How to Create a Village in an Urban Space
- Create or designate a “town square” for your neighborhood where folks naturally want to gather — a park, playground, vacant lot, community center, coffee shop, or street corner.
- Lobby for more public benches, water fountains, plazas, parks, sidewalks, bike trails, playgrounds, and other crucial common infrastructure.
- Notice how many of life’s pleasures exist outside the marketplace — gardening, fishing, conversing, playing music, playing ball, making love, or enjoying nature.
- Form a neighborhood exchange to share everything from lawnmowers to child care to vehicles.
- Pull together a potluck. Throw a block party. Form a community choir, slow food club, Friday night poker game, seasonal festival, or any other excuse for socializing.
- Walk, bike, or take transit. It also is good for the environment. People make very few friends behind the wheel of a car.
- Remember streets belong to everyone, not just automobiles. Drive cautiously and push for traffic calming and other improvements that remind motorists they are not kings of the road.
- Buy from local, independent businesses whenever possible.
