Men and teenage boys stand on corners, fishing.
Youths stand on corners, passing their own intelligence by cellphone, Twitter and Skype.
Typically, the neighborhood youths stand on corners and intersections, or in front of the shops, talking, joking or just staring at passers-by.
But the work that killed Mr. Oliva was the dangerous kind often left to laborers who stand on corners -- ready, willing and cheap.
The corner of Hooper Street and Lee Avenue in Williamsburg is where Polish women come to find work cleaning the houses of the ultraorthodox Satmar Jews, the same way Mexican men stand on corners hoping for construction jobs.
Teams of officers wearing helmets and carrying automatic rifles stood on corners.
Townspeople stood on corners to watch the buses go by and a few young men made gestures, whistled and jeered.
By this time, Shelly had become involved with a man named Toby, who stood on corners in Silver Lake and Echo Park handing out pamphlets about the Socialist Workers Party.
His descriptions of contemporary Welsh ruin are particularly riveting: "Men in groups stood on corners, staring at the passing traffic with steroidal hatred.
"I can stand on one street corner and show you my whole life," he says.
You know, the ones that stand on street corners screaming at people.
