Mapping the Protest in Bangkok

New events in Bangkok highlight the public-ness and private-ness of spaces of protest.
The above mapping highlights the "area" under control of the "red shirts"

The top horizontal line is Rama 1 Road, home of the gigantic malls like Siam Paragon.

Cities all over the world are privatizing their gathering spaces under the guise of consumerism. These become likely sites of protest for this disruption of financial systems - now having international/global repercussions.

Privatizing Public Infrastructure

Leveraging public need with private financing...

KFC fills potholes
Neo Nazi's clean the highways
Strip club adopts highway

McDonalds CycleCenter

Privately owned public resource: McDonalds Cycle Center located in Chicago's Millennium Park. its a heated and air conditioned indoor bicycle parking facility built by the city of Chicago and now sponsored by McDonalds. In addition, the station provides space for a Chicago Police Department Bike Patrol Group.

McDonald's Cycle Center offers the following services:

• Secure Bicycle Parking: The Cycle Center offers 300 secure bicycle parking spaces.
• Lockers, Showers and Towel Service: To make your bicycle commute comfortable we provide lockers and showers (for Members only) so you may refresh before you go to work.
• Bicycle Rental: Bikes are available for rent by the hour, day, or week.
• Bicycle Repair Shop: Professional bicycle mechanics are available full time at the bicycle station during the summer from 10am to 6pm and part time during the winter.
• Guided Bicycle Tours: Memorial Day to Labor Day, guided bicycle tours are offered daily at 10am and 1pm.
• IGO Car Sharing : IGO cars are available for rent from Millennium Park. IGO is a not-for-profit car sharing program developed by the Center.
  

from website

from a treehugger blog post:

"I have a membership at the bike station and find it very convenient - it's clean and only 4 blocks from my office, which is closer than any gym. It's not fancy, but it doesn't need to be - and it's used almost exclusively by commuters, not tourists. I don't mind the McDonald's name if it saves taxpayer money - besides, anyone who's traveled much knows that the bathrooms at McDonald's are always the cleanest."

Also see:
Millennium Park
Wikipedia

Public Space - Private Affairs

link: New York Times

The new Chanel Pavilion in Central Park opened recently, celebrating fashion thru architecture and public space - perhaps missing the mark completely, especially in such economic and environmental/social urgencies.

"Opening the pavilion in Central Park only aggravates the wince factor. Frederick Law Olmsted planned the park as a great democratic experiment, an immense social mixing place as well as an instrument of psychological healing for the weary. The Chanel project reminds us how far we have traveled from those ideals by dismantling the boundary between the civic realm and corporate interests."

What becomes of a public space composed of elite showings - with required previously purchased "free online" tickets? Where do the boundaries of open and closed, elite and common, spontaneous and prepared, fashion and environment meet in a city like New York, within a site like Central Park?

Car Shares

PhillyCarShare. This car share program out of Philadelphia has claimed their 50,000 member. The concept is pretty simple...you don't have to buy a car, you buy into a community non-profit that allows you to borrow a car. They offer monthly plans, parking spots and multiple vehicle types.

How does this work on a rural scale? or can it? How could this operate on a commercial level? shipping vehicles with distribution hubs. Can Americans share their automobiles? What of individuality? of Materiality? will energy rates alter our options for material identity? What sort of urban scale could this increase too? private/non-profit owned public transportation? How could dealers begin to operate/outreach in this way?


(photo from mslk.com)

additional articles:
Diamler to Bring Car Sharing to Texas:
Ikea Announces Car-Pooling Service

Heya!

Toyota “HEYA” Project. I don't really know what its for, but i think its interesting the issue of a "automobile industry" creating "community" (virtually) is worth noting. I am sure most of this is a PR maneuver, geared to collect email addresses and be one with a more "creative" "community".

But really, what are the roles this industry can play in making community. So much of the industry is blamed for destroying communities, how can such an industry reconnect, redefine, re-create community....the real one.

As consumers, we purchase products. How is "Transportation" not a product? How can the industry be reconsidered a part of a larger social/public/community/neighborhood project...a greater community function. How would that framework operate? What would that "product" look like? What would that consumer (s) require?

Sidewalk Media

Sidewalk media. In places like NY where most people walk, the form of media changes from the now typical American format of billboards to newspapers stands and phone booth structures. The traffic is on the sidewalks as well as the streets. Any attempt at locating media for attention is grabbed. The antiquated phone booth has evolved into simply a profitable sidewalk billboard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/17/nyregion/17phones.html
The above article describes how the phone booths are profitable not in their use as a public phone but as a billboard for advertising. In a world of cellphones, the need for phone booths are small.

The location of such advertising is restricted to free standing units, not those next to a building. But what is the sidewalks use for advertising? What is the history of street scape as a commercial act and how does this evolve in the age of personal digital communications?

What is the future of media and the street? Who will have access and who won't. Is it a matter of public agency?