What's a box, a circle, a line and The American People?

I've had the pleasure of working the Jake Izenberg -- soon to be a graduate of Yale School of Medicine -- in thinking about the Main Streets of Essex County. What variation there is! From the density and intensity of Ferry Street in Newark to the quiet emptiness of Northfield Avenue in Livingston, we've seen all sorts of variations on the theme. Yet it takes multiple lenses to sort out why we're seeing what we're seeing. While puzzling over Main Street, I realized we were trying to solve the riddle, "What's a box, a circle, a line AND the American People?" The answer: Main Street. By looking into each of these images of Main Street, we have begun to map out some solid ground, moving ever closer to the goal of understanding how Main Streets help to make healthy cities and thereby healthy people.