Street party!
By | Sep 29, 2008
Man, this stuff is so cool. Imagine whole areas of cities being blocked to traffic on weekend days, and people just getting out, riding bikes, running, skating, picnicking, taking dance classes, kids playing, and just enjoying being outside, watching people, chatting to strangers.It might not seem like this sort of thing is related to social justice, but I reckon having more people-friendly cities and public spaces is really crucial.
Events like the one in NY below facilitate public health and activity levels, raise awareness of alternative, more socially equitable and environmentally friendly tranposrt options, nurture community cohesion and trust in others, break down social barriers… The city streets as a place where people can meet as equals and have a good time is a pretty basic, yet revolutionary concept. Bogota, where this event started, now has it every week, where over 100 km of the city’s streets are closed to traffic (video here).
This is the kind of stuff we need. Heaps of social action is reactive, rather than proactive, and while for some issues this is really crucial, we sometimes need to be more visionary. We need to get creative, and imagine the world how we want it to be, rather than battling against a world we want to avoid. If we want to move beyond endless consumption, materialism and accumulation of power and wealth, and their attendant environmental impacts and social injustices, we need to get into alternative ways of finding joy and fun!
Take a look at the video below (sorry, the alignment for the embedded video is all out of whack, and for some reason the video is showing up twice… I’m really crap at this IT stuff!!)
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