Every now and then people enjoy going to parks or beaches. These are the areas that everyone takes for granted. How does everyone know that they will always be around? No one can be absolutely positive, but nevertheless people still visit without ever thinking that maybe someday it will all be gone. Los Angeles used to be a place filled with free areas such as these. The public could go to these parks and beaches and enjoy their lives. However, this space is diminishing over time. No, people are not trashing the area, or ruining it for anybody. Surprisingly, the United States Government is responsible for redevelopment projects that target the poor and homeless. These same redevelopment projects are changing these once-loved parks and beaches into areas that are not so loveable. The same taxes that were used to create these public areas are the ones that are being used to change them as well. The change is for the worse, and definitely not for the better. .
Being a teacher of urban planning, Mike Davis argues that public space is being militarized by the state. Davis justly applys military terms towards the actions that the city has been taking. City Hall has purposefully armored itself against the poor and homeless. Is this a new war that uses tax dollars to fight? Yes, it is. .
"William Whyte points out that quality of any urban environment.
can be measured, first of all, by whether there are convenient, comfortable.
places for pedestrians to sit(277).".
The city struggles to make the streets as unbearable as possible. They hire designers whose purpose is to come up with ideas for sequestering the poor. One such deterrant is a bus bench. .
This bench is not an ordinary bus bench. The deterrant they have designed was made to be uncomfortable. Ever heard of a designer paid for creating uncomfortable furniture? Absolutely not. Not only are these new benches uncomfortable for sitting, they are made near impossible to sleep on.
