Natalia Ginsburg

Crime and the City

Sounds and Sidewalks:
Participant-Observation of Busking on Thayer Street
Busking, the act of performing in public space for monetary tips from the public, is a
radical navigation of city space. Busking is viewed differently across a broad spectrum of actors
and interests, from a criminal act to a positive integration of the arts into the space of a city. This
paper will seek to examine the complexities around this use of public space, with a focus on the
experiences of buskers themselves, and particularly through the lens of my own participant
observation of busking with an accordion on Thayer Street in Providence, Rhode Island. Using
Thayer Street as a case study, it will analyze the relationship of Thayer Street buskers to urban
space, especially sidewalks, as well as to the public audience, businesses, Brown University,
police, and neoliberal redevelopment.
How buskers read space
Viewing the city as stage and inserting unplanned entertainment into space requires a
specific spatial reading.1 The term pitch refers to the location in a public space where a
performer busks.2 Where and why a busker establishes a pitch is determined by how buskers see
and read city space. In my own spatial readings, I identified four key factors that buskers
consciously or subconsciously take into account: geography; interrelated concerns of visibility,
approachability and profitability; ambient noise; and, finally, the mobility of the public audience.
Geography is one way of reading space for a potential pitch. Like most Thayer Street
buskers I observed or interviewed, I tended to busk on the West side of Thayer Street. Although
both sides of the street are lined with stores, the West side is far more conducive to busking,
since it has more foot traffic (presumably because it is closer to the University), more eclectic
and busking-friendly stores, and more spaces for busking on the sidewalk without interrupting
commercial or pedestrian space.
Other key factors in a buskers reading of space are the interrelated concerns of visibility,
approachability, and profitability. Buskers are deeply concerned with visibility, since most
passerby need time to consider if they will monetarily support the busker or not, or if they will
take time to interrupt their walk and watch. This is one reason why buskers will often choose
intersections as sites of performance. Thayer Street, however, has some difficult dynamics with
visibility. For example, on the corner of Thayer Street and Meeting Street, there is a brick inlet

that turns a square corner into a smoother diagonal, allowing the busker the a rare benefit of
public approach from three directions instead of two: North, South, and West. However, a pillar
supporting the stairs down into Berks shoe store blocks visibility from the North, forcing
buskers further into the public space to combat this immobility and therefore losing the benefits
of the inlet.
Ambient noise is a constant factor in buskers reading of space as well. Near the Avon
theater, for example, while a good place to busk spatially since it allows for both visibility and
approachability, is nevertheless a difficult place to establish a pitch due to the constant playing of
music and film clips. Johnny Rockets diner and bus stops are also difficult due to noise. The
new construction along Thayer Street, especially along the East Side, adds another layer of sound
on Thayer Street, which complicates the ability of buskers to be heard during acoustic
performances. Since many cities, including Providence, have sound ordinances and restrict
amplifying sound, city noise becomes a key factor in a buskers reading of space.3 This also
applies to the audibility of other buskers, and it is considered very rude to set up a pitch within
earshot of another busker.
Another example of this spatial reading is the reading of the public audiences mobility.
Generally, buskers need a large number of people to pass in order to elicit money or response,
since most will simply walk by. The more foot traffic the more of a chance there is for an
individual to pass who is willing to engage with the busker. As a busker, I look for space that
balances the need for fluid mobility while allowing those who wish to engage to stop and listen.
On Thayer Street, for example, the new parklet in the street outside the Brown Bookstore
provides an unexpected boon for buskers as a place for listeners to gather, as do areas with
benches or trees for an audience to lean against. Buskers look for a balance in spaces that support
large amounts of mobility while also facilitating radical moments of pause in sidewalk transit.
These issues of mobility and immobility are at the core of how buskers turn sidewalks into
contested space.
Contested sidewalks
Sidewalk space is not only the primary pitch for busking performances. It also is the main
site of contested use values as buskers navigate the relationship between the private and the
public. From a first space perspective, the perspective of those who produce space and have the
power to envision the city, sidewalks are conceived as sites of mobility for people and goods.

This viewpoint focuses only on a single use-value of a sidewalk. Buskers challenge this
perspective, and bring an exchange-value to public space for their own economic gain. Their
fundamental lack of movement is a temporary form of privatizing public space. Because busking
involves an economic exchange of a service for money, buskers complicate the use of public
space in ways that other street actors, such as street preachers or even those who simply sit in
public, do not.
Sidewalks are essentially the only public space on Thayer Street, and they are notoriously
narrow. For example, restaurants having outdoor seating leaves very little room for pedestrians,
let alone for buskers. Although the city intends to expand sidewalks to have less conflict between
public and private use,4 the current narrowness of sidewalks is a challenge for many Thayer
Street buskers. Often standing even directly against a wall still cuts off space for passerby and
forces pedestrians to move. Since buskers make their money based on positive public
perceptions, becoming an obstacle for a pedestrian may have monetary as well as spatial
consequences. Since Thayer Street is already cluttered with at-grade utility poles, retail signs
(e.g. sandwich boards) and outdoor seating areas that limit pedestrian mobility along already
constrained sidewalks,5 buskers throw into debate who owns sidewalks, and towards what uses
public space should be put.
Everyday urban space such as sidewalks may be appropriated for new and temporary
uses that possess multiple and shifting meanings rather than clarity of function.6 Buskers help
turn sidewalks into loose space, space outside behaviorally controlled and homogenous
environments of leisure and consumption where nothing unpredictable must occur.7 Buskers
use entertainment, self-expression, informal economies and social interactions to facilitate
activities outside the daily routine and fixed function of sidewalks.8 This turns sidewalks into
contested space, as the intended pedestrian march is potentially turned into a poetic geography
of free space for a citys citizens.9
The dynamics of approach- the public relations of busking
The contribution of buskers to the creation of loose space cannot be discussed without
discussing the relationship between buskers and the public. Buskers challenge the public to
change their behavior, to take time out from everyday routines and to engage with space in a new
way, either by listening or by actively engaging with the performer through monetary transaction
or social interaction. While buskers break free of intended uses and established meanings of

sidewalk space, they also allow others to break free of restricted forms of comportment and
movement.10 When walkers stop moving, cross the street, or even reverse their steps to listen or
give money, they are radically disrupting the intended daily patterns of the city.
Buskers relationship to the public is a complex social dynamic. Countless factors affect
whether or not an individual will approach and engage a busker. One example is the location of
the buskers receptacle for money. If the box, hat, instrument case or other receptacle is too far
away, money may be easily taken or blown away. If the receptacle is too close, however, most
people will hesitate to violate norms of personal space. This is just one of numerous such spatial
dynamics that facilitate or repel public engagement.
Buskers must respond to the varying reactions of the public. In the words of Johnny Mel,
a Thayer Street busker who mainly plays religious music, either people are not interested and
they keep walking, or people will stop, and uh well you know either play them a little tune or
share something or just, uh, try to encourage them.11 Another busker, a young woman named
Tink, similarly reported that, the responses are pretty fifty/fifty I get some people who just
like look at me like Im dirt and some people who are like, yeah, youre like singing, this is so
cool... it depends where you are.12 The varying responses of the passing audience speak to the
countless dynamics at play in public space. Each passerby within earshot must consciously or
subconsciously decide whether or not to make eye contact, smile, stop or continue walking, give
money, or start a conversation. While these interactions and decisions appear superficial, they are
based on complex individual behavioral decisions facilitated by numerous sociospatial dynamics.
Avoiding eye contact, for example, is a social norm for many rooted in the idea that the street is
a place for anonymity instead of identity.
Despite this, identities such as age have a deep affect on who approaches buskers and
how. According to Goffman, the presence of available, open persons such as children and the
elderly provides a catalyst for loose space, transforming the public arena into a social sphere.13
Parents, for example, often give money to small children to give to buskers. In my experience,
younger people tend to interrupt performances while older people will wait for a song to finish
first. One busker, an older man named Robert, said he used certain types of music to affect which
age group would stop and listen. He reported performing mostly jazz standards because he
could get the old folks like that, the people that go I remember that song, honey theyre singing
our song.14 Age is one key factor in determining who interacts in the space of the street.

Those who choose to approach can engage in a variety of ways, regardless of age. Since I
busk with an accordion, an unusual instrument, people often discuss their own experiences with
the instrument. Others will give brief comments, such as one man saying I made his day after
listening from the Thayer Street Parklet for several minutes. Headphones tend to disengage
people from buskers, though some will actively remove headphones as they walk by to listen. In
rare cases, people will actively participate beyond just giving money or even striking up
conversation. During one session, a local hip-hop dancer, for example, started dancing in a
storefront doorway nearby, and later invited a friend to come form a dance crew while I played.
While those in the neighborhood report numerous reasons why people choose to engage or not,15
spatial dynamics are certainly an important factor in a buskers relationship to the public and
their ability to break patterns of behavior to facilitate genuine, unexpected, and meaningful social
interactions in urban settings.
The Role of Brown University
Brown University is playing an increasingly active role in shaping the sociospatial
context of Thayer Street. Brown not only funded the Thayer Street Planning Study, but also
agreed to put money towards its implementation.16 One woman, a local resident and business
owner for over twenty-one years, reported that Brown is increasingly buying up buildings,
encroaching on space, and trying to sanitize Thayer Street.17 Given the growing presence of the
University, buskers will likely have to expect changes as well.
Currently, the space outside the Brown Bookstore is one of the best pitches of Thayer,
and it is uncommon to walk by without seeing a busker. It is the only area on Thayer with a
broad (and therefore busker-friendly) sidewalk, and the new parklet built at the edge of the street
allows spaces for audiences to stop and listen. It is also popular territory for street vendors, and
buskers who set up a pitch there frequently interact with the vendors. Transient communities of
street vendors and buskers often inform each other of potential conflicts with police, subscribe to
informal rules and codes of behavior such as maintaining distance from other buskers, and
provide support on days with difficult weather conditions or other inconveniences.
Despite these advantages, the benefits of the space outside the Brown Bookstore are
complicated by its relationship to the University. When I busked there, a Brown bookstore
employee approached and said, Youre welcome to play here, but not on Brown property. She
encouraged me to continue as long as I moved to the public domain, six feet from the curb. This

meant I had to move away from the bookstore and further into the walkway, which once again
put me in the physical space of pedestrians. One passerby even tripped over the suitcase I was
using to collect money. Having to move off of Brown property changed the spatial relationship
with the public audience. It was harder for them to view the performance, harder not to impose
on their space, and harder to keep the money collection an appropriate distance between busker
and public.
However, it is too simplistic to say that Brown University has a negative affect on
buskers profitability. Young college students are more likely to see busking as a form of cultural
capital, and were the demographic who most frequently stopped to talk, give money, or even sing
along. However, another busker reported making pretty decent money during the summer, but
that changed when the college crowd came in Income wise, its like, very rough.18 Thus,
Brown students also complicate the Universitys relationship to the use of public space on
Thayer.
The Role of Businesses
The relationship between buskers and businesses is also complex and varies greatly.
Businesses are one of the most important determinants of where and how buskers can operate,
but their lack of consistency is one of the main difficulties faced by buskers navigating Thayer
Street. The varying degrees of friendliness from businesses can be stark. During one session, I
played a single song in front of the alley between NAVA (New and Vintage Apparel) and the
Army Surplus Store. While a young female NAVA employee applauded from the bottom of the
stairs leading down into the store, an older male employee from the Army Surplus Store
approached me and said, I dont want to ask you to leave, but Im going to have to ask you to
leave. You can come back in half an hour when we are closed. These two polarized reactions
illustrate the extremes of how businesses view buskers, and their effect on when and where
buskers can use space.
Another busker, Tink, reported that [Outside] Shanghai [restaurant] was my favorite
spot, but Berks [Shoe Store] doesnt like me so they kicked me out. But I work here [at
Spectrum India]. Im the henna artist here. So I sing here while Im waiting for people to come
in for henna.19 Tink was forced to move from public space by a private interest, but found
another private interest assisting her busking. Although she maintained that Berks simply didnt

like her, in fact there are complex dynamics of perceived profitability and different forms of
capital at stake in businesses perceptions of buskers.
Although buskers do not contribute to the economic capital of a space from the
perspective of a business owner (even if they are engaging in their own exchange), they may be
perceived as having low or high degrees of social and cultural capital. Those who view buskers
as having low social and cultural capital tend to conflate buskers with other members of informal
street economies, such as panhandlers, although buskers tend to view themselves as separate.20
This is because of a sense of moral geography, the belief that certain people, things and
practices belong in certain spaces and not in others. Musicians garner cultural validation only
when removed from the street.21 Buskers operate outside the traditional sphere of where music
is consumed, in concert halls or other venues where price and time are known, fixed, and
exchanged in advance. Music performance on the street on the other hand, subscribes to a
charity model of payment where observers give or dont give based on altruism or freeriding.22
Laws and attitudes towards music in the street are spatial and temporal, which is to say that such
behaviors would be tolerated and even encouraged in a different venue. But street performance
as an economic exchange in an urban setting is easily grouped with other charity based
exchanges in the same setting, such as giving to panhandlers.
Other businesses, however, view buskers as having high degrees of social and cultural
capital, and perceive them as positive additions to the eclecticism of public space and a chance to
bring in a more diverse customer base. Some, such as Spectrum India, go to the extreme of
cultivating active relationships with Thayer Street buskers. Another busker referring to Spectrum
India, Robert, described that he is in cahoots with the people inside. Actually I do some lessons
inside, as well. The manager, Lisa, said she loves the audience I bring. He also reported
developing a relationship with the store after he was told there were some complaints from one
restaurant on the block.23 Thus, while some stores reject buskers, others view them as having
high social and cultural capital that can translate into their own economic benefit. In short, a
functionalist view of space ignores the benefits to economic development of temporary,
experimental, changing, and shifting economic activity Sociability, inclusiveness,
diversification, and growth are all positive factors buskers may bring to private interests.24
Thus, private businesses have a unique power over where and how buskers can operate,
despite the fact that buskers operate in the public sphere. This is largely due to the public-private

relationship between the city and private economic interests in an increasingly neoliberal
America, where business owners, sources of tax revenue for the city, are increasingly able to
determine who and what fits into the cultural space of the street.25 Business owners
increasingly get to decide who and what is a nuisance in public space, especially as Thayer
Street becomes a increasingly neoliberal, privatized Business Improvement District.26
The Role of Police and Criminalization
The criminalization or limiting of buskers is a widespread phenomenon in cities intent on
controlling public space. One busker, Tink, said that the police have bothered me like once or
twice but that she has a permit, so even if they try to bother me now Im like, haha, you
cant.27 The process of acquiring a street performance license involves going in person to
Providence City Hall. Unlike many cities in the United States,28 Providence does not require a
licensing fee, and the license review board is generally reported as simple to navigate and
friendly.29 While licensing can be viewed as a restriction on free speech (and in fact the first
amendment has been applied to buskers in court cases across America), many cities across
America still use licensing as a form of censorship, or, in extreme cases, have even tried to ban
busking entirely.30
In Providence, however, enforcement has not historically been a strong suit, and a great
deal goes unpoliced.31 The city has been known to turn a blind eye to things that are illegal
but not that bad and will only enforce due to a vocal complaint, another reason that residents
and business owners have so much power over where buskers can and may perform.32
This largely explains why, during my time busking in Providence without a license, I did
not have a single interaction with the police. Often, police on motorcycles equipped with plastic
shields would drive by, and several police (both from City and Brown Police Forces) even
walked by me without any interaction. In the words of busker Johnny Mel, they havent really
bothered us. We kinda like, uh, just been doing our own thing over here.33 However, this is
complicated by the lived experience of some buskers who have experienced harassment. Another
busker, Robert, took a break from Brooklyn a year ago, and I was told not to play anymore,
even though I had a permit. Although he reported not having a problem this trip, Spectrum
India reported having to write him a permission slip to stop police harassment.34
Thus, there appears to be some inconsistency in the policing of buskers along Thayer
Street. Police have a great deal of power to relocate buskers, using the move along rhetoric

long employed in their dealings with the homeless or other groups lacking spatial power.35
Buskers once again must navigate various perceived forms of capital in order to maintain their
right to use public space. Ultimately, police, like businesses and often in response to business
owners, decide and enforce what is a nuisance and what is allowed in the space of a city. This
follows an order-maintenance model of policing which privileges order, regularity, and
predictability over the spontaneity of space, but ultimately is based on irregularity and overly
allows for police flexibility and disorder.36 The current proposal to increase the presence and
coordination of Brown and City police, as well as private security details, designed to improve
safety and improve the districts image, may deeply affect buskers and label them as potential
signs of disorder.37
Although the police tend to watch buskers, the reverse can be true as well. One woman
approached me and asked me if I had seen the parking police give her a ticket. Buskers, in rare
cases, can also funciton as neighborhood watchers, on the assumptions that they will be aware of
the police, observe one area for several hours at a time, and be approachable for residents with
concerns over neighborhood policing. Buskers may be a key and often overlooked form of eyes
on the street, helping to watch sidewalks and street activity.38
The Effect of Thayer Street Redevelopment and Neoliberalization
Potential changes in policing speak to larger changes occurring on Thayer Street, rooted
in Providence history and current city politics. Between 1940 and 1980, the movement of
industry to southern states and suburbs left Providence with an urgent need to restructure as a
post-industrial economy. A midsized city with an increasingly neoliberal economic structure,
Providence has spent the past thirty years trying to rebrand itself as the creative capital.39 If
buskers face difficulties in the eclectic environment of Thayer Street in the self-pronounced
creative capital of the United States, this speaks to the challenges of finding space for public
arts in neoliberal spaces more broadly. One such challenge is redevelopment. Buskers are not
included or mentioned in the Thayer Street Planning Study, although they will be directly
impacted by much of it, including increased construction noise and policing, sidewalk expansion,
and changes in corporate and public culture.40
While the Thayer Street Planning Study does not mention buskers, a Providence
spokesperson did report that they are seen as part of the eclecticism of street, and that the goal
is to make Thayer Street more of a mixed-use area. However, the reality is that Thayer Street is

increasingly welcoming chain stores and neoliberal forms of development in the form of publicprivate partnerships.41 Chain stores tend to be designed far from a local context, and do not allow
for the same aesthetic spontaneity required for buskers to be accepted. In the new socio-spatial
context of an increasingly redeveloped area, buskers may face increasing demonization from
chain stores. Since businesses have a large effect on where and how buskers can operate, this
may lead to increased difficulties for buskers and more criminalization.
But some see busking as an antidote to the neoliberal sanitization of the city. A female
resident from the neighborhood stopped to listen one day. After a few songs she thanked me for
providing color and a beautiful background since she was feeling depressed about Thayer
Street. She expressed anger and frustration at the redevelopment of Thayer closing down all the
interesting stores to put up chain stores. She blamed Brown students, but expressed that busking
could keep it from feeling too generic. She saw busking as an antidote to corporate culture.
This form of spatial consciousness illustrates the idea of play as resistance, an empowering form
of urban citizenship that counters the dominant ideology favoring a lack of interaction with
increasingly sanitized modern cities.42 In the debate over future changes on Thayer Street,
buskers must not only be seen as an affected party, but also as a population with a right to the
city and an ability to shape the culture of the space.43
Busking and the thirdspace perspective: What does busking add to a city?
Everyone who uses sidewalk space on Thayer Street appears to have a different
perspective on buskers- the public, businesses, Brown University, police, and countless other
actors all have active and radically different stakes in the use of public space. But the voice and
experiences of buskers themselves are also important in understanding how space is constructed,
for whom, and how individuals can affect the culture and experience of urban space.
Public space is always a negotiation. It is the product of all the various interactions,
dynamics, perceptions, feelings, anxieties, transgressions, contestations, and countless other
visible and invisible factors that make up lived experiences, both real and imagined. This
comprises the thirdspace perspective, a complex understanding of spatial activity that requires
deciphering how buskers read space, as well as how others operating in that space read buskers.
Buskers, though this constant process of mutual reading, underscore that we are constantly
engaged in acts of interpretation where space, like a book is created by the authors but can
never be forced to read in only one way.44 Buskers, like the city itself, should not be read as

having only one meaning. The thirdspace perspective both reveals the importance of buskers and
the importance of not romanticizing their presence. Just as it is easy to demonize buskers because
of specific moral geographies, it is easy to romanticize buskers as struggling and misunderstood
artists with an image of authentic sound harkening back to folk traditions.45 While the
vilification of buskers is deeply rooted in problematic conceptions of who has a right to space,
their romanticization is just as dehumanizing and does not take into account the diversity and
reality of buskers experiences.
Ultimately, buskers are part of a movement do-it-yourself urbanism, exercising the right
to appropriate urban space based only on a claim of inhabiting space.46 In the words of David
Harvey, the right to city is not merely a right of access to what already exists, but a right to
change it after our hearts desire.47 If urban space shapes the experience of buskers, buskers in
turn have the ability to shape urban space. Buskers help actualize Harveys image of a new
urban commons, a public sphere of active democratic participation.48 It is the job of buskers,
citizens, and every actor in between to engage and shape the city as a site where multiple forms
of economic exchange, self-expression, and urban interaction are facilitated and supported. In the
words of one busker, music spreads a lot of different culture depending on what music youre
singing so all the buskers bring their own like piece of culture to what is, you know,
Providence, for example So I think it has a great positive effect on society as a whole. And I
think that people should be doing it more and accepting it more.49
A Note on Methodology
Most of my research as a participant-observer of buskers on Thayer Street was conducted
in October and early November, 2014, before the weather became unreliable. Weather deeply
affects not only the ability of buskers to perform, especially with sensitive instruments such as
the accordion, but also the willingness of passerby to stop and engage. My busking mostly
occurred between late morning and early afternoon, partly because of my own time constraints as
a student and partly because these were the times when the most foot traffic was out on Thayer
as Brown students moved between classes and residents and shoppers came out for lunch. Each
time I busked, I took careful notes on the date, time, amount of money earned, every sighting of
a police officer, outside factors such as weather and construction noise, descriptions of the pitch
and any spatial factors or observations, and every interaction with a member of the public. While
some buskers have one pitch and stick to the same area, I tried to move to a different location on

Thayer Street each time. However, I stayed between the area South of Cushing Street and North
of the bus tunnel. I set these limits to attempt to gain a wide variety of experiences and spatial
perspectives for this study while keeping some consistency in the area under observation. I also
wanted to maintain proximity to the University to see how that would affect my experience.
I also interviewed three buskers along Thayer Street, recorded their music and asked
them a semi-standardized set of questions about their experiences with the police, amount of
time spent busking, and the receptiveness of Thayer Street. I also asked each busker more
tailored individual questions about their experiences with public and spatial interactions, as well
as their history of becoming buskers and experiences elsewhere. These interviews took place
during their breaks from busking, and were therefore somewhat informal and conducted on the
street with their instruments. In this way, I was also able to observe how they interacted with
public space and people in the public sphere.
Considerations of my own identity and aesthetic must be considered. Interactions with
the police, for example, are deeply informed by my appearance. My identity as a young, white
woman is a large factor in explaining the lack of police aggression I experienced. Being a student
at Brown University also gave me a great deal of cultural and social capital through which to
view Thayer Street. My identity as a student gave me a unique chance to navigate and link two
transient communities, both engaging with Thayer Street but often ignoring or disregarding each
other: Brown students temporarily living in Providence, and buskers temporarily using Thayer
Street space to make money.
It is also worth discussing the spontaneous and transient artistic communities formed
around busking, all of which informed this research and my experience. Several times, friends
would join in with their own instruments and voices, and three times other buskers teamed up
with me while I was working. Each time we split the proceeds. I also formed relationships with
several street vendors during my research process, who traded stories with me about accordions
and street life. These spontaneous performances and communities form a street network that is
essential to understanding the experience of busking and deeply informed all of my observations.
Even if they cannot be directly cited as a formal interview or isolated experience, their stories
and participation in these informal networks was critical to my understanding of Thayer Street.

Steven Flusty, Thrashing Downtown: Play as Resistance to the Spatial and Representational Regulation of Los Angeles,
Cities 17.2 (2009): 151.
2
Gary Moskowitz, Busking as a Way of Life, The Economist: Intelligent Life, 2013, accessed December 13th, 2014,
http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/life-tunnel-mole#_.
3
In Providence, for example, a municipal ordinance states that the policy of the city to prohibit unnecessary, excessive, and
annoying noise from all sources subject to its police power (Sec. 16-91). The Providence City Code defines unnecessary,
excessive, or offensive noise as a noise level which exceeds the ambient noise level by five (5) dBA or more, when measured
at the nearest property line or a noise audible to a person of reasonably sensitive hearing at a distance of two hundred (200)
feet from its source (Sec. 16-92). For this and other details on noise ordinances and violations, see City of Providence, Code of
Ordinances: Supplement 83, codified through
Chapter No. 2013-59, enacted November 26, 2013, accessed December 15th, 2014,
https://www.municode.com/library/ri/providence/codes/code_of_ordinances.
4
Robert Azar, Director of New Planning for the City of Providence, (Presentation, Brown University, Providence, RI, November
25, 2014; City of Providence Department of Planning and Development, Thayer Street Planning Study, 2013, 14.
5
City of Providence, Thayer Street Planning Study, 33.
6
Margaret Crawford, Introduction to Everyday Urbanism, edited by John Chase, Margaret Crawford, and Kaliski John (New
York: The Monacelli Press, 1999): 28.
7
Karen A. Frank and Quentin Stevens, Tying Down Loose Space, in Loose Space: Possibility and Diversity in Urban Life, ed.
by Karen A. Franck and Quentin Stevens (London: Routledge, 2007), 3.
8
Ibid.
9
Jeff Ferrell, Anarchy, Geography and Drift, Antipode 44.5 (2012): 1688.
10
Frank and Stevens, Tying Down Loose Space, 14.
11
Johnny Mel, Interview by Natalia Ginsburg, Providence, RI, October 15th, 2014.
12
Tink, Interview by Natalia Ginsburg, Providence, RI, October 15th, 2014.
13
Erving Goffman, Behavior in Public Places (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980).
14
Robert Teak, Interview by Natalia Ginsburg, Providence, RI, October 16th, 2014.
15
One woman, Thayer Street storeowner of Pie in the Sky, reported she gave money for a variety reasons, everything from, if
I like the music to if its especially pitiful. Ann Dusseault, Interview by Kathleen Hay, Providence, RI, October 30th, 2014.
16
Azar, Presentation.
17
Dusseault, Interview.
18
Tink, Interview.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
21
Brandon LaBelle, Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life, (New York: Continuum, 2010), 18.
22
Roland J. Kushner and Arthur C. Brooks, The One-Man Band by the Quick Lunch Stand: Modeling Audience Response to
Street Performance, Journal of Cultural Economics 24.1 (2000): 66.
23
Robert Teak, Interview.
24
Frank and Stevens, Tying Down Loose Space, 23.
25
Jeff Ferrell, Remapping the City: Public Identity, Cultural Space, and Social Justice, Contemporary Justice Review 4.2
(2001): 165.
26
Azar, Presentation.
27
Tink, Interview.
28
Chicago, for example, requires a $100 license fee, and in 2013, St. Louis quadrupled their fee. Busking It: Do You Have a
License to Swallow that Sword? The Economist, October 12th, 2013, Washington D.C., accessed December 12, 2014,
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21587819-do-you-have-licence-swallow-sword-busking-it.
29
Tink, Interview.
30
Busking It, The Economist.
31
Azar, Presentation.
32
Ibid.
33
Johnny Mel, Interview
34
Dusseault, Interview.
35
Don Mitchell, The Annihilation of Space by Law: The Roots and Implications of Anti-Homeless Laws in the United States,
Antipode 29.3 (1997): 307.
36
Bernard E. Harcourt, Illusion of Order: The False Promise of Broken Windows Policing (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 2001), 129-30.
37
City of Providence, Thayer Street Planning Study, 72
38
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, (New York: Random House, 1961).
39
Anne Gadwa Nicodemus, Cultural Plan Backs Up Creative Capital Branding: A Creative City Initiative Case Study on
Providence, RI, Report Commissioned by the Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture in conjunction with the Chinese
Creative Industries Forum 2012, October 31, 2012, accessed December 13th, 2014, http://metrisarts.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/01/ProvidenceFullCaseStudy.pdf.


40

City of Providence, Thayer Street Planning Study.

Azar, Presentation.
42
Flusty, Thrashing Downtown, 156-7.
43
David Harvey. Right to the City, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27.4 (2003): 939.
44
Tim Cresswell, In Place/Out of Place: Geography, Ideology and Transgression (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1996): 13.
45
LaBelle, Acoustic Territories, 11
46
Kurt Iveson, Cities within the City: Do-It-Yourself Urbanism and the Right to the City, International Journal of Urban and
Regional Research 37.3 (2013): 945-6.
47
Harvey, The Right to the City, 939.
48
Ibid., 941.
48
Tink, Interview.
41


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