Law has become a principal axis of racialization amidst the neoliberal restructuring of urban spaces. This article tracks how processes of racialization materialize through practices of civic activism related to crime and urban danger in a gentrifying neighbourhood of Chicago. Focused on a neighbourhood weblog used to share information about the security of the area, this article tracks how neighbourly practices of textual production and circulation, which are facilitated by the blog, engender racial relations of observation, surveillance and displacement across the virtual and material spaces of the neighbourhood. This article illustrates how racial concerns about crime play a critical role in reconstituting and delimiting the public dimensions of urban spaces.