Park

What if everyone could feel good in public space?

Many city centers have been turned into spaces for consumption: if you don’t have money, you can’t inhabit them. Large private capital is allowed to invade city squares, sidewalks, and streets seeking profit, while artisans, precarious workers, and street vendors are expelled. Often, repressive forces use arbitrary criteria to determine who has the right to be in and use different urban spaces, excluding and criminalizing people according to their class, race, gender, and age.

Our use of public space impacts our everyday life and social relations in many ways. It is in public space where we build community. However, for many people, the street also implies stress and insecurity. Women and sexual dissidents particularly feel safer in wide and well-illuminated paths. And, if the city is to truly be for everyone, there cannot be arbitrary police stops for anyone.