Where have all the public benches gone?

Public seating is disappearing from transit stations, parks, plazas, and sidewalks around the country, writes Gabrielle Bruney in a piece for Places Journal. 

For Bruney, "Benches are microcosms of an expansive debate about who belongs in urban public spaces. When they are removed or made uninviting, we lose more than just a place to rest." Seating serves a range of constituencies with different needs and are "symbols of hospitality, an invitation to participate in the civic realm." When we lose benches, we lose a certain relationship with public space that invites us to linger. 

Bruney highlights New York City's Moynihan Train Hall, a much-lauded new transit station built in the city's former main post office. For all its soaring glass ceilings and art installations, the hall notably lacks seating. In the effort to prevent unhoused people from using public amenities, cities often deprive all citizens of basic public goods. 

Bruney's piece provides an expansive history of public benches and their role as places of inclusion or exclusion, as well as the concept of POPS, "privately owned public spaces" that are required by governments, through various agreements, to offer public access and amenities.