大象传媒

William H. Whyte was a journalist who spent years ob颅颅serving how people act and interact in public spaces. He walked the streets, sat with notebook in plazas and parks, set up cameras in unobtrusive places, and spent end颅less hours studying the results.

He noticed that when people stop to chat on sidewalks they don鈥檛 move to an edge or entryway, they stay right in the middle. Others have to walk around them. In plazas, they tend to con颅gregate where other people are. Even lovers don鈥檛 seek the soli颅tude of secluded corners, as one might expect. They coo right out in the open, for all to see.

鈥淚t is difficult to design a space that will not attract people,鈥� Whyte wrote. 鈥淲hat attracts people most is other people.鈥�

And yet, remarkably, many cities have succeeded in de颅sign颅ing 鈥渦nder-crowded鈥� public spaces, sometimes very grand and beautiful ones. The reason, Whyte found, is that people don鈥檛 care about the architectural design of a public space. What they do care about is one simple thing: places to sit. They especially like steps and ledges, perhaps be颅cause they don鈥檛 appear intended for sitting. And they like chairs they can move around, so they can create their own groups or sit apart and read.

Which brings me to a vacant鈥攖hat is, undeveloped鈥攍ot on Main Street in my town, right next to a gift shop and a bakery. The bakery has a couple of benches outside, and in the mornings the place is buzzing. More than one person has noted that the adjacent vacant lot would make a natural extension of it. There could be more benches, some tables for eating or for chess, maybe a play area for little kids. It could be the heart of town.

A friend and I decided to see if we could make a commons happen there just by seeding it a bit. We both had old gar颅den benches lying around, so we fixed them up and painted them. Then we deposited them without ceremony on the lot, added a bunch of tree stumps, and waited.

Without any marketing or hype, people quickly started us颅ing the benches, talking and sipping or just resting their feet. Lo and behold, this ad hoc commons produced not a tra颅gedy but rather a comedy, in the root sense of that word.

Part of the hidden narrative of a commons is the rewards it gives to those who make it better.

I was hoping for something like that. What I didn鈥檛 antici颅pate was how good I鈥檇 feel. The people sitting there don鈥檛 know where the benches came from, but I do. My son, who helped me paint them, feels great pride as well. Part of the hidden narrative of a commons is the rewards it gives to those who make it better.

What makes this 鈥渃ommons鈥� possible is that the private owner of the lot is an older man who lives about twenty miles away and for whatever reason has been happy to let the lot sit empty. Lately we heard that the owner has gone into a home, which raises concerns about the heirs.

Will the property fall to the son or daughter with an MBA who will look at the family inventory and see鈥攈orrors!鈥攁n un颅der颅performing asset? Will the lot be sold to conform to the strict code of economically correct behavior, or to appease a petulant sibling?

We are discussing contingency plans. But meanwhile it is clear that the threat to our commons is not the inherent 鈥渢ragedy鈥� of it, but rather the tragedy that might arise from profit-maximizing ownership of it.

Editor鈥檚 note: The vacant lot on Main Street in Point Reyes Sta颅tion has now been formally leased by West Marin Commons. It has become the de facto town commons and is informally known as Jon Rowe Park.

Interested?

• In memory of a longtime 大象传媒 Magazine contributor.
• In a world where everything’s for sale, we’ve forgotten that much of value happens outside the stream of commerce. Here’s how we forgot–and how we’re reclaiming the commons.
• Public spaces can be anything from a lush urban park to a subway station, but all of them offer a free place to enjoy the company of friends, family, and strangers.