Public Space

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EXPERT INSIGHT

Over the past year, many of us have enjoyed outdoor dining in spaces that would otherwise have been car parks or part of the road. These spaces are one example of the temporary projects that popped up to help cities in Australia and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2020/04/22/paris-to-create-650-kilometers-of-pop-up-corona-cycleways-for-post-lockdown-travel/?sh=3936edb754d4">around the world</a> adapt to COVID. These quickly installed projects have met our changing needs for space for walking, <a href="https://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/popup-covid-19-infrastructure/index">cycling</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-let-coronavirus-kill-our-cities-heres-how-we-can-save-urban-life-137063">public space</a> and, of course, <a href="https://theconversation.com/4-ways-our-streets-can-rescue-restaurants-bars-and-cafes-after-coronavirus-139302">dining</a> to help businesses to stay afloat.

While these temporary projects were driven by the necessity for short-term fixes, we can draw deeper lessons from these experiences. They have been, intentionally or not, a large-scale experience with experimentation in cities, and short-and long-term impacts should flow. In the short term, some of these experiments can be become permanent. In the long term, wider-scale urban experiments can become a permanent feature of how we shape cities.

Experiments can help us navigate change in cities. They can also make us braver by allowing us to test out ideas that might fail or that not everyone seems to like. If the past year has made us more comfortable and confident with experimenting, all the better to help our cities meet the challenges ahead.

Opening our eyes to new possibilities

At their simplest, of course, experiments test things. The projects that popped up during COVID have helped meet our short-term needs (well, we hoped they would be short-term) for different ways to live and get around, like <a href="https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/traffic-and-road-use/cycling/pop-up-bike-lanes">pop-up bike lanes</a>.

In making these short-term changes, we tried something new and perhaps we’ve found we like the results.

During COVID, I meandered down Lygon Street, Carlton, full of <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-unveils-16-covid-safe-outdoor-dining-precincts-20201001-p560z2">new al fresco dining areas</a> making the street feel even more European. Along the Victorian coast, I sipped <a href="https://www.therip.com.au/news/lets-go-al-fresco">coffee in Skiplets</a>. It could always be this nice, I thought.

These projects are already sparking debate about the future use of streets and bringing the trade-offs into focus. One example is the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/outdoor-dining-under-a-cloud-as-cash-strapped-council-misses-parking-fees-20210210-p5714a">trade-off between parking revenue and outdoor dining</a>.

What more can we gain from ‘tactical urbanism’?

Well before COVID, cities started using temporary projects to test changes. From <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://vimeo.com/22886687">New York</a> to <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/yarraville-pop-up-park-becomes-permanent-after-singing-protest/5970092">Yarraville</a>, cities used experiments to test out risky ideas and balance competing street uses. This is often referred to as <a href="http://tacticalurbanismguide.com/guides/tactical-urbanism-volume-2/">tactical urbanism</a> .

Benefits gleaned from these experiences show we have much to gain from more experimenting beyond COVID. City experiments get things moving and let us figure out if an idea is a good one.

In the aptly titled book <a href="http://www.jsadikkhan.com/streetfight-the-book">Street Fight</a>, former New York City transport commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan describes turning the tangled intersection at Times Square into a pedestrian plaza. It began as a temporary experiment. A lower-cost, temporary version meant getting the project on the ground right away, rather than spending years convincing everyone to build it permanently. The added advantage was collecting data during the trial to prove it actually worked.

Overcoming suspicion of change

Experiments help navigate change, which we don’t always like. Based on my <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://apo.org.au/node/59916">own research</a>, street experiments help cities work with, not against, some people’s tendency to dislike change.

People’s hackles can go up in response to change. They prefer to stick with what’s familiar over something new. This is the type of status quo bias Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman discusses in <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/thinking-fast-and-slow-9780141033570">Thinking Fast and Slow</a>.

A temporary experiment can help disarm this response. As one of my interviewees put it:

“If change is worrisome, then it’s not that big a deal if we can come back to where we are today.”

Through experimenting, people allow themselves to try it. Often they also get to see their fears aren’t realised.

Experiments let us tweak projects to get them right. In 2008, Copenhagen rolled out a bold <a href="https://urban-leds.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/resources/case_studies/UrbanLEDS_case_story_Copenhagen_2015_Web.pdf">experiment on Nørrebrogade</a>, providing wider bike lanes and bus-only sections painted with huge red dots. Experimenting, they found, helped them have a better <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://apo.org.au/node/59916">conversation with the community</a>. They were able to tweak the design in response to community feedback and evaluation.

Experiments also do the imagining for us. My current research (as yet unpublished) looks at ways city transport planners try to effect change.

One barrier to change planners discussed is that people often struggle to imagine how things could be different. Without this, they tend to happy to stick with the status quo. Experiments show us how streets can be different.

What stands in the way of more street experiments?

My research suggests many city planners are striving to find new and better ways to explore change and help cities adapt to challenges. Many are starting to experiment with temporary projects, but it’s not always easy.

A number of transport planners I’ve talked with say doing temporary projects can be hard. That’s not because they are difficult to build but because the rules about what can be done on streets are set up for building things permanently. This can be a barrier to temporary experimenting.

However, after delivering many temporary projects during the pandemic, cities should now be well placed to embed processes that make street experiments easier.

Given COVID is just one of the many looming challenges facing our cities, being braver and adaptable is going to be more important that ever. Experimenting can help pave the way.

<hr>
The impact of temporary projects is the focus of the <a href="https://mpavilion.org/program/">MPavilion</a> event, <a href="https://mpavilion.org/program/is-temporary-new-permanent/">Is Temporary the New Permanent?</a>, on March 22.<img alt="The Conversation" efhwkxino="" foro="" height="1" jyuj="" nx5bekkdr="" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156591/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" wg="" width="1" yfwc="">

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/helen-rowe-803223">Helen Rowe</a>, PhD Candidate, Centre for Urban Research, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a>

This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-temporary-the-new-permanent-covid-street-experiments-open-our-eyes-to-creating-better-cities-156591">original article</a>.
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The projects that popped up during COVID have helped meet our short-term needs (well, we hoped they would be short-term) for different ways to live and get around, like pop-up bike lanes

urban.com.au

Is temporary the new permanent? COVID street experiments open our eyes to creating better cities

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Streets across NSW will be transformed into vibrant pedestrian-friendly public spaces with the NSW Government announcing the successful funding recipients under the $15 million Streets as Shared Spaces program.
Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes said the funds will help 27 regional councils and 14 councils across Greater Sydney deliver temporary street transformations, such as cycleways, pop-up parklets and improved lighting.
“These projects will transform neighbourhoods across the State, making it easier for people to walk or ride to local shops and services by creating safe, attractive and accessible streets and public spaces,” Mr Stokes said.
Successful trial projects will provide new pedestrian and cycleway connections and  reclaim little-used carparks and roads across NSW, including:
•  creation of a ‘green spine’ on Harbour Drive in Coffs Harbour;
•  activation of an underutilised laneway in Parramatta;
•  a temporary road closure to create a public square in Griffith; and 
•  a pop-up park on Dunmore Street, Wentworthville. 
The Streets as Shared Spaces program provides funding for councils to support the delivery of short-term improvements to local streets and public spaces through pop-ups and pilots that encourage social distancing and improve the attractiveness of our neighbourhoods. 
There are two types of project grants under the program: Quick Response Demonstration Projects valued at up to $100,000 per project, to be delivered within three months of approval, and Pilot Projects valued at up to $1 million per project to be delivered within one year of approval. 
Councils will need to obtain all of the relevant approvals and engage with their community in delivering the projects.
 
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Shared spaces to transform streets across NSW

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In modern cities, our public spaces represent our shared values. They are our common assets, owned, maintained and used by all members of our society. The outbreak of coronavirus and its immediate impacts, such as social distancing, have raised many questions about the role of public space in such times.
Since the World Health Organisation declared the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51839944" target="_blank">COVID-19 pandemic</a>, countries had been forced to adopt social isolation measures very quickly. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/no-handshakes-1-5m-distances-new-social-rules-for-australians-20200315-p54a96" target="_blank">Australia</a> has progressively increased enforceable <a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-entertainment-venues-closed-in-draconian-measures-to-fight-the-virus-134360" target="_blank">social distancing measures</a>. India’s nearly 1.4 billion people have been <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/india-imposes-world-s-largest-lockdown-to-prevent-spread-of-virus-20200325-p54dkf" target="_blank">ordered not to leave their homes</a>. In Europe, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/spain-imposes-italy-style-lockdown-bid-coronavirus-200314233749980" target="_blank">first Italy</a>, then <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/19/coronavirus-which-countries-are-under-lockdown-and-who-s-next" target="_blank">Spain, France, Belgium</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/23/boris-johnson-orders-uk-lockdown-to-be-enforced-by-police" target="_blank">the UK</a> have entered periods of total lockdown. It’s happening closer to home in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/23/kiwis-go-home-new-zealand-to-go-into-month-long-lockdown-to-fight-coronavirus" target="_blank">New Zealand</a>.
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2020/4/1/5_Cities3.jpg" alt="">
Instead of the usual crowds, the view from the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy, is of a deserted street and square. Maurizzio Brambatti/EPA/AAP
While the <a href="https://theconversation.com/itd-be-a-mistake-to-shut-financial-markets-more-than-ever-we-need-them-to-work-134387" target="_blank">economic impacts</a> of the pandemic are becoming obvious, the influence upon public space still remains uncertain.
With businesses being forced to close and whole sectors urged to work from home, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-photos-of-impact-in-places-around-the-world/" target="_blank">streetlife is grinding to a halt</a> across the world. As fear of infection has increased, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/13/21179032/public-transportation-coronavirus-covid19-ridership-nyc-sf-la-dc" target="_blank">public transport use has plummeted</a>.
Australia is among the increasing numbers of countries to close “non-essential” public space, including restaurants, cafes and cinemas. Around the world, major sporting events, music concerts and comedy festivals have all been cancelled. Any <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-13/australians-urged-to-reconsider-non-essential-travel/12054484" target="_blank">non-essential travel</a> and meetings are being discouraged or banned.
These measures are significant: they could uproot the very foundations of how people interact in public.
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2020/4/1/5_Cities%202.jpg" alt="">
Despite being made free to reduce infection risks, public transport in Portugal is almost deserted. Manuel de Almeida/EPA/AAP
While this intense monitoring of public space is a temporary control, it raises questions about the future. Will we return to our normal habits once it’s all over? Will coughing on the subway be forever taboo?
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/c_scale,w_580,q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/po.images/2020/4/1/5_Cities1.jpg" alt="">
Sporting grounds are one of the great public meeting places for Australians, but games were being played in empty stadiums before competitions shut down altogether. Darren Pateman/AAP
<h2>Collectivism or individualism?</h2>
The coronavirus pandemic has had immediate impacts – both negative and positive – on how people interact with each other in public. <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/3/14/21179019/xenophophia-chinese-community-sunset-park" target="_blank">Xenophobia</a> and racial stereotyping have led to <a href="https://www.mamamia.com.au/coronavirus-racism-australia/" target="_blank">antisocial public behaviour</a>. And supermarkets have become stages for public <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/13/21179032/public-transportation-coronavirus-covid19-ridership-nyc-sf-la-dc" target="_blank">fights over toilet paper</a> and hand sanitiser.
In spite of this, we have also seen instances of collectivism and urban resilience. In Italy, the national lockdown has forced people to create a new type of public space. Citizens are taking to their balconies and windows to enjoy music together, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/13/21179032/public-transportation-coronavirus-covid19-ridership-nyc-sf-la-dc" target="_blank">sharing songs across buildings and above streets</a>.
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nNxhSe4TiOQ" frameborder="0" width="425" height="350"></iframe>
People play music and interact from their balconies, as Italy continues its lockdown.
It’s a reminder that connection and interaction are integral to our society even in times of crisis. But is this particular type of collectivism a product of urban density? These scenes may not be so easily replicated in Australia’s sprawling suburbs. However, we are seeing other <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/kindness-outbreak-keeping-people-occupied-and-entertained-20200316-p54and?fbclid=IwAR3RiXvSw29EUBNzE79CwMbBtZKvU-V_p9SaGBWFkt2QTrHX_wg7OjZMs34" target="_blank">displays of community</a>.
<h2>What will fill the void?</h2>
The practice of self-isolation raises many uncertainties about public space. Daily human contact is ingrained in the ways people interact in public spaces. Will social isolation lead to a more individualistic approach to public spaces?
In 2020, perhaps this type of physical isolation will not feel so foreign as it might once have. Email, social media and the sharing economy already provide the necessary digital infrastructure.
The role of technology will be heightened as digital space becomes even more prominent as a platform for sharing information and enabling human interaction. Events like these also highlight the shortfalls of our digital infrastructure, in particular the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-telcos-are-picking-up-where-the-nbn-is-failing-heres-what-it-means-for-you-133905" target="_blank">need to improve our national broadband network</a> (NBN).
Coronavirus will change the ways we work and study. But it won’t remove our desire for human connection.
Our trust in public spaces will need to be rebuilt if we are to rebuild our economy and our society. In the face of generational issues such as climate change and homelessness, there is hope coronavirus might actually offer us an opportunity to radically reassess our communal values.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133763/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tahj-rosmarin-667275" target="_blank">Tahj Rosmarin</a>, Research Officer, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-melbourne-722" target="_blank">University of Melbourne</a>
This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/public-spaces-bind-cities-together-what-happens-when-coronavirus-forces-us-apart-133763" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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Public spaces bind cities together. What happens when coronavirus forces us apart?

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Charter Hall Group has announced it has been granted planning approval for a new 5,000 square metre public space at its Wesley Place precinct in Melbourne’s CBD.
Designed by landscape architects OCULUS, in collaboration with Cox Architects, the complex will be available to the public from mid-2020.
The 5,000 square metre public space will include food and beverage retail offering, and 520 square metres of lawn and native flora to complement the existing heritage-listed olive and elm trees onsite.
“The receipt of this approval for the public space is another exciting milestone for this transformative $1.5 billion precinct. When it opens in mid-2020, the space will create a sanctuary in the heart of the Melbourne CBD, providing the community and our Wesley Place tenants with a diverse, future-ready and tech-enabled space for people to collaborate, converge and communicate on a daily basis,” said Charter Hall Regional Development Director, Simon Stockfeld.
The space will reportedly be technology enabled, with features such as outdoor power outlets with USB charging ports, digital maps for wayfinding and solar powered ‘smart bins’ that self-compact and alert maintenance staff when they require emptying.
 
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Melbourne’s Wesley Place to host new multi-use public space

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GUEST OBSERVATION
Two seemingly unrelated but important things happened in Melbourne last week. One was a memorial service for David Yencken AO; the other was the exhibition opening of the Future Park Design Ideas Competition. The connection between the two is that both gave us radical ideas for Melbourne’s open space.
David Yencken was a visionary man who had a profound impact on Victoria and Melbourne. He was responsible, among many things, for the transformation of <a href="https://www.travelvictoria.com.au/southbank/" target="_blank">Southbank</a> and co-founding <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/merchant-builders-celebrating-a-fifty-year-legacy" target="_blank">Merchant Builders</a>. But one of his wildest ideas was the 1985 <a href="https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/2016/09/imagine-a-city-swanston-st-party/" target="_blank">Greening of Swanston Street</a>, when vehicle traffic was closed and a weekend street party was held right in the middle of Melbourne.
As the secretary (chief executive) of the Ministry for Planning and Environment, Yencken had been charged with changing perceptions of the city by rethinking its public spaces. At a time before <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-day-for-turning-parking-spaces-into-pop-up-parks-65164" target="_blank">pop-up parks</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/look-out-behind-the-bus-stop-here-come-guerrilla-gardeners-digging-up-an-urban-revolution-29225" target="_blank">guerrilla gardening</a>, his radical idea demonstrated what was possible for the inner city and sowed the seed of the <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/blog/melbourne-urban-transformation" target="_blank">idea of closing Swanston Street to traffic</a>.
The project was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-man-who-helped-re-imagine-melbourne-20190705-p524mc" target="_blank">not without controversy</a> – it was costly and came in for political criticism as a stunt. But looking back to a time when inner Melbourne was underutilised and dominated by traffic, we can see how that radical idea sparked the imagination about what was possible for the city centre.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207418/original/file-20180222-132674-1247hnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
The Greening of Swanston Street in 1985. Victorian Ministry of Planning
Future Park fires imaginations and debate
This is just what the <a href="https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/be150/competitions/futurepark" target="_blank">Future Park competition</a> needs to achieve. The open competition held by the University of Melbourne and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects has attracted global interest, with 123 entries from 20 countries.
The brief was simple but provocative. Designers were to find space within 10 kilometres of the city centre and design a future park that responds to the challenges of Melbourne today. The design responses from the 31 shortlisted entries ranged from manufactured lagoons to urban wildlife corridors and street transformation parks that Yencken would be proud of.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296120/original/file-20191009-3935-24915r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Melbourne from Past to Last, a vision of a city street park. Future Park Design Ideas Competition, Author provided
The first wave of media coverage on the competition inspired a range of public comments about Melbourne’s open space. For example, from the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/visions-of-utopia-lagoons-floating-pods-among-future-park-entries-20190929-p52vzc" target="_blank">online comments in The Age</a>:
"Royal Park is a massive area of underutilised space. Driving down Elliott Av it’s just an open wasteland. Grassland and scattered gum trees does not make a welcoming “park”.
"How about bulldozing the eyesore known as Federation Square and putting a park in its place?
"These designs forget to include the things that make it a Melbourne park, graffiti, vandalism, weeds and the homeless.
"Architects and landscapers rarely, if ever, have a grasp on what will work for people … they are too busy trying to be creative, and not busy enough trying to make people happy."
What the public comments show us is that there is no single or obvious solution to our parks and public spaces. Some people like it busy, some people like the quiet. Some want European trees and others desire native plantings. It’s complicated, and each of these opinions make valid points.
Just like Yencken’s Greening of Swanston, there will always be debate about what makes good public space. And that is exactly why we need more radical ideas – some might call them “crazy” – for our cities.
We know the future of our cities will be complicated. Like it or not, there will be more people, a changing climate and increasing pressure on infrastructure and services.
Wicked problems call for radical thinking
These messy issues are often described as <a href="https://theconversation.com/too-many-wicked-problems-how-science-policy-and-politics-can-work-together-8990" target="_blank">wicked problems</a>. Popular in public policy and management, the term is used to explain problems with debatable cause and effect. Critically, the lack of agreement about wicked problems produces conflicting goals towards resolution.
Obviously, we need science, governance and planning, but finding solutions to wicked problems will also require creativity and collaboration. We need debate and we need ideas that can expand our imagination about what our cities can be. This is why it is so important that the competition entries for the Future Park explore new and outrageous possibilities.
Ideas throughout the shortlisted entries include plans for a new NBN: the National Biodiversity Network, which creates ecological corridors across the country. Others propose transforming schools into parkland; parks designed for bees; designs that return darkness to our urban landscapes; and sculpting new islands as rising sea levels engulf our coastline.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296122/original/file-20191009-3910-wjyu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Multi-deck parks: as cities grow and space becomes ever more precious, urban parks replace car parks. Future Park Design Ideas Competition, Author provided
As design solutions, these ideas reflect the challenges of our world today. While many of these schemes are technically, socially or economically unfeasible, they remind us of the power of thinking outside of the box. Importantly, the competition format puts all of these ideas together in one place for us to think about and discuss.
In Australia, we have a <a href="https://theconversation.com/architecture-competitions-are-risky-but-we-can-build-on-that-29476" target="_blank">limited culture of “open design competitions”</a> for either built projects or speculative solutions. But design competitions provide opportunities for new voices and discovering unexpected solutions within these wild ideas.
Radical ideas are important and so is having the freedom to voice them. Especially as a way of expanding the discussions we need to have about the challenging future.
The Future Park competition winners will be announced on Friday, October 11, at the <a href="https://www.aila.org.au/imis_prod/TSATP/Home/TSATP/Default.aspx?hkey=39717070-b978-492a-b2d6-c59aab8cd866" target="_blank">2019 International Festival of Landscape Architecture</a> in Melbourne. The <a href="https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/be150/events/the-future-park-design-ideas-competition-the-square-and-the-park-exhibition" target="_blank">Future Park exhibition</a> is at Dulux Gallery, Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, from October 4 to November 1.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124772/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
Wendy Walls, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, University of Melbourne.
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-need-crazy-ideas-for-new-city-parks-124772" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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Why we need ‘crazy’ ideas for new city parks: Wendy Walls

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GUEST OBSERVATION
There’s a difference between a road and a street. Roads take you from one place to another, but streets are more than functional channels. They are public spaces.
The streets of downtown Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, are about to be transformed. A <a href="https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/plans-projects-policies-reports-bylaws/our-plans-strategies/place-based-plans/Pages/city-centre-masterplan.aspx" target="_blank">masterplan for the city centre</a> was approved back in 2012, and now a proposed design is <a href="https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2019/07/future-city-centre-designs-approved-for-consultation/" target="_blank">open for feedback</a>.
The idea behind this masterplan is to design the central city as a cohesive public space rather than simply the sum of a thousand independent decisions.
The design will include further changes in support of walking, cycling and public transport, and less space for cars. Significantly, sections of Queen Street, which runs through the centre to the waterfront, may be closed to cars completely.
We can expect to see outraged responses from those wedded to their cars, those who see the project as an expensive beautification scheme, and those who resent the idea of Auckland’s population intensifying.
A shared world
This is a good time to reflect on what we mean by “public space” and what we need it for.
Streets are some of our most important public spaces, but are often managed as if they were mainly pipes for cars (or, if we’re lucky, bicycles and pedestrians). Roadways, water pipes, optical fibres and pedestrian walkways are “bundled” together.
Because it is relatively easy to assign metrics to these flows, it is easy to think of streets as technological problems. The implicit ideal is for a city to be a “<a href="http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/32763717/his-majesty-pick-aesthetics-demolition">sleek, efficient machine</a>” with a “rationalised circulatory network”, as architectural historian Spiro Kostof put it. The idea is at least as old as <a href="https://doi.org/10.24135/ijara.v0i0.476">Baron Haussmann’s 19th century rebuilding of Paris</a>.
Today’s smart cities are just <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/dec/17/truth-smart-city-destroy-democracy-urban-thinkers-buzzphrase">the latest corporate version</a> of the perfectly rationalised city. The automated city sounds great, but uncritical reliance on metrics locks in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/27/cathy-oneil-weapons-of-math-destruction-algorithms-big-data">technological assumptions and biases</a>. Airy promises and overhyped technological solutions divert from the more mundane but ultimately critical job of making public space.
How to define public space
Philosopher <a href="https://www.philosophersmag.com/opinion/187-the-urgent-relevance-of-hannah-arendt">Hannah Arendt</a> wrote of public space as a “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/#ActPowSpaApp">space of appearance</a>”, a place where we can become meaningfully visible to one another, and where we can present ourselves on our own terms, not as data points, customers, stereotypes or debating partners.
As social theorist <a href="https://english.yale.edu/people/tenured-and-tenure-track-faculty-professors-staff/michael-warner">Michael Warner</a> put it, “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/publics-and-counterpublics">a public is a relation among strangers</a>”. To be in public, I have to negotiate my relationship with strangers, and recognise that I am also a stranger.
Arendt believed that democracy itself could be understood as a project for public space, the creation of a shared world. Māori, New Zealand’s first people, have also long thought of our shared world as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy3030042">place of connections</a>.
In other words, there is more at stake with the council’s plan than pleasant streetscapes or well-engineered infrastructure. To make Auckland’s streets good public space, I offer five suggestions:
1) Good public space is meaningful and enabling
It helps us make sense of our relationships, and supports our self-determination. It should be a platform on which we can all build, something like the old concept of the <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/commons-history">commons</a>. Public space is filled with people pursuing various goals, individually and collectively, according to various value systems and ways of living. To imagine new kinds of public space is to imagine <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/http://hdl.handle.net/10292/11645">new ways to enable people</a>.
2) Public space needs to accommodate informal uses
Streets, unlike roads, are not just spaces to move through, but places to do things. The famous American urban activist <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.worldcat.org/title/death-and-life-of-great-american-cities/oclc/1015890160">Jane Jacobs</a> famously pointed to the significance of children playing in the street, and the importance of minor interactions like holding a neighbour’s mail, or leaving a key for someone at the corner store.
Similarly, the iconoclastic theorist of human-centred design <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/pattern-language-towns-buildings-construction/oclc/705864158&amp;referer=brief_results">Christopher Alexander</a> even suggested that a marker of healthy public space is people feeling comfortable enough to take naps there. Informal uses of space like this should be maximised. Public space should be a bit of a mess, not a perfectly optimised machine.
3) Public space allows for discontent
Streets are places for people to gather. The <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://cup.columbia.edu/book/voices-of-the-arab-spring/9780231163187">Arab Spring uprisings</a> of 2010-11, the subsequent <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.worldcat.org/title/dreaming-in-public-building-the-occupy-movement/oclc/813844064">Occupy movement</a>, ongoing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-communist-party">protests in Hong Kong</a>, and Auckland’s own <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/396470/occupiers-at-ihumatao-remain-strong-in-mud-rain-and-wind">land occupation at Ihūmatao</a>, may have been coordinated on social media, but were ultimately powered by the physical presence of people in public space.
Public spaces are stages where collective identities can be expressed. If we want places where people can appear authentically as themselves, we also need to recognise public space hosts difference, disagreement and <a href="https://doi.org/10.24135/ijara.v0i0.328">potentially conflict</a>.
4) Good public spaces requires joined-up, human-centred thinking
It might seem efficient to treat roads, plumbing, architecture, gardens, community events, public art, planning rules, maintenance, commerce and so on as separate domains best handled by experts in each area. Detailed expertise is essential, but to design good public space we need to join the dots. This isn’t easy.
In recent years, <a href="https://at.govt.nz/">Auckland Transport</a>, nominally a council-controlled organisation, has asserted its independence, <a href="https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2018/01/26/auckland-transport-goes-rogue/">proposing its own plans</a> that are in conflict with the council’s aims. We need to dissolve silos, get more people around the table, and maintain a clear focus on who and what our public spaces are for.
5) Public space needs public involvement
Public space doesn’t just happen. Arendt told us to see it as an ongoing labour, something to achieve together, not something that exists by default. Auckland’s masterplan is a step in the right direction but good public space needs public involvement.
Public consultation can be a fraught process. Typically, only a few people respond, and they are <a href="http://shorthand.radionz.co.nz/white-noise/index">disproportionately older, wealthier and white</a>. The council has a duty to seek public input. We as the public have a responsibility to make ourselves heard.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122396/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/carl-douglas-791136">Carl Douglas</a>, Lecturer in Spatial Design, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137">Auckland University of Technology</a>
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-turn-aucklands-inner-city-streets-into-public-spaces-people-can-enjoy-122396">original article</a>.
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How to turn Auckland’s inner city streets into public spaces: Carl Douglas

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GUEST OBSERVATION 
Australia is one of the most urbanised nations in the world, and our ongoing population growth continues to produce new suburbs on city fringes across the continent. These new suburbs, and the processes that form them, are often <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/homes-in-new-suburbs-four-years-away-but-services-to-take-much-longer-20190215-p50y46" target="_blank">contentious</a>.
And that’s not just because of vexed issues of sprawl, transport and infrastructure provision. One of the most common criticisms of new and outer suburbs is that they are <a href="https://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2011/09/18/why-do-outer-suburban-streets-look-so-bland/" target="_blank">bland</a>, soulless, cookie-cutter developments that lack culture and a sense of place.
This problem occurs when these suburbs are built as though on a blank slate, with little thought given to engaging with existing stories of landscape and how new stories might be formed. Place itself is layered through stories, time, material and experiences. This idea of layering provides important clues for new developments.
My research in the Melbourne suburb of Point Cook shows the importance of listening to cues in the existing landscape. This enables the design and governance of new developments to provide opportunities for grassroots <a href="https://www.pps.org/article/what-is-placemaking" target="_blank">placemaking</a>. Communities can then infuse places with new layers of meaning, creating a sense of ownership and stewardship.
As part of <a href="https://unimelb.placeagency.org.au/2019/03/25/place-week-vic-2019-12th-18th-may/" target="_blank">Place Week Vic</a>, researchers and practitioners will be discussing the lessons of places like Point Cook for outer suburbs and new developments.
The Point Cook story
While rapid population growth in <a href="https://www.victorianplaces.com.au/point-cook" target="_blank">Point Cook</a> began in the 21st century, the area has long featured wetlands that are important to migratory birds from around the world. It is also the birthplace of the Royal Australian Air Force <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/point-cook" target="_blank">RAAF</a>.
<a href="https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SSC22074?opendocument" target="_blank">Point Cook’s growth</a> is defined by detached housing, remarkable cultural diversity, many young families, work commutes, and limited public transport infrastructure.
Parts of Point Cook’s suburban fabric draw on layers of history and landscape by including wetlands that manage stormwater, provide bird habitat, and promote a distinctive character.
Unlike many suburbs, Point Cook has a main-street-style town centre with shops fronting footpaths. This provides the frame for the type of meeting place so vital yet often lacking in outer suburbs. But it took local intervention to make this place hum.
A park pops up
Over the past two summers, a street block has been closed off to traffic to form a highly popular, grassroots-led <a href="https://www.pointcookpopuppark.com.au/" target="_blank">pop-up park</a>. The space has been full of colour and activity throughout the day with flexible seating, beanbags, and a loose program of community-led events such as workshops, film screenings, and arts activities.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274017/original/file-20190513-183080-1i9kuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274017/original/file-20190513-183080-1i9kuwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
The Point Cook pop-up park was designed to be a colourful, inviting space. Matt Novacevski, Author provided
One cannot help but notice the informal interactions and moments the park prompts. Families stop off with full trolleys of shopping to rest and people-watch. Children play in brightly painted cubby houses along the edge of the park. And people of all ages and backgrounds sit and talk.
What made the park tick?
The design approach to the park has involved the community in making a sociable, flexible and colourful space with robust temporary infrastructure.
Children and families move seats and beanbags around the space, while local community groups and volunteer gardeners have taken charge of painting, decorating and caring for planter boxes along the edges of the park. These elements create a welcoming sense of informality, comfort and stewardship.
Importantly, activity from the edges of the park bleeds into the surrounds, and vice versa. Restaurant seating along the footpaths that front the park is generally well used, and people value the place as a break from the rhythms and routines that define suburban life.
The park can be a place to relax, or somewhere more intense. During the Indian Holi festival, dance, dress and dye dominated as an evocative ritual was publicly shared, with the implicit invitation for all to get involved.
These interactions of people, identities and place coalesce into a stronger local sense of shared identity.
Park co-founder Sara Mitchell, a Point Cook resident for the best part of a decade, describes the design approach as providing a frame for the community to “colour in”. This metaphor describes the importance of leaving openings within formal design elements. This allows residents to make and interpret place in ways that form new individual and collective bonds.
Lessons for new suburbs
Point Cook’s pop-up park demonstrates the power of placemaking that considers the layered nature of place, highlights local assets and fosters the ability of place to bring people together.
These types of activities are more likely to prosper when new suburbs are designed and governed to provide inviting openings in their fabric for residents to interpret and create place in ways that transcend routines of work and consumption.
We should never understate the importance of continually infusing places with joy, character and quirk. This is important in creating <a href="https://placematt.net/2019/04/08/the-tapestry-of-kindness/" target="_blank">generous</a>, meaningful places with heart and soul.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116174/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">
Matt Novacevski, PhD Candidate, University of Melbourne
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-turn-a-housing-development-into-a-place-where-people-feel-they-belong-116174" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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How to turn a housing development into a place where people feel they belong

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GUEST OBSERVER
Parking may seem like a “pedestrian” topic (pun intended). However, parking is of increasing importance in metropolitan areas worldwide. On average, motor vehicles are parked 95% of the time. Yet most transport analysis focuses on vehicles when they are moving.
Substantial amounts of land and buildings are set aside to accommodate “immobile” vehicles. In Australia, Brisbane provides 25,633 parking spaces in the CBD, Sydney 28,939 and Melbourne 41,687. In high-demand areas, car parks can cost far more than the vehicle itself.
However, parking is not just an Australian problem. By some estimates, 30,000 square kilometres of land is devoted to parking in Europe and 27,000 km² in the US. This parking takes up a large part of city space, much of it highly valued, centrally located land.
Traditionally, transport planners believed that generous parking allocations provided substantial benefits to users. In reality, excessive parking is known to adversely affect both transport and land use. These impacts, along with recent land-use, socioeconomic and technological trends, are prompting cities to start asking some important questions about parking.
Australian planners must engage with emerging trends to help cities work out the best way to reclaim and repurpose parking space in ways that enhance efficiency and liveability while minimising disruption.
Here we chart likely challenges and opportunities created by these trends over coming decades.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190958/original/file-20171019-30534-9x1evf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=3%2C96%2C822%2C540&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Key trends affecting parking space in cities. Diagram by authors
Land use
All Australian cities have policies to encourage densification, consolidation and infill development in their centres. In conjunction, some cities are setting maximum limits on parking to prevent it taking over valuable inner-city properties.
Transit-oriented development (TOD) has also become popular, at least on paper. This is another form of urban consolidation around transit nodes and corridors. It is known to benefit from high-quality urban design, “walkability”, “cyclability” and a mix of functions.
These developments mean that people who live in CBDs, inner-ring suburbs and near public transport stops will use cars less. Consequently, demand for parking will decrease.
Some non-TOD suburbs are trying to replicate inner-city features as well. For example, some suburban shopping centres have introduced paid parking. This is a significant shift from previous eras, when malls guaranteed ample free parking.
Suburbanites who lack easy public transport access will continue to rely on cars. But rather than driving all the way to a CBD, commuters will increasingly opt for park-and-ride at suburban stations, thereby increasing demand for park-and-ride lots at public transport interchanges. However, excessive capacity might hurt rather than help patronage.
Social trends
In addition to land use, several social trends will affect the need for parking.
First, young people are delaying getting drivers’ licences because driving is culturally less important to them than in previous generations.
Second, people of all ages are moving from outer suburbs to inner cities. For many, this means less driving because walking, cycling and public transport are more convenient in inner cities.
Finally, the emergence of Uber, Lyft and vehicle-sharing arrangements means that people are not buying cars. Research suggests that each car-sharing vehicle removes nine to 13 individually owned vehicles from the road.
Together, these trends point to a reduced need for parking because there will be fewer cars overall.
Technology
The importance of technology in parking is rising – paving the way for “smarter” parking.
The emergence of a host of smartphone apps, such as ParkMe, Kerb, ParkHound and ParkWhiz, has begun to reshape the parking landscape. For the first time, users can identify and reserve parking according to price and location before starting their journeys.
Apps also make available a host of car parks that previously went unused – such as spaces in a residential driveway. This is because there was no mechanism for letting people know these were available.
In addition, smart pricing programs, such as SFPark in San Francisco, periodically adjust meter and garage pricing to match demand. This encourages drivers to park in underused areas and garages and reduces demand in overused areas.
The advent of autonomous vehicles promises to have dramatic impacts on transport and land use, including parking.
According to one school of thought, mobility services will own most autonomous vehicles, rather than individuals, due to insurance and liability issues. If this happens, far fewer vehicles and parking spaces will be needed as most will be “in motion” rather than parked most of the time.
More space for people and places
The next decade promises much change as emerging land-use, socioeconomic and technological trends reshape the need for, and use of, parking. Cities will devote less space to parking and more space to people and places.
Parking lanes will likely be repurposed as cycling lanes, shared streets, parklets, community gardens and even housing. Concrete parking lots, and faceless garages will likely be converted to much-needed residential, commercial and light industrial use.
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85331/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">By transforming parking, much urban land can turn from wasteland into vibrant activity space.
Dorina Pojani, Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Queensland. 
Iderlina Mateo-Babiano, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Melbourne.
Jonathan Corcoran, Professor, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland.
Neil Sipe, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, The University of Queensland.<a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805"></a>
This article was originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/freeing-up-the-huge-areas-set-aside-for-parking-can-transform-our-cities-85331" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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Freeing up the huge areas set aside for parking can transform our cities

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GUEST OBSERVER
Increasing urbanisation, denser city living, more expensive apartment prices and higher rents are reshaping our access to and use of urban space. Room-sharing websites are one sign that the cost of city living is driving people to consider sharing rooms with strangers out of necessity. Those flats are not homes anymore.
If people can’t spend time in their flat – because it is too crowded, too noisy or not safe enough – they end up spending more time in public spaces like libraries or quasi-public spaces like gaming arcades or shopping malls. Dutch Prizker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas calls this Junkspace. Or they are spending time in the street, plazas and parks.
How does the city cater for people in these places? Imagine a home furnished with the kind of furniture we typically see on the street. Would it feel comfy?
Generally the design of this kind of public furniture has a strictly defined scope. It has to be vandal-resistant, easy to install, require little to no maintenance, not encourage littering, tie in with the style of the precinct, etc.
Public furniture also has an established typology – benches and seats mainly. This restricts what we can do in public (sit down with a straight back, we can’t lounge). These are part of the design considerations to provide a bench for people to sit on.
What if we want to do more than just sit?
The spacing, positioning and location of furniture in public space play a big part in deciding what I can look at, with whom, for how long and how I’ll feel while sitting there.
But what if I want to do more then just sit there? Where, for instance, do I plug in my phone or laptop to recharge?
It is also not easy to wash my hands in a public space. For example, I’ve sat down and eaten an orange on a bench, my hands are sticky and I’d like to wash them. Perhaps I’ve also taken off my coat while sitting there. What now?
I’ve got to seek out the nearest public toilet and use the hand basin, but where to put all my other belongings while doing that? On the toilet floor?
A basic human right is access to water and utility services. We need to provide this access in the public sphere, and not just in commercial environments like coffee shops.
Filling up a water bottle is not easy, buying water is – if you can afford it. This is not an equitable solution. It adds to the already significant financial burden of paying high rents and city living.
Think about how design can expand our options
While we have furniture for the street, the street, parks and plazas lack other services. Design embeds a narrow social script in the current range of street furniture. The design of new public furnishings needs to adapt and offer citizens a wider, more diverse range of options for being in the city.
For example, people should have access to facilities to carry out basic healthy living practices, such as washing hands. They also need access to power – perhaps even a facility to heat up food, like a home-made lunch, or a pre-prepared meal from the supermarket.
Furnishing a public space with such new public appliances could transform it, soften it, bring familiarity, comfort and a sense of domesticity to it; a public backyard. The opportunities for a smart city are not just large-scale infrastructure, public transport and traffic monitoring, but also exist at a finer-grained level.
These new kind of street furnishings can be made available to users via a contemporary, digital version of the old city gate. It can require them to log in or authorise them to use equipment via a unique identifier. We already practise this on e-commerce and sharing economy websites.
This new kind of public street furniture can have sensors embedded that monitor and respond in real time to their use. Interactive furniture can be part of a larger dedicated data system. It can inform relevant authorities if the power point is drawing excessive power, or if the noise level at this power point is too loud for the time of day and, in response, turn off the lights and the power.
Parameters can be tested and the calibration of use and user patterns can be explored in line with neighbourhood expectations. The system can then autonomously react to the data gathered.
Street furniture can be reconceived as connected and interactive appliances. These would then provide a gateway that gives people access to everyday utilities. And, by doing so, these new facilities could provide quasi-domestic-style amenity in the public realm, making the city a more equitable and welcoming place for all.
Christian Tietz is senior lecturer in industrial design at UNSW.
This article was originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-friendly-furniture-in-public-places-matters-more-than-ever-in-todays-city-83568" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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People-friendly furniture in public places matters more than ever: Christian Tietz

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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/64749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
GUEST OBSERVER
Our cities are more densely packed than ever before, with people and their dogs living in smaller dwellings and vying for increasingly limited public space.
The urban dog has an emerging political identity and, given its place as humanity’s “best friend”, deserves positive consideration in city planning.
No doubt, however, dogs sometimes cause trouble. In public, dogs and their owners can misbehave: dogs roam where they’re not supposed to and owners leave dog mess for others to clean up.
Even within our homes dogs can be perceived as a nuisance: barking, digging, slobbering and annoying neighbours. “Nuisance dogs” are everywhere – even if the dogs aren’t aware of it themselves.
There is an important contrast here: we choose to bring dogs into our urban world, then control them on a tight leash. Local councils aim to balance these two forces through animal management. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work well, which can harm public perceptions of dogs in the community.
We need a critical understanding of animal management to help us help dogs become better urban citizens. This stands to benefit everyone.
<h2>Animal management holds the key</h2>
Most of the more than 4 million dogs in Australia live in the cities and towns where most of the people live. Melbourne, where I undertook my research, is home to around half-a-million dogs. 
Alongside roads and rubbish, animal management is a key function of local government.
Animal management is a mixed bag of three distinct activities: education, compliance and enforcement. These are outlined in each local council’s domestic animal management plan. Such plans are of varying detail and importantly are just that – plans. What happens in practice may be very different.
My recently published research demonstrates that some activities are more effective than others in managing various common nuisances. Understanding the effectiveness of animal management is really important: if we manage the nuisance of dogs well, then they are less trouble to the community and closer to being good canine citizens.
<h2>Carrots and sticks</h2>
Nuisance barking is one of the most common complaints about dogs in the city. The general procedure for resolving complaints is nevertheless quite successful in practice. This involves:
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complainant first raises problem with owner
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if problem continues, complainant gathers evidence and reports to council
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council requires owner to fix the problem
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<li>
council and courts enforce the law as a last resort.
</li>
</ul>
That outcomes for each case differ does not appear to be too important to their overall success. The key to success in enforcement of animal management laws is consistency of process between cases and across councils.
The enforcement of effective control, however, is a mess. There is no agreed definition of what this means – among dog owners, officers, councils and the courts. This makes consistent enforcement nearly impossible.
The final report of the Victorian government’s recent inquiry into restricted‑breed dogs fails to define what “effective control” actually means, despite its central importance to the issue.
RSPCA Victoria argues effective control is an owner’s responsibility. My research supports this, finding that rather than being a tool of compliance, effective control is simply a part of everyday responsible dog ownership.
<h2>Going back to school</h2>
Responsible dog ownership is a learned behaviour.
Public education for schoolchildren is successful. In part, this is because of its focus on a particular demographic that is coincidentally pretty cheap for the government to reach. Schoolkids are a captive and receptive audience and love a visit from the dog-catcher with the friendly mutt. 
As a bonus, the children then educate their parents on how to better interact with dogs.
Researchers from Monash Universityhave nevertheless called for an increased focus on adult education to reduce the rate of hospitalisation from dog bites. 
Such education campaigns are easier said than done. This is because:
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they are expensive to run
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they need to appeal to a very wide audience
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they tend to focus on an individual species to the exclusion of others
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they can take an inordinately long time, often bouncing from one government website to another as governments change, which makes material very hard to find.
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</ul>
This all adds up to a weak message, which lacks bang for buck.
Public education campaigns that are privately sponsored may ultimately prove more successful. Keep Australia Pet Friendly is a great example. This tackles the trouble of dogs head-on with a message underscoring the net benefits of pet ownership for the community. 
These campaigns may do so out of self-interest – Pet Friendly campaign sponsor Mars Petcare Australia has some obvious skin in the game, for instance. But through a better reach and targeted message they will likely be more effective than similar government programs. 
As dogs are increasingly recognised as having a genuine stake in our cities, we need to look for ways to encourage harmony between the species. Better animal management presents an obvious place to start.
Simon Carter is research fellow in Urban Planning, University of Melbourne and author for The Conversation. He can be contacted <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/simon-carter-227415" target="_blank">here</a>.
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