Causecast

I hate driving. I’ve avoided driving since I turned 16, deluding myself into thinking I could move to LA and hold a job without a car. After months of feeling mildly trapped in my house, I broke down and bought my own environmental disaster last year. Well, a semi-environmental disaster since I bought a hybrid.

contemplating social justice while a friend drives me around

I feel like a sell-out every time I commute to work. The car catalyzed the explosion of sprawling suburbs and office parks that segmented people’s lives into dehumanizingly specific activities. The streets have been reduced to linear spaces that exist only to move workers/consumers from workplace A to shopping mall B. All the points in between are bypassed, sold back to the general public at the price of gas, insurance and debt payments to the auto industry.

The street is no longer a common ground in most communities. There are efforts to return this space back to the public, namely in progressive planning offices that are developing “walkable communities.” Making towns and cities sustainable, integrated and livable is now widely popular in the urban planning circles.

For decades, the idea of reclaiming the streets back from cars was radical. Creative grassroot activists demonstrated against and resisted the co-opting of public space.

Here are some of my favorite/fun movements that subvert the urban landscape:

Critical Mass – While it may appear to simply be a friendly community bike ride, Critical Mass is a recurring demonstration against cities unfriendly to pedestrians and cyclists. Organizers of the first rides (San Francisco, circa 1992) named the event Critical Mass because it is the amount that is necessary to cause a reaction. The name aptly characterizes the power that can be internally created through non-hierarchical collective action. In other words, gathering enough bicyclists allows them to safely challenge cars for domination of the roads. “Massers” typically don’t cooperate with local authorities, organizing the rides as if they were spontaneous events instead of planned disruptions. As the Atlanta Critical Mass website declares, “It is, more than anything else, a reclamation of space, a demonstration to show that the city belongs to people and not machines.”

Though Critical Mass occur everywhere on the monthly basis, there is no national or international organization rides.

Reclaim The Streets – This movement bubbled up in London a few years before Critical Mass, organizing “spontaneous” street parties that allow residents to take control of their urban environment. Employing a strategy of “organized coincidence” to maintain their demonstrations’ disruptiveness, the movement views the street as a literal and symbolic battlefield in which local communities must stake their claim.

Flash Mobs – A group of people who suddenly gather in public, flash mobs don’t belong on this list since they are typically done without a larger social agenda.  Flash mobs are the celebutante children of Reclaim The Streets (i.e. famous and a lot of fun to party with).

Parking Day - Another idea from San Francisco, Parking Day converts metered parking spaces into public parks. The yearly event was started by Rebar in 2005 to bring attention to the disproportionate allocation of San Francisco public space to automobiles. Since metered parking essentially gives individuals a temporary lease upon space, organizers encourage participants to use their property rights creatively.

Parking Day now occurs worldwide. Everyone is welcome to participate.

Big Lunch – Britons held the first ever “Big Lunch” this past summer, an event that approximately 2 million people attended. Aimed at building local community spirit, participants threw parties and picnics and invited their neighbors – many of whom they’ve probably never talked to before. Attempting to connect communities, the Big Lunch shut down streets across Britain to make room for communal feasts.

Walking School Bus - This movement is not terribly counter-culture, but it is a pragmatic idea that encourages communities to rediscover fresh air. A walking school bus is simply a group of children walking to school with an adult volunteer. Parents, college students or retired people take turns walking children on a predetermined route, fighting childhood obesity and unnecessary car travel at the same time.