THE FALL OF THIRD SPACES:
After travelling a few places and simultaneously living in Mumbai my whole life, there are few things that I have noticed, on how poorly planned our cities are. It largely comes down to our city planning. City planning is not just about roads, infrastructure or public transport. It encompasses healthcare, education, recreation facilities, green and blue spaces, waste management and most importantly where people can simply interact and exist without having to spend a lot of money.
As a young person, over the years I have
found cities in India to be boring. Beyond going to restaurants and cafes there
is absolutely nothing to do in weekends. And even these experiences have become
repetitive and monotonous.
This becomes particularly evident in
case of sports facilities in India. As someone who loves playing different sports, I
have been trying to play and learn tennis. Finding a affordable place to play
has been surprisingly difficult. In many places the prices go up to Rs 1000 an hour. At this rate, it becomes a luxury rather than a normal recreational activity.
This raises a question: Where is the
public infrastructure?
Why are basic sports facilities so inaccessible?
Where are the public parks?
These are not luxuries, they help you to
live a social and fulfilling life.
Third spaces are places which are
outside of your workplace and homes. Third spaces help you to gather,
participate and help you build a sense of community. The steep decline in third
spaces is so much visible in our cities that we have become consumers and not
participants in the society. And unfortunately we have replaced them with
commercial places.
Wanna go meet a friend? Go to a restaurant
Want entertainment? Go to the cinemas.
Want to do some extra-curriculars?
Join an exclusive membership club.
There is so little investment done for
the public for them to engage in art, history or culture.
They play an essential part in forming informed citizens in the society. As the
famous quote from the Dead Poets Society says “We don't read and write poetry
because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human
race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business,
engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But
poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.
Libraries, community centres, cultural
activities, museums, art galleries they help people to discover and have an
interest in pursuing them rather than seeing it as a side quest. Even something as simple as having good
public parks will immensely help improve the walkability of the city.
So next time don’t ask the question “What new
upcoming cafes and bars do we build?” but rather:
“What kind of cities are we building?
"Do we want to build it for the people who live in it or not?”
We need to start designing cities not just for movement and productivity, but for living.
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