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The
Public Spaces Listserve, now some
500 members strong, is an open forum
for people of all backgrounds to
discuss the pressing (and sometimes
not-so-pressing) issues concerning
public spaces. Below are some highlights
from recent discussions.
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On
PUBLIC SPACE SECURITY
Posted Tuesday, February 26th.
In
the old days, the playground
of my youth in NYC's Riverside
Park at 96th Street had, Monday-Friday,
two paid parks employees:
a matron who kept the balls
and equipment & manned
the first aid kit (for scraped
knees) and a porter who kept
the 1.6 acre playground clean,
maintained immaculate restrooms,
and scared off the pedophiles
and what we called in those
innocent days, "bums."
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If
the problem was too rough, then
the cops who worked the park would
be called (these were two cops who
refused to go on the Pad at the
24th precinct - they were the only
ones not transferred after Serpico).
This was the playground that the
new NYC Parks Commissioner Benepe
remembers from his youth (we've
reminiscenced about this) and is
viewed as a kind of "Paradise
Lost" in the New York City
of today, where Parks gets less
than 4 tenths of 1 percent of the
total NYC budget and shrinking.
During the Great Depression of the
1930's, in contrast, Parks funding
was 2% of the NYC budget.
-
Adam Honigman
On
PUBLIC DISPLAYS
OF AFFECTION
Posted Thursday, January 17th
As
regards displays of affection in
public, a friend of mine was working
on a documentary in Moscow last
year and was walking around the
city with a Moscovite who was involved
with the film. They passed a couple
in a deep and passionate embrace.
This prompted her to ask her companion
if this was a sign of changing attitudes
in Russian society. Her companion
replied in a Slavic deadpan, "No,
it's a sign of a housing shortage."
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People
do have public and private
behavior. It could be that
a really successful public
place allows us to blur the
lines. If you lose the ability
to draw the line all together
you're going to make people
feel uneasy. You could also
draw hostility.
Certainly
as a gay man, I would have
to know that I was in a gay
milieu or a very urban one
to be very physically affectionate
with another man. If you've
ever been sucker punched at
3 in the morning you'll understand
why.
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Gene Threndyle
On
TEENS IN PUBLIC SPACES
Posted Friday, February 8th
Teens
seem to have an eye for the best
urban spaces around. Maybe because
they are wired to be part of a social
setting or because they don't drive,
but many of the finest public spaces
are the hangouts for teens. Jackson
Square in New Orleans, Harvard Square
in Cambridge, the downtown square
in Portland, OR (forgetting the
name), Copley Square, Boston, and
like pigeons they also seem drawn
to the great downtown monuments.
- Michael Behrendt
On
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER MEMORIAL
SITE
Posted Wednesday, January 2nd
I
and others believe that the best
memorial would be a school on the
site, and a playground. Out of the
ashes, we shall grow. The sight
and sound of children playing and
learning is a great anodyne, as
is music - much like the Cello player
in the ruins of Sarajevo.
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John Hooker, AIA
On
DREAM PLACES
Posted Wednesday, February 27th
Here
are the views of Limmy, aged
5, on the kind of public spaces
he wants.
Limmy’s
Place: It’s at a special park.
It’s got an enormous ladder
that’s got a big point at the
top and it looks like an enormous
rocket about to blast off. And it’s
got some very very powerful swings
that can nearly go as high as the
moon. And there’s an enormous
wiggly slide that comes down from
the enormous ladder that looks like
a rocket. It goes into the big big
pool of water.
The
big big pool of water has a shark
watching place and some great shoals
of fish. It’s got a little
bit that comes out of the water
that you can shoot water with a
water gun.
It’s
got another island with trees and
some birds and it’s got a gigantic
octopus and a gigantic jellyfish
and a starfish and an angler fish
and an underwater moving café.
There are underwater chairs for
sitting on with your friends. There
is a rocket that shoots up really
high, even further than the moon.
There is a special satellite that
gives air to people so that they
can breathe under water. And there’s
a big glass bridge for watching
everything that’s going on.
-
Limmy Ausden
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