Open Places, Open Access, Open Tools
Mia Winther-Tamaki, 2024 - ongoing
Connections, Contradictions and Questions for place-based solutions and the decentralized web.
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1. Places are important.
Strong places are the foundation for a just and resilient future.
Hyperlocal scales of the built environment—streets, public squares, sidewalks, gardens— are viable units of change that cascade into impatient ct at larger city/regional levels.
Good places require maintenance & community-led governance
2. Access to good places is gated.
Public space and the decisions made about them are increasingly privatized
Regulation and infrastructure for urban planning and participation are often rigid, with structural wall-in
New York City's Place Governance
Place governance is defined as the collaboration of actors across sectors to make decisions that help shape the economic, pysical, and/or social dynamics of a specific place
— 'Hyperlocal: Place Governance in a Fragmented World' by Vey, Jennifer S. and Strogging, Nate.
New York City's Place Governance
Place governance is defined as the collaboration of actors across sectors to make decisions that help shape the economic, pysical, and/or social dynamics of a specific place
— 'Hyperlocal: Place Governance in a Fragmented World' by Vey, Jennifer S. and Strogging, Nate.
The Privatization of the Public Realm
"The Neoliberal project rowards privatizing control over capital surpluses" David Harvey
Public Private Partnerships became extremely popular in NYC in the 90's.
3. Emergent urbanism needs tools that reflect the urban fabric of our cities that is contextual, contingent, and connected.
What is Emergent Urbanism?
Emergent Urbanism calls for urban planning that evolves organically through simple, local actions rather than rigid, top-down planning. Emergent tactics embrace dynamic, adaptive, and flexible interventions that respond to the changing needs of a community and surrounding environment.
community led urbanism vs corporate-led urbanism
Emergent Urbanism needs an emergent civic economy
We need tools that "move beyond the simplistic frameworks for property, identity and democracy on which liberal democracies have been built in favor of more sophisticated alternatives that match the richness of social life." (Weyl & Tang, Plurality, 2024, p. 60)
We must "reimagine institutional infrastructures of regulation and public interest governance in a fully digital, connected, and data-driven age." (Johar, The Necessity of a Boring Revolution, 2018)
4. What do would these interventions and tools look like on the ground?
CASE STUDY:
THE BED-STUY AQUARIUM:A CASE FOR EMERGENT URBANISM
Adaptive systems foster creativity and community-driven change. Permitting should be flexible, accessible, and evolve with local needs.
How can we reimagine permitting systems to enable community-driven repurposing of public space?
What institutional changes would NYC need to pilot flexible permitting systems?
How can we balance regulatory oversight with community autonomy?
Inspired by Dark Matter Lab's, "Re: Permissioning the City" project in Daegu, South Korea
CASE STUDY:
QUADRATIC VOTING IN NEW YORK CITY
Quadratic Voting allows people to express the extent of their support across a range of projects
RadicalXChange’s experiment with quadratic voting for participatory budgeting in Harlem aimed to give community members more nuanced input into decision-making.
Reflecting on what worked and what failed, how can we refine and reintroduce such tools in NYC’s civic processes?
5. The Pop-up Village & Start-Up City Movement
URBAN PLANNING INITATIVES IN THE WEB 3 COMMUNITY
Popup Village
Startup City
6. When is the decentralized internet and blockchain useful to public space, cities, and liberation movements at large? When is it not?