Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T18:24:24.882Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The Street as Social Space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2022

William Riggs
Affiliation:
University of San Francisco
Get access

Summary

The road belonged to us then; we sang in it, we argued in it, while the horse-bus flowed softly by … (Le Corbusier in Berman, 1983)

Singing, arguing, belonging; even Corbusier, who is sometimes derided for his views on transportation, believed the street was home for many things other than movement. Just as we saw with the case of Exhibition Road in London, the idea of interaction between people on the street is very important. Roadways of all kinds provide conduits that make cities work. They provide activities, socialization, encounters and confrontations. And I believe these are the kind of words (and ideas) that kill the traditional definition of what a street can be. These words bring about images of people singing, playing and connecting with one another, or even occupying streets for protest.

For example, in 2010 and 2011 pedestrians occupied the streets in Cairo, Egypt, shaping what would become the Arab Spring. I remember turning on the news and being blown away by the massive crowds across Tahrir Square. I thought “there is the power of the street.” Likewise in the US, many people fled to the street during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement and for the commemoration of one of the most important events to happen on the street— the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march against segregation in Selma, Alabama, where police brutalized protestors on the street during the Civil Rights Movement. These activities have importance because they frame the social action that is essential to democracy and a free society.

I like to think about the words of former US President Barack Obama when considering this. In his 2015 speech commemorating the events in Selma, he spoke about people who met near a bridge to take their message to the street and changed the future of American society. He proclaimed,

“The Americans who crossed this bridge were not physically imposing. But they gave courage to millions. They held no elected office. But they led a nation. They marched as Americans who had endured hundreds of years of brutal violence, and countless daily indignities – but they didn’t seek special treatment, just the equal treatment promised to them almost a century before …. they proved that nonviolent change is possible; that love and hope can conquer hate.” (Obama, 2015)

It is fascinating to think about how streets have this kind of power.

Type
Chapter
Information
End of the Road
Reimagining the Street as the Heart of the City
, pp. 61 - 79
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×