If the City Were a Commons
In which the peculiarities of a real city lead to thoughts of how we might do better.
As I’ve mentioned, I had joined an arts project called ‘If the city were a wommons’, based in the small city of Dundee on the East coast of Scotland. The Commons Group have gathered at a flat one of the artists is lucky enough to rent, down at the Waterfront in Dundee, overlooking the River Tay. It is a beautiful day and sunlight sparkles off the water. The coastline of Fife, over the river, is bathed in sunshine.
The Commoners have been asked to come up with a short statement of what each of us intends to contribute to the project over the coming months. We have gathered to share these ideas with each other. We have a walk around the Waterfront area as part of our day. A cycle path runs along the river, through the Waterfront, but comes to an abrupt halt where it meets the docks. Anyone wishing to cycle further East, to Broughty Ferry and the beaches beyond, must double back to try and find a way out and around the docks. The Waterfront is littered with signs prohibiting various activities. Parking restrictions are especially onerous and confusing. One resident has received multiple parking tickets for leaving his car outside his own garage.
All of this is food for thought for the Commons Group. One person suggests building something at the farthest point of the Waterfront, so that, at least, the cyclists and walkers have some place to ‘arrive’ before they are forced to find a way back out. Could something be built without planning consent? The Waterfront path is arguably a public place, but should it really be a commons? If a commons, then why should permission have to be sought for a building? Another artist mentions a little piece of land further to the West and close to the Tay Rail Bridge. Perhaps this is genuinely common land? (We are investigating official common land in Dundee as part of the project.) Could we camp out on this site and draw attention to land use in the city?
After the walk around the Waterfront, further ideas are put forward. We discuss creating a proper beach at the Waterfront, stretching along to the city centre, instead of the mud and rocks that are there at the moment. There is talk of dancing and feasting. As the discussion goes on the ideas get ever-more fanciful. There’s a sense of carnival that contrasts with the grim landscape of prohibitions that we’ve seen on our walk.
What would we do if we felt that we really owned our place, if the city was really ours, if the city were a commons?
What does it mean, first of all, to describe the city as a commons? It does not mean that there is no ownership or that everything becomes ‘public’ land (that is, owned and controlled by the state rather than privately). It’s not who owns what that matters so much as what they do with what they own. A commons means that people living in a particular street, neighbourhood and region of our towns and cities would have a lot more say over what happens. This idea has come to be known as 'deliberative democracy’ because small groups of people – local people, local communities – get together to deliberate over what’s best for them.
Good idea?
The downside is maybe that, just as in ‘big’ politics, only the people with money, power and influence get to see any changes made. There can be ‘pocket tyrants’ – mini dictators who push people around – at the local level just as much as national and international level. So deliberative democracy – neighbourhood councils and the like – are just encouraging bullies and busy-bodies to make trouble!
But I’d like to be more positive! I think it can work. I think the benefits – if we all had a chance to get involved – could really outweigh the disadvantages. Letting all voices be heard is what makes for a commons.
Cities are odd places. They say more about us than we might care to admit. The ancient city was often built around a sacred place such as a temple or a church. So the thing that was most important to people was placed at the centre. What matters most to us now, and how is that reflected in cities? Two things – autonomy and individuality. The autonomy is reflected in the design of infrastructure and our obsession with the car. Cities are now often just large intersections of roads and if they still have a centre at all then it will be a business district. Meanwhile commerce – shopping malls – are pushed out to the peripheries where they catch the road traffic. Traffic that might be going anywhere – anonymous, impersonal, autonomous. The individuality aspect is picked up in our homes. The modern house or apartment looks in on itself as a separate world that tends to shut out the surrounding location. It could almost be built anywhere, because it will do its best to shield us from the vagaries of the climate, the chaos of the local neighbourhood and the uncertainties of the world more generally.
So the modern city is based around people ‘going places’ (both literally and metaphorically) but when we are at home we are in our own private bubble. In fact, when we are at home we are probably still ‘going places’ by means of the internet and all we want is to shut out the surrounding neighbourhood so that we can pursue our own private dreams in peace. I’d add a third trend to this, which seems to be growing. We have started to make our physical places into fantasy places – theme parks. There is something adolescent starting to emerge in our cityscapes.
Well, if this is the way we really are as people then inevitably these are the kinds of places we’re going to get for our urban landscape. But is this what we really want? I hope it isn’t. I really hope it isn’t!
Put the two parts of this together – the commons and the city as a reflection of our ways as people – and we get a different view of what our urban landscape might be like. For if neighbourhoods and communities are the basis of a commons then the street and the neighbourhood would be the key element in how things were designed.
There would be small clusters of houses with parks and play areas, perhaps a pool, a sports field, some shops, a health clinic, a cinema, small business units, a vet, an optician – in short, all you need is on your doorstep. No need to drive to work, no need to seek out shopping malls or entertainment venues out of town. You could have a rich and happy life and not go more than three miles from your own door unless you really wanted to.
Instead of one big city centre – which might, in any case, have become an intersection of highways with some office blocks in between plus apartments no-one can afford – there would be multiple smaller centres for the regions of a city. These would be regions with their own history and identity and with some of the bigger stuff that cannot reasonably be provided at neighbourhood level. Again, we are reducing the need for transport – making things easier for ourselves and for nature. All it takes is careful planning. All it takes is to be careful of small details about what makes for a comfortable, happy life for everyone and not just for those who can afford it. All it takes is for enough of us to care enough to try. The ‘intelligent’ are not necessarily any better at this than the less intelligent, nor the richer any better than the poor.
You’ll say perhaps that it’s all very well to have dreams but people are just not like that. Most of us have given up trying to change the world, or even trying to change the neighbourhood, and all we can do is to retreat into our bubble and not bother anyone else.
I kind of agree. People would have to change first. People would have to genuinely want to be rooted in community rather than just pay lip-service to the idea, before genuine community would emerge. Meantime there’s not much point in trying to physically build neighbourhoods as I’ve described them above, because unless people are on-message already then the places we build would not really work as places.
All I can say is, the city really could be a commons if we wanted it enough. And in the meantime, could we start living differently right where we are? Get to know the neighbours and the neighbourhood? Spread a little joy? Could you risk it?
