I read a book written about 20 or 30 years ago about how cities had been putting in policies against any kind of fully public square type situations for a while. To discourage hanging out together. And that as you say this was part of a larger plan to disperse the population into the individuated suburbs. That concept has been very recuperated into the whole “walkable cities” and similar in the intervening years but thats not necessarily a refutation.
See it also in context that creating places like that is predicated on a prior demobilization and disconnection. No city falls out of a coconut tree. The newer post war style created during labor peace red scare. Think of redlining also as active contributor to the atmosphere. Redlining made formally illegal in US in ?70s so very much in living memory. And say nothing of settler genocidal state stealing land.
In the places with dense cities there are different (related) histories.
In other contexts, public squares are actually interventions to control civic unrest. They provide an obvious location to gather when the populous becomes agitated, which is inevitable. They are designed in ways which allow crows to be managed by cutting off routes, to guide them as required to non disruptive dispersal locations. They are usually near locations of economic and political power as the crow flies. But actually with a lot of barriers to prevent access to those.
I read a book written about 20 or 30 years ago about how cities had been putting in policies against any kind of fully public square type situations for a while. To discourage hanging out together. And that as you say this was part of a larger plan to disperse the population into the individuated suburbs. That concept has been very recuperated into the whole “walkable cities” and similar in the intervening years but thats not necessarily a refutation.
See it also in context that creating places like that is predicated on a prior demobilization and disconnection. No city falls out of a coconut tree. The newer post war style created during labor peace red scare. Think of redlining also as active contributor to the atmosphere. Redlining made formally illegal in US in ?70s so very much in living memory. And say nothing of settler genocidal state stealing land.
In the places with dense cities there are different (related) histories.
In other contexts, public squares are actually interventions to control civic unrest. They provide an obvious location to gather when the populous becomes agitated, which is inevitable. They are designed in ways which allow crows to be managed by cutting off routes, to guide them as required to non disruptive dispersal locations. They are usually near locations of economic and political power as the crow flies. But actually with a lot of barriers to prevent access to those.