Public Spaces
Local park, that is.
Our shared spaces give so much to our communities. Mostly, they give space.
Space to meet.
Space to exercise.
Space to sit.
Space to walk.
Space to bump into each other.
Space to connect.
We all need to connect.
We all need spaces to connect.
We all need a local.
We recently opened our new central city public library building, Tūranga.
It’s pretty awesome.
Our city’s pretty flat, and there’s not many tall buildings, so you can see a long way from the top floor.
There’s a ground floor cafe that serves all-day fried chicken burgers. And a Red IPA.
There’s essentially an entire floor devoted to children’ spaces. It includes a slide and nooks an crannies you can hide away in and read a book. The Health and Safety people must go nuts.
And there’s the usual things you’d expect in a modern library: Books, wifi, computers etc. But the most awesome thing is the people.
Every time I’ve been there (and it’s a few times now. Did I mention it’s awesome?) there’s been heaps of people. All sorts of people. Doing all sorts of things.
Public spaces can make places feel public. Make the public feel like it’s ours. Like we’re allowed to be somewhere other than just our own houses. And that this spaces, this place, is Ours, collectively.
Here’s to great public spaces making places great for the public.
Around where I live, fairly well all of the houses are standalone buildings with reasonable sized yards.
Some of them have impeccable lawns. I can tell, because our house is two storey. And there’s some very nice green areas on google maps.
One neighbour around the corner is different though. No open green space there. It’s all cover up. “Messy”.
Because they have a permaculture-based system running. It’s pretty awesome.
A family friend built a new house with no lawn. Raised garden beds and wildflowers. Their opinion was that the ground was meant to grow food, not grass. And food for bees counted as well.
Plus, they lived next to a large public park.
And there’s the rub: Access to excellent public spaces is critical if we are going to give up our tiny backyard fiefdoms of manicured pasture and make some good (food) come from the dirt instead.