Emily's Musings

Purple Places Majesty

Got this great email today from the Project for Public Spaces:

The issues and rhetoric of the presidential campaign left many people feeling afraid, angry, divided, or isolated. If America stays that way, we'll all be losers coming out of this election. It's easy to forget that progressives, conservatives, and everyone in between share common ground every day--literally. They cross paths in parks, commercial streets, coffee shops, markets, libraries, houses of worship, trains and buses, community centers. Public places are the heart of our democracy -- not only where we vote in November, but where we meet neighbors and exchange ideas the rest of the year.

We at PPS believe that public places, and the pride and value they bring to widely diverse communities, offer a key lesson about the way our country needs to move forward. Cooperation, tolerance, and careful attention to people's well-being--precisely the things that define a successful public place--are what's missing from our political debate and public policies today.

...

We've seen over and over again how a community-oriented process to create or improve public places--we call it "placemaking"--can bring people together in new ways.... We deeply believe that placemaking can shape a new social and political agenda that transcends the divides in our country.

Placemaking is a practical method to discover common ground in a community by encouraging a diversity of opinion toward the goal of building a better place for everyone. This same spirit can guide our national political conversation. What makes places great, makes nations great -- and makes the world more peaceful and prosperous.

I just thought that was really inspiring.