When Streets Act as Places

The popularity of motor vehicles gradually diminished the viability of almost all other forms of transportation along city streets. In effect, most streets gradually became the unquestionable domain of the personal automobile and simply austere arterial link. So, it’s for this reason we find it uplifting when the street becomes as they once were, - places. Undoubtedly, this is partly the appeal of streets festivals and parades. Street events afford, if only for a few hours, or a day, a slower pace to the city frenetic tempo; - street festivities, foster a feeling of civic cohesion and underscore the relationship of human scale to the built environment.  And maybe, they fulfill a natural yearning to live-out the joys and revelries of a bygone era we first witnessed from worn sepia photographs in family albums.

Along the Parade Route -St. Patrick's Day Parade. Baltimore,MD. 2012

Mulberry Street, NYC - circa 1900. A street view without apparent hierarchy of function.

Raven's Marching Band warm-up on Charles Street at Mount Vernon Place

This iconic image of an impromptu kiss in Times Square captured a notion of a care-free/ car-free street atmosphere, albeit fleeting as it was…