The Social value of public spaces / JRF, April 2007
PDF - http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/2050-public-space-community.pdf
Ken Worpole and Katharine Knox
"This summary explores the contribution public spaces make to community life, and how people use them.
It found that public spaces play a vital role in developing community ties:
- street markets allow people from a variety of cultural and social backgrounds to interact;
- parks enable young people to make friends and mix with the wider community;
- cafés and arts centres are key social places for mothers and children.
However, some policies are having a detrimental effect on public space:
- strategies intended to ‘design out crime’, such as cutting down bushes, installing vandal-proof street furniture and closing public toilets affected their attractiveness and damaged their usefulness."