Describe the way each film (My Brooklyn, Citizen Jane, Human Scale) and the lecture presentation (Healing Spaces: Marching On! Blackness and the Spatial Politics of Performance) discuss public space and its role in cities. Which notion of public space appeals to you? How do you feel about public space in New York City?
Public space is described as an open area or place that is accessible to all people such as plazas, squares, or parks. In the film My Brooklyn, the public space was the atmosphere of the Fulton Mall. It brought a lot of people together and a variety of shopping items were available. in Citizen Jane, where there were crowded busy streets was the order of the life of the city. In Human Scale, the main strip of Broadway in Manhattan was reconstructed to provide places where people could sit and connect with the city and others on the corners of the streets. The notation that appeals to me the most is Citizen Jane, because when Jane Jacobs said, “If you can understand the city, then that city is dead,” it provided a perspective on the fact that the best things are hard to understand. I feel that there needs to be more public space in New York City because it feels constricting to be surrounded by so many tall buildings and is a reason why I don’t like to travel there so much.
Hey Megan,
Citizen Jane also appealed to me the most. I agree that there should be more public spaces in New York City but I also think that the city should focus on the spaces already available and make them more accessible to the community that surrounds it. I live in the Lower East Side and there’s a handful of places that have been ‘under construction’ for years and no one has made good use of the space or the parking lots that sit empty and dirty that should be converted into community gardens or something other than luxury apartments that will just result in the inflation of prices of everything that surrounds it.