Touch Grass They Say
Hopefully You Aren't Reading This In Your Car On Your Lunch Break
One of my fondest memories during my time as a New York City resident was how close you were to finding a plaza, a nook, or a public park when idling even when it wasn’t “supposed” to be a place for people to hang out. It wasn’t uncommon to spend my lunch sitting in the promenande in front of the Barclays Center. Nearby food vending made for a quick meal in a natural setting. When meeting a friend and had extra time to “kill” after getting off the train, I’d find a bench or somewhere in one of the many nearby parks, a centralized location, and waited before departing to our destination. It’s like parks and plazas were not only a popular meeting place but a landmark.
“You know where Madison Square Park is?”
“Well it’s a few blocks from there on the west side around 25th?”
“Let’s meet at Madison Square Park and head over.”
There’s this allure with idling with nowhere to be at the moment and unfortunately, much like smartphones have captured our idling minds, the vehicle has captured our idling time.
Let’s play a game, shall we?
Comment below if you’ve ever eaten your lunch in your car? Maybe there’s a break room or even a cafeteria but somehow you ended up in your car.
You aren’t alone.
Upworthy wrote an interesting piece on the phenomenon of eating lunch in your car but this quote stood out the most.
“People who eat alone in the car aren’t being anti-social, and they’re not sad and lonely. They just need a chance to recharge.”
Isn’t that supposed to be what public spaces are for? Or have we simply reidentified them as recreational spaces?
The most striking question, is there even one nearby?
Recently Axios Charlotte covered a new free pop-up picnic in the park series happening here in Charlotte called Touch Grass, where you are encouraged to leave the phone behind and engage with analog activities, friends or whatever makes you feel at peace.
I couldn’t help looking at these pictures through two lenses: one as “yes, WE NEEDED THIS!” and the other being, “Wow, we needed THIS?”
Update: Rereading this after posting I wanted to be sure that it is understood that I am not bashing this event. I am sharing my perspective of this dystopian like feeling I have felt for a while that we need an incentive to go just about anywhere nowadays as we are so tired. Capitalism is exhausting. Car dependency is draining. However, the loneliness epidemic is here and it’s real. We need each other more than ever and I wish we returned to popping up at each other’s house on a Tuesday just to share space or met randomly after work at the park to walk it off . Better infrastructure would allow this more organically and that is the focus of this piece.
It’s as if with all the resources we have at our finger tips, we still needed a reminder that public places belong to well… the public. On the other hand, after a long day in the office then traffic, do you really want to get back in your car to drive to the park? After extended time in your home office, do you want to leave your home to get in your car to find a public place to recharge?
Three Ways We Can Overcome This
Remove the Friction: How can we arrive to these places without a car or an incentive to come? The park above while alongside a greenway isn’t well lit after hours and isn’t an ideal place to meet if you don’t live nearby. We should consider micromobility, microtransit and public transit as alternatives. There is a stop alongside Richmond’s Pulse, a bus rapid transit line, that stops at the riverfront. There is currently no development really there just the ability to walk down to James River, for now. I initially would think, “no one ever gets off here” but in retrospect it’s futureproofing new development while giving people access to the Capital Trail and riverfront, currently for free.
Activate the Space: Are there chess tables? What about small, random weekday markets? Is there street vending allowed to grab a bite to eat or simply support a small business? How about water features or interesting moving sculptures to gravitate towards or make the space feel alive?
Intuitively Inclusivity: Can the public place be used how a person naturally sees fit without the sense of judgment or condemnation? It wasn’t uncommon in New York to see people tossing around a frisbee while someone else was reading. Can kids frolic? Is there space for both cyclist and pedestrians with clear instructions and “house rules” for safety? There wasn’t places designated for throwing a frisbee, the layout just suggested where these activities could organically take place.
Simply put, the car while it was invented to move people between places, has added friction to arrive at a place of peace. It isn’t just the traffic anymore. It’s having to be extremely alert and vigilant to simply go read a book, paint, or be around other people without feeling obligated to interact with them.
As cities figure out the balance of adding density to support our housing shortage, we should consider how we leave space nearby for humans to engage with place without necessarily human interaction.
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Independent and reader-supported, density dad remains free thanks to those who value thoughtful conversations around cities, mobility, and growth. If you’d like to support the work, consider buying me a cup of coffee.
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