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More on Definitions Robert Park, an American sociologist is credited as one of the first sociologists to define what a community was. He believed that the main elements of a community are a population organized by territory, a population that has its roots in the area that it inhabits, and its residents living in interdependence with one another.* Based on the definitions, neighborhoods/communities/urban areas are inherently interconnected. Neighborhoods aren't set in a vacuum. A neighborhood is a "group of people living together as a smaller social unit within a larger one..." (Webster"s New World Dictionary). The larger social unit is the city and the still smaller units are the streets. It is the individual streets and the residents, including the retail merchants along those streets, which comprise the neighborhood. The larger social unit is the city and the still smaller units are the streets. It is the individual streets and the residents, including the retail merchants along those streets, which comprise the neighborhood. "Streets are their [neighborhood/community/urban areas] core and countenance" (Ramati, XI). "Neighborhoods are those places in the city where everyone seems to know everyone else, and there's a lot of life right out there on the streets" (Friedman, 269). |
