Protesters crowd barricades barring pedestrians from certain crosswalks in New York. The city may also have an increased jaywalking fine and stricter walking-code enforcement. These folks from America's hinterlands are known to amble to an intersection, wait for the light to change, and then cross the street. Jaywalking is just not done. Forget about it.
People are in too much of a hurry.
Hurried or not, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani wants New Yorkers to act more like Milwaukeans. Some New Yorkers see Mayor Giuliani's attempt to bring Midwestern civility to street corners here as an ill-fated attempt to span a cultural divide far wider than the Brooklyn Bridge. And like many Western and Midwestern cities, Milwaukee enforces a jaywalking ordinance. Jeff Fleming, a city spokesman, says people often wait at a corner for a light to change even when there's no traffic. For many Big Apple natives, the idea of not jaywalking is laughable.