Shoring up the Disappearing Public Realm

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