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What Does Green Space Do in Cities?
Mitigation, Conciliation, and Unifying Space and Time
Not long ago, I asked if you’ve ever felt “triggered by a place.”
Today, I’m asking if you’ve ever been triggered by a theme, such as nature in the city and its profound role in mitigating change-when the landscape in two places looks remarkably the same and interweaves with family ties.
This morning, I read about NatureScore, a metric similar to Walk Score but emphasizing access and proximity to essential green space in daily urban life.
My reading reminded me of two park benches that appear similarly in different parts of the world. Each bench has its own story but is also bound by history and personal circumstances.
In Newbury, England, where I recently lived, a green space and bench face off at the site of a major battlefield of the 1644 “ Second Battle of Newbury” in the English Civil War.
Thousands of miles away, in Mercer Island, Washington, where I live now, Aubrey Davis Park, a modern terraced lid, straddles Interstate 90 as a testament to citizen opposition to freeway expansion.
