The Public, and Public Space

View from U of U library reading room

My colleague who teaches eleventh and twelfth grade US history and civics posts her units' essential questions on her door, which is centrally located such that every member of the school community passes it at least a few times a day. The current questions are 

- How do we move toward justice as a society, and once we have it, how do we keep it?

- Who has a right to public spaces?

These questions (the first a large, overarching one for the year, the second specific to the current unit of civil rights) are accompanied by pictures of "colored seating area" and "we wash for whites only" signs of our overtly segregated past. 

What about public space in our city? Where is it? Who has a right to it? 

I am currently sitting in the University of Utah's library which has a stunning westerly view of the Oquirrh mountain range. As an alum, I am eligible for a Pass which allows me to take books out of this library, and to sign up for a 2 hour internet pass. The man at the info desk told me "This will expire in two and a half hours at 12:22; we give you an extra half hour in case you want to go to the bathroom or get a drink or something." I'm sure my gratitude showed on my face. 

My point is that this beautiful space, which I can treat as public, is not. Everyone on my bus ride up here was white, and everyone had a transit pass (no one was paying with cash or change for a ticket) which means that everyone was probably a university student: all students receive an unlimited transit pass. We were all well-heeled and toting academic-looking backpacks. 

Contrast this with my ride down state street the other day, on the 200 bus which ferries lots of down and out folks from point A to B. Wheelchairs, strollers, trash bags of possessions, scruffy beards, dirty hair and hats... these elements of the more representative public of this city were all in evidence on the ride. 

Do the two populations on these routes ever share another public space in the city? At the public library they certainly do. That's why the SL Roasting that's  nestled in the first floor of the library is my favorite coffee shop in the city - it is frequented by people of every echelon and color our city has. 

Perhaps the bus's free-fare zone is also a public space, but one to which the stigma of being called "free" is attached. Something that should have a price attached is now being offered free, conveying all the patronizing pity of presents donated at Christmas or food labelled "Not to be Sold" (which Malcolm X recalls having received after his father left his mom with 7 kids to feed - 'It's a wonder we didn't come to think of it as a brand' he says.) 

True public space is rare in our society. I remember this past summer feeling like every square inch of New York City, where I would expect to find robust public space, seemed monetized. Or, at least that my presence there was more legitimate if I had an expensive coffee in my hand, or was somehow supporting capitalism. I know this is not true - for example I spent time walking on the Highline; roaming Prospect Park; listening to free concerts in Brooklyn, sitting on a bench in Washington Square Park; sitting beside the East River with friends; enjoying free chamber music at a cathedral near Wall Street. 

I guess there was just an intensity there that I could not feel at home in. I wanted to retreat to the Quaker boarding house where I was staying, where each person seemed an equally legitimate member of the community. 

This short article from the New Yorker discusses how services like Uber and Lyft are diminishing commuters' understanding of public space by selling the myth that they are the only passengers on the road: Nikil Saval evokes the image of the map that shows your driver approaching - the only thing on the road, devoid of other humans, or any indication of public life and space. 

Indeed, when I watch that little car come toward my pick-up location, I am often confounded about what could possibly be taking so long - there is clearly nothing in your path obstructing the way! Just zoom on over here! Once in the car, I am hardly more aware of what's going on outside - since I don't have the responsibility of driving, I read a book or am on my phone, or even gaze out the window without really seeing what I'm looking at.

I feel the same way when waiting for the bus, and watching its icon approach at a painstakingly slow rate on the iRide app (which I have many times contemplated taking off my phone, so irritating is the process of watching the bus approach but never. seem. to. arrive.) Once on the bus, I cannot tune out public space - it is surrounding me. The bus pulls up to a curb and noisily lowers down. A mother with a stroller and two toddlers rolls laboriously on, Smiths shopping bags dangling precariously from handles and tiny hands. 

Or a older, large, motorized chair rider requires the ramp to be flipped out onto the uneven, icy shoulder. Perhaps a wheelchair needs to be strapped into place by the driver. All the while, frustrated cars turn on blinkers and rashly dash around the bus, undoubtedly cursing the obstruction the public transit poses to their travel. 

On these buses I never resent the inefficiency of public transit - how could one, when confronted with the difficulties of manoeuvring in this world without lots of money and perfect health? 

I like that I get to treat the public transit system and the University library as public - I have a transit pass through my work, and the Pass for alums to this library. I don't have to pay a price to be seen in my city. I wish this were the case for more folks. 

Gloria Steinem spends a good part of the last chapter of her memoir talking about the Native women that she has spent time with, organized with, and learned from. I learned that the Iroquois Confederacy, not ancient Greece, was the model for the US constitution, because the framers could see how well the Confederacy's governing philosophy worked for them. Apparently when the two Iroquois delegates arrived in the meeting hall in Philadelphia, their first question was "Where are the women?"

What struck me about her comments about Native governance - well, many things struck me, but this is relevant here - was that each member of the society was seen and considered relevant, legitimate in the public eye. I have a lot more learning to do about Native life and philosophy, this book showed me.