If, like most people in Govan, you don’t have a car, how do you take the kids off for an afternoon of fabby free activities on a summer’s afternoon, followed by a picnic, maybe, in a largely dogshit-free park?

Well, you can spend a fiver on the underground for an adult and a couple of kids, and then walk a mile along busy, dusty Dumbarton Road: with waiting time and kid-pace walking, forty minutes, maybe more. It’s HALF A MILE!
Let’s say you want to take gran along, and her hips aren’t so great for two miles of walking on top of mooching about a museum. Take the bus?
Fine, if you have an hour or two and even more money to waste.

And of course for kids or gran, riding two miles upriver and most of that back again isn’t an option: not through the dual-carriageway- linear car-park that most of Govan is from nine to five, and through the city centre back west again…

With the M8, Glasgow’s council apparatchiks are still engrossed in their vision of the town as a place for people from outside to get through: not for people who live in it to, well, LIVE in it.

It seems to be incredibly biased towards developers and private sector.

http://www.clydewaterfront.com/

The discussion on public spaces seems to continually focus on the physical space (architecture, public sculpture, amenities)

What about the human space – how can we incorporate street performers/ musicians/ theatre performances into the design of public spaces? More importantly, how do we make our public spaces gathering points for discussion, friendship and debate?

On a recent visit to my hometown in Ireland, I was struck by seeing random pairs/groups of individuals (usually slightly older women or men) stopped on the street chatting animatedly as the passers-by rushed past. This is a common sight in places where the climate is better (Italy, Spain), but where also the culture allows people have time for each other and enjoy communal space…..

I hope this question will come up.