What's Wrong With... Spontaneous Events - Vibrant Park Spaces - Living in Public Spaces

 I know the title of this article is deliberately inflammatory in its title, but then again, you may get to the bottom of this article and feel inflamed! But it seemed like a great follow up to my last piece on the Red Bridge, and its video by Vancouver based 'About Here' in discussing the lack of vibrancy on Vancouvers Waterfront - posted again below should you be interested:

Lets just jump right in to the examples - perhaps too many of them - but I want to drive home how widespread, varied and exciting parks can be in other cities big and small.

Starting in Paris at (dans) Jardin Tino Rossi

Along the banks of the Seine, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of folks meet to danse and watch the dancing in this idyllic spot. Technically, the dancing is here every night of the week - but in reality it is an unorganized and organic event that has no specific times, dates or sizes. Along the park you will find folks, and their boomboxes, playing various kinds of music. The crowds naturally evolving around the music and skill levels they feel most comfortable with.

Nearby, informal food vendors can be found selling everything from hotdogs to chestnuts, to fresh fruit. Folks set up with a picnic, with a bottle of wine, getting up to dance, and chatting with eachother.  None of these people need licenses, insurance or applications. The event grows and shrinks daily and hourly as folks use the park as their living room. Belligerent behavior is generally self-policed by the crowd, and not tolerated generally by the many foot patrols. 

Just upstream at Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand, a more international, younger and hipper version unfolds on the regular as well. Hip Hop and decidedly more multi-cultural demographic occupy this space in the hundreds on a given night. 

Meanwhile, on the opposite bank, the sunny weather brings the people out to Jardin Nelson Mandela, in front of Les Halles. Folks picnic, drink, slackline, practice tai chi or capoeira, and engage in the same sorts of things we do here in Canada when celebrating the pleasure of each others company -  like Beer Pong among a certain demographic.

And all along the former freeway - now the Voie Georges Pompidou, the same City Living Room unfolds with buskers, patios, beers, wine, food, views, company, kids playgrounds and good times.

When Notre-Dame de Paris reopened this year - there was musical performances of all kinds - but most conflicting to Canadians was the rave music and light show. Canadians would simply not tolerate this 'noise' in a urban location - the few folks who might be inconvenienced a couple nights a year are treated more sacred than the thousands who would enjoy it.

 

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Flying across the Atlantic to Mexico City, to Parque Mexico, another mixed group get together for Salsa dancing. Little handwritten notes, taped to the pillars of the park, let folks know which style of dance, on what day is coming up.

Nearby in the same park, the Audiorama park is open more limited hours, in a secluded, forested part of the Park. Lounging chairs are strewn throughout, and a take-a-book, leave-a-book library sits at the entrance. The park is supervised to make single women feel comfortable, as well as to enforce the quiet rules, while relaxing music plays throughout. Imagine, needing someone to keep a park quiet, because the rest of the park is so regularly packed with life, vibrancy and conviviality - and then finding security as a young single woman to spend evenings reading in the forest. 

Just to the North, the Alameda Central too has food vendors, snacks, music, dancing - and is kept super clean and safe. Fountains cool off the super shaded park making it the most pleasant spot around to shoot the shit with other retirees, watching the young walkers makes their courtships, hoping desperately to mate. In the words of Andres Duany - if you want to attract young people to your city, you need to bake in the opportunities to attract mates, and that means public, safe spaces - filled with the lively activities that young people like to do. Unsurprisingly, through nostalgia or comradery, so too do folks past courtship love to share stories of their own courtships while musing on the curiosities and constants of younger generations.

In a southern suburb, Centro de Coyoacan and Jardin Hidalgo, the daytime market bleeds into streets packed with artisans, food, drinks, music, dancing, magicians, kids playgrounds and conviviality. 

Back across the Atlantic, street vendors on Londons Brick Lane serve up all sorts of ethnic foods on weekends, served by individuals, churches, cultural associations. The vendors need only a simple set up - crock pots, handwashing water. They earn pocket money, building community relationships, learning English and become part of the fabric of a culture. In a city with terrible weather.

Or near Kings Cross is Word on the Water - a book barge featuring free outdoor concerts. I did a whole post just on this barge.

Not far away in Oxford, at Gloucester Green, so too is a low barrier to entry for community, enterprise and my favorite multicultural conversation medium - food.

And its not just about weather either. Even in small places -  Europes Christmas Markets are outdoors, free to attend, and packed full of people in some of the seasons worst weather. From Poland, to Austria, Germany, and even small 53,000pop. Eger Hungary. And just 2 hours train ride from central Budapest, Eger is competing with the big cities at attract people to its parks.

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There is a distinct difference here in what these parks do, who they serve, and how they are administered compared to Canadian and Kamloops parks. These parks are the backyards of the community - the place where people visit, relax, and revel in the company of strangers. They are the clearing houses of the temperaments of the day where old times and young people debate current events, politics, philosophy. 

In the suburbs, its all about the Private Space. Your private backyard "park and playground", your private pool, private home theatre. In Urban Places, the parks are your backyard, pool and home theatre. The experience is different, and often improved, in the revelry of strangers. Different parks, and places within the parks develop their own solitude or conviviality. But these places need to facilitate interaction not restrict it.

In a good, vibrant, park as living room - just as in a good backyard party - you need drinks, libations, FOOD, entertainment, music, comfortable furniture, private corners and open lawns, activities and safety. The rules we apply now - no alcohol, no dogs, no food trucks, no fire, no stoves, no boomboxes, no loitering (literally what you goto a park to do), no skateboards, no events (like dancing) without prior approval (and insurance, and safety plans, and first aid, and permit fees). And its not just the rules, but the facilities. We provide pickle ball courts for a few dozen players at a time, but few benches to sit on, certainly not different and comfortable ones that move like Parisian parks. 

If someone wanted to host dance classes for free in the park, and hundreds of people (especially visible minorities) turned up with boomboxes and beers, played beer pong in the park, and started grilling burgers - how long would that last?

We need to rethink what a Park Space is in an urban setting. This does not apply to nature parks like Kenna or Peterson Creek or Lac du Bois. This is about park spaces and public plazas (which don't exist yet in Kamloops really), and what we do to inject them with vibrancy.