointing out to social value and responsibility breakdown. Improvisation in surveillance is a considerable aspect in monitoring of activities to derive crimes happening in the semipublic interiors such as the Kitty Genovese incident. Chapter 2 also addresses the external areas as part of design in relation to continual surveillance. External areas constitute the internal grounds considered superior in design for superblock configuration during crime incidents. The row house has the design to enable surveillance through patrolling automobile. The traditional row house analyzed in chapter two constitutes employment of high-density development; hence, the well-lit front door paths enable the improvement of surveillance. This contributes significantly to the reduction of crime incidents.
Chapter 2 also talks about the Edenwald buildings that are under scrutiny due to insufficient security. It introduces the acts of vandalism and crime with the structure adjacent to the park. To curb the addressed issues of insecurity, they propose the design of the park to have only one side accessibility from the street with enhanced surveillance. The chapter also addresses the similar problems witnessed in Wood hill Homes project, in Cleveland. The recreation area is to be isolated from any specified activity hence segregated from the public streets and project buildings. In the chapter, it is notable that the efforts of curbing the vices that teenager who uses the recreation facilities indulges in is through the removal of the set basketball hoops with the field backstop.
The disposition of the newly introduced housing units with adjustments to the recreation ground should assist to help curb crime incidences with the provision of surveillance in the region. There are also examples mentioned in the chapter including the proximity of certain institutions acting imperially with the neighborhood safety. The proximity of the housing projects to the respective schools and specified junior colleges is a considerable juxtaposition in the aspect of criminal incidences. In Philadelphia, Cleveland and New York, building adjacent to respective high schools with enclosed fair stairs is the considered hot spots for the teenagers addicted to selling and using drugs. It is a considerable feasibility in designing project plans to enable the accessibility of the buildings to the streets with appropriate surveillance possible to avoid juxtaposition.
The building adjacent to the institutions enables the increment of crime rates hence surveillance should be configured. The chapter also analyses the statistics gathered in relation to frequency and location of crime incidences in Bronx dale regarding claims of residents and the police. The two joints addressed in the chapter located on the west side of the project inclusive of the teenage playing areas together should be in surveillance to help curb crime incidences.
Chapter 2 acknowledges the difficulty arising from conducting effective formal police surveillance in high-rise buildings with scissors stairs. A criminal can easily hear a patrolman coming three floors away by the sound of his footsteps and the opening of doors at every stage. The building were characterized by features such as windows located in the fire-stair walls, mailbox and lobbies that are well lit and can easily be viewed from the street, and elevator waiting areas at every floor. A design that promotes surveillance of the exterior region from within the apartment could be designed through the process of designing apartments so that people residing in those buildings get a clear view of the paths, entries, seating, and playing areas that are communally used.
Surveillance of gallery corridors at Stapleton Houses is provided through apartment windows. The chapter further reveals the interior layout and organization of many housing projects as a difficult phenomenon to comprehend. The interior corridors usually flow into one another through fire doors when the long blocks of buildings are grouped together. The City and Housing Authority police responds to calls in housing projects with which they are strange. Therefore, it becomes difficult to distinguish one building from another. The address system provides location simplicity in the grid layout of streets through comparison of many desired attributes.
The law requires large high-rise buildings to have five stairs that are not more than 100 feet from the apartment. The space results into ambiguity of the building making the building be under much scrutiny from authorities. The surveillance police agency would ensure maximum precautions are taken against the occurrence of harmful and in some cases criminal activities in such buildings. It is essential for the property owners to cooperate with the authorities in making sure security is beefed up in readiness for any criminal activities happening in the building. Installation of security gadgets may also be costly to ordinary people. It is thus necessary to ensure state funding for building whose owners may not afford the necessary security devices.
Chapter 20 analyses the collective housing facets in chapter 2 and 3. This chapter gives special reference to apartments and collective life in the nineteenth century in New York. It further gives elaborate account of the focus of chapter 4 and 5 in the contemporary Sweden and Denmark to develop collective housing. Complete surveillance of public areas of the building interiors can also be provided for well. A design characterized with single-loaded corridor design provides a ready opportunity for natural surveillance.
