Awareness of the Importance of Public Spaces is Increasing?Here's How We Can Capitalize On It
This article was originally published by Common Edge as "How Public Space Can Build Community and Rescue Democracy."
Piazza del Campo, Siena, Italy. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/liakadaweb/38621551301/'>Flickr user liakadaweb</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>
This article was originally published by Common Edge as "How Public Space Can Build Community and Rescue Democracy."Public spaces are having a moment. People from outside the field of urban planning are beginning to notice the vital contributions that they make to our quality of life: inserting nature and cultural memory into the everyday, reminding us of our collective responsibilities, supporting democratic expression. People are also beginning to notice the subtle ways in which those contributions are being eroded by threats of privatization, corporate appropriation, and apathy.Most acutely, this moment is brought to us by Apple, which has begun an aggressive retail rebranding effort to re-conceptualize its stores as ?town squares,? and wrought a wave of well-founded concern. Technology continues to beckon us away from the need to leave our homes or interact face-to-face with other humans. If for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, it would follow that opportunities for such interpersonal interaction become a luxury we begin to seek, a call to remember...
Piazza del Campo, Siena, Italy. Image © <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/liakadaweb/38621551301/'>Flickr user liakadaweb</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>
This article was originally published by Common Edge as "How Public Space Can Build Community and Rescue Democracy."Public spaces are having a moment. People from outside the field of urban planning are beginning to notice the vital contributions that they make to our quality of life: inserting nature and cultural memory into the everyday, reminding us of our collective responsibilities, supporting democratic expression. People are also beginning to notice the subtle ways in which those contributions are being eroded by threats of privatization, corporate appropriation, and apathy.Most acutely, this moment is brought to us by Apple, which has begun an aggressive retail rebranding effort to re-conceptualize its stores as ?town squares,? and wrought a wave of well-founded concern. Technology continues to beckon us away from the need to leave our homes or interact face-to-face with other humans. If for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, it would follow that opportunities for such interpersonal interaction become a luxury we begin to seek, a call to remember...
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