PUBLIC SPACE

PUBLIC SPACE

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Her sweet delicate smile. Thats the thing I remember the most. My beautiful Anita, married forty three years, three hundred and sixty-three days. Two days, and it was our anniversary. I always made a big effort on anniversaries, I liked to treat her, I liked to make her feel special. I never understood why people would just give a card and a kiss and not make it a big deal. To me every year was a delightful blessing, one to be cherished. I liked to take her on walks anywhere and everywhere. I would plan a route in advance and just take her out on a whim. I think, I made it romantic. One of our favourites was to walk through the park, feed the ducks and just have a giggle. It was there, just into the underpass where the ‘hoodies’ would congregate. Smoking,

drinking, vandalising - just horrible. It actually used to be nice there. The park was busy, kids played football, people sat and had picnics. I miss those days. Nowadays theres no one around. People will shoot through for a short cut to town, or walk in pairs. At nighttime no one will set foot in the park, except for the rabble in the subway. One evening my darling Anita was heading home from bingo. I stayed home that evening because my back was playing up. She offered to stay and look after me, but I wouldn’t have any of it. I said ‘I can look after myself. Go have some fun’. She went through the park that night...

Alan Garner Retired Ex Civil Servant Bristol, Fishponds

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A public space is an area for people to meet, relax and spend time with others.In an ideal world, a public area would be a safe, clean and attractive place at the centre of the community. However, the real world has a harsh reality to these areas. They are vandalised and abused areas representing what is wrong with the world today. A common site amongst these areas are drink and drug abusers, graffiti and damaged facilities. These places are no longer an area of pride, but an area of neglect and damage from people, from the community.

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Initial thoughts

We got together to visually mind map are first thoughts on ‘public places’. The negatives far outweighed the positives.

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Public spaces are misused and neglected every single day. Due to the present (un)cultured soceity, vandalism, anti-social behaviour and littering are a common place amongst most community areas. We feel that public places are beyond repair, and are trying to discourage people from ever visiting them, unless they are improved drastically. We aim to solve the dilemma by making you blatently aware of their huge pitfalls, that you as the general public do not deserve to have such un-inviting and un-welcoming places as ‘community areas’.

SOCIETY’S NEGLECTED PLAYGROUND

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Very satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

From our results we found that the overall majority, said that they were very dissatisfied by the condition of their local public park. Therefore proving our initial opinions of public parks to be correct.

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Night-time

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Littering

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“Public spaces, especially parks, are no longer a place for people to relax and enjoy themselves. The condition of the areas have gotten much worse, with litter and graffiti becoming a common sight”

“From having researched public places throughly, I am able to offer an un-biased informed opinion. Public places are not friendly, they are not welcoming and they are not safe. The small minority ruin our ability to enjoy public places to their fullest. This is not about to change.”

Informed opinion

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“I cycle through public places every day. I don’t enjoy my journey because of how neglected they have become.”

“Sometimes when I leave university late, I don’t feel safe walking home by myself; especially at night.”

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Vandalism

An ever increasing problem which is appearing in most public spaces is vandalism, in the forms of graffiti and damage to public property.

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Public spaces have become an eyesore of communities; filled with vandalism, litter and anti-social behaviour. These are not, areas that the general public should visit, they are generally unsafe and unpleasant.

To conclude:

Joseph KozakKieran Wayne