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Start a community store

I love this story because it's about everyday needs and a community getting together to meet them. I have friends in a similar small upstate town where the local department store went under and (as in this story) "there's no where to buy underwear here"

It reminds me that sometimes its the simple things -- a grocery store, a corner coffee shop, a place to buy socks -- that make a community.

I lived in downtown Brooklyn for a while and painted apartments for money. An old paint store provided a central gathering place for a motley assortment of painters from recent college grads to new immigrants. It stayed open late so that we could stop by at the end of the day to get the supplies we needed, and stay to chat. It wasn't homey or decorated. We sat on paint cans, but it was the cracker barrel for this small transient community.

Comments

Adriana Valdez Young

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November 18, 2011, 08:47AM

Whitney, I totally agree. The simple everyday places that stock both the things you need and offer a place for you to linger, chat, and exchange beyond your purchase shape the fine grain quality and pleasure of city living.

I just moved to London and discovered this cozy bike shop/coffee bar where couriers hang out to read, chat, eat and drink in between runs: http://www.fullcity.cc/

It's not just a shop - it's a community centre.
I think these types of hybrid spaces have a lot of potential to create a sense of place, ownership and belonging in a neighborhood - especially for such a mobile community as bike messengers.

But really, as you said, many of us are transient and zoom around the city between our jobs and need a place to sit.

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Whitney Quesenbery's reply to Adriana Valdez Young's comment

Whitney Quesenbery

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November 18, 2011, 01:48PM

Yes. Your point about needing a place to sit between jobs, events, appointments is really good.

I keep thinking of more examples of the need for places to stop and sit - not necessarily shop or eat - but spaces that allow you to linger during the day.

There always seem to be places where messengers and cabbies and others with mobile jobs gather - a sort of public "break room.'


On the outskirts of Atlanta, I visited a bicycle (and snowboard) shop. It was located near a popular cycling trail, and had a cafe in the front. As a cafe, it wasn't much, but it offered a comfy place to sit and chat in the middle of a long ride.

Long ago, when I worked in theatre in NYC, many of us had a mental map of the city overlaid with the locations of coffee shops and diners with big tables where we could hold meetings. As long as we didn't get in the way of mealtimes, they would let us stay for hours, spreading out sketches and talking.

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Adriana Valdez Young's reply to Adriana Valdez Young's comment

Adriana Valdez Young

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November 18, 2011, 03:23PM

I like this idea of the 'break room' as a typology of public space. The 'break room' makes the city human, livable, enjoyable and I think this can feed into a larger environ of vibrancy and resiliency. I think these kinds of semi-public spaces are critical to a city's health - maybe even more important than traditional open green spaces?

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