public space must be intended. there are few grand fountains in the cities of the United States. there are fewer significant rapid transit systems that connect with great causeways and squares enabling bicycle and foot traffic to easily pass through the cities we inhabit. the United States has cities that retain the frontier sensibilities of her distant past in a landscape of isolated domiciles and autonomous systems of travel. we are a closed system people. we use the great rivers of automobile traffic to move from our walled homes to our giant malls; from our enclosed church campus to our 30 screen cinema surrounded by acres of parking lot. in many significant ways we have not intended public space in our city planning, our individual transportation decisions, our commercial deliberations and our organizational spending.
we have few places of passage as a people. our communities are centred on disparate destinations connected over long distances by transportation networks that shuttle us from place to place in the wheeled, climate controlled sterility of our homes. our cars have become an extension of our suburban outpost that accompany us as we navigate our bodies to events in buildings that, more often than not, have no organic connection to where we live and are filled with people who are our displaced neighbors--social connections whose only shared geography is that of third party assembly locations.
–theyblinked.
what if a movement was afoot that privileged announcement over planting; public enactment over private buildings; human connections over warehoused converts; local nuance over packaged purpose; creativity over Quality; sustainability over marketability; dieing together over living alone?
–indeed
