Duneier opens the Introduction with Hakim Hasan, one of the book’s central characters, and the means through which the author becomes acquainted with the informal economy on the Sixth Avenue sidewalk in Greenwich Village. Duneier describes Hakim in precise, functional details: “He is a sturdy and stocky five-foot-seven African American, forty-two years old. In the winter, he wears Timberland boots, jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, a down vest and a Banana Republic baseball cap” (3). Hakim converses with a customer regarding Alice Walker and the growing popularity of black female authors, showing Hakim’s expertise as a purveyor of black books, among other titles. Duneier states that he’s lived around the corner from Hakim for years and frequents his table to listen to conversations like these.

Hakim describes himself to Duneier as a “public character,” similar to those in Jane Jacobs’s influential book on urban dwelling known as The Death and Life of Great American Cities. In that book, Jacobs writes, “The social structure of sidewalk life hangs partly on what can be called self-appointed public characters” (6). According to Jacobs, public characters are individuals who are present in public and make regular contact with different kinds of people on

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