The beach beneath the streets : contesting New York City's public spaces / Benjamin Shepard and Gregory Smithsimon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shepard, Benjamin, 1969-

Contributor:

Smithsimon, Greg.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City planning--New York (State)--New York.

City planning.

Plazas.

Public spaces.

New York (State)--New York.

Public spaces--New York (State)--New York.

Plazas--New York (State)--New York.

Physical Description:

ix, 246 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany, N.Y. : Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press, [2011]

Summary:

Viewing public space in New York City through the lenses of repression and resistance to efforts to exclude people from privately owned spaces and political power in the 20th century, Shepard (human services, New York City College of Technology) and Smithsimon (sociology, Brooklyn College) treat spaces for their democratic value and role in social interaction. Case studies and photographs illustrate contested uses of urban plazas. The title refers to iconic graffiti of the 1968 upheavals in France, and evokes recent events in the Middle East. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contents:

Part 1 Repression 1

Introduction: Control, Exclusion, and Play in Today's Future City 3

Chapter 1 Seeing Space through Exclusion and Control 23

Chapter 2 Dispersing the Crowd: Bonus Plazas and the Creation or Public Space 51

Chapter 3 The City as Seen from the Plaza: Changing Regimes of Private Control 71

Part 2 Resistance 91

Introductory Notes to Part 2 93

Chapter 4 Fences and Piers: An Investigation of a Disappearing Queer Public Space 99

Chapter 5 "If We Can't Dance It's Not Our Revolution": Reclaiming the Streets and Creating Autonomous Space 127

Chapter 6 Gardens, Streets, and Convivial Places: The Struggle for a Ludic Counterpublic 147

Chapter 7 From Contested to Popular Space: New York's Bike Lane Liberation Clowns 183

Chapter 8 Conclusion: This Land is Your Land? 197.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438436197

143843619X

9781438436203

1438436203

OCLC:

656213190