Sitting in the Park on a summer evening

William Whyte, the founder of the organization Project for Public Spaces, was well known for pointing out how building owners have installed spikes on ledges to prevent people from sitting, and how anti-people this strategy is. (It's discussed in the out-of-print book The City as well as in the in-print book The Social Life of Small Urban Places.)

Here's how people are responding to a similar action in Washington, DC, at North Capitol Street and Florida Avenue NW.



Making your own park benches.

I talked with the man that I photographed and he said "There used to be a park here... Here they fixed up the park and now they're taking it away from us."

This is a tough issue. I think that "emerging areas" have street furniture issues, and people are afraid to put in benches because it encourages loitering. On the other hand, this doesn't look any better.

It's hard to manage, but getting people like this man involved in maintaining the park would contribute greatly to the ultimate success of this space.