Summary Of The Public Realm

“It seems to me that we're in danger of losing sight of certain basic civic values in society”, as Alexander McCall Smith describes in “Alexander McCall Smith on Writing, Botswana and Good Manners” (Bannister 2 ) “by allowing the growth of a whole generation of people who really have no sense of attachment to society”. James Howard Kunstler, explains his views of the damning qualities of our American cities in his excerpt essay “The Public Realm and the Common Good” from his book Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-first Century published in 1996. Kunstler defines the “public realm” in a two-part definition as the “the physical manifestation of the common good”: and “the connective tissue of our everyday world” (Kunstler 523,521). He continues by explaining the repercussions of when the “public realm” is destroyed, “When you degrade the public realm, as we have, you degrade
Kunstler’s moment, the (GUH) was “built to last” and offered a “connection with the past and the future” (Kunstler 524). Buildings such as the (GUH) possessed a “chronical connectivity” where we are connected over time to past and future generations, with historically rich architecture (Kunstler 524). The (GUH) was so tremendous and beneficial to society because it had an interior park that could be enjoyed by everyone from “a common laborer” to a “railroad millionaire” (Kunstler 525). Grand Union Hotel, was a shining example of where “public realm” was the glue of a well-functioning society. Without this park there would be no mingling of different work classes, no variance in culture, which “enhanced the lives of everybody in town” (Kunstler 525). Eventually the (GUH) was demolished and “people ceased to care” about the “public realm” (Kunstler