What’s Wrong With This Square? (3)
Let me paint you a picture...
I’m sitting in a coffee shop at Ballyhackamore. I come here to work sometimes. I have a studio, but it’s cold and also a bit solitary, and my house has other demands which distract me. I go to coffee shops to be alone in public, to hang, to be feel a bit of connection, but be left alone. I come here to linger.
This is privately owned public space. I pay to be here. It’s cheap enough although coffee these days??? AM-I-RITE??? But still, I can afford a coffee so I come here, I put my headphones on and can work away, it’s transactional, I pay for this and that’s OK.
Public space is as old as civilisation. It’s part of being human to want to be with other humans, to experience not just events but the every day together. Parks are a part of it but squares are something different right? They’re about hanging out with other humans not with nature. Across Belfast you can see examples of squares that work, like CS Lewis Square, the lawn of City Hall and it feels like finally the area around the Odyssey and Titanic is starting to work a bit too. Too often tho public squares in Belfast aren’t really loved by the public. Some can function as successful event spaces, many have been annexed by bars for outdoor drinking, but do you feel like they’re spaces that you want to hang out in without a pint in your hand? If not we need to start asking why?
There’s a reason why I started by painting a picture of where I am. Outside the cafe are lots of tables and chairs. Cafe culture! Everyone wants that. How European. But also how transactional. I can pay to sit there if I want, but I can’t sit there for free? Beyond these chairs there’s a tarmac road that doesn’t go anywhere before you get to the footpath and then the N’ards Road. I grew up in the next street, it’s been like this longer than I’ve been alive, and what service does it provide? Parking for 4 cars. There’s actually a bench beside the parked cars that I’ve never seen anyone sit on... Cause it’s between a tiny car park and a major arterial route. Who the fuck wants to sit there? No-one it turns out.
This is nuts. You’d think some bright spark would say ‘Why don’t we take that space and make it better?’ I mean a space where people would want to hang out. Even the most conservative business would see that this would be better for business than a car park for four cars. And you know what? They did. And they raised the money, and the traders were on board, it was going to happen, they even put out a press release about it (read it here). So what’s happened?
I can’t back this up with links because this sort of thing doesn’t tend to make it online but I’ve been told that there’s a principle called ‘Secured by Design’ which allows the police a voice on planning applications. Fair enough, except it seems they thought that this was a bad idea. Their reason? Creating space where people could linger would lead to anti-social behaviour. And unfortunately no-one seemed to push back so four car parking spaces it remains.
I realise that police resources are stretched and I realise they’re left dealing with a multiplicity of social ills that modern day society has thrown at us, but on balance do we think that good public space for people to meet and socialise and feel a connection is good or bad? I’d say if these powers were in place 10 years ago CS Lewis Square wouldn’t exist. Public space is ALWAYS a bit of a challenge, but we do it cause the positives outweigh the negatives. You don’t pull the plug on something because there might be one or two challenges. I feel like I’m saying this all the time now THAT’S WHAT THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS FOR, to take the risks and do the things that the market can’t or won’t.
And young people need public space too. They have less disposable income, they don’t even have a home their own most of the time, what are we doing to show them that this city is a place that wants them to make their home here? We keep moving them on. They’re not welcome anywhere until they get old enough to be served in bars and then they get welcomed there with open arms.
The point is we should fight for the right to linger. The right to sit in a public space that we all pay for already and not have to buy a coffee to do so. When I’m old and retired, I want to be able to walk to a space near my house and sit in public, alone but connected, I might even talk to a stranger if that’s not too weird. I don’t want ALL these spaces to be cafes. Have you met me on three cups of coffee? No-one needs that. Can’t I just go to a public square and linger? Or God forbid bring a flask?
~Adam