Shoring up the Disappearing Public Realm

As libraries and and post offices are replaced by private development while streets and sidewalks lack funding, what can be done to enliven the public realm?

1 minute read

May 27, 2012, 5:00 AM PDT

By Hazel Borys


Howard Blackson offers design solutions, using corners in San Diego where libraries have recently closed as examples. This blog is heavily inspired by Léon Krier:

"We live our daily lives in both private and social realms. Our social lives are built upon the social connectivity that occurs in our civic spaces and institutions. Streets and sidewalks make the majority of our public realm, and we spend too much of that time in isolated, high-speed automobiles. Our streets and sidewalks are in a woeful shape and we lack the infrastructure funding to maintain them, thus a further degradation of the public realm."

"With churches, social clubs, shops, restaurants and bars being private, and public/private partnerships being relied upon to build our parks, plazas and gathering places, we appear to have passed a tipping point - one that the Occupy Wall Street episode captured so vividly as it unfolded in NYC's private/public Zuccotti Park."

Thanks to Hazel Borys

Thursday, May 24, 2012 in PlaceShakers

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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