The Importance of Trivial Streets: Residential Streets and Residential Segregation1

Previous models of urban residential segregation have virtually ignored the affects of tertiary, or small, residential–type streets, despite the intuition that they are where “neighborly” relations primarily occur. This article argues that racial similarity among neighborhoods emerges primarily from their relational connections via tertiary streets rather than as a result of geographic proximity. Analyzing tertiary streets can better predict racial composition than can spatial considerations. Segregated networks of neighborly relations emerge from segregated networks of residential streets. Racial populations are organized in space with respect to who is “down the street” rather than in terms of mere physical distance.