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Just as our communities are becoming more multi-cultural, our experience of public open space and urban “greening” is become more multi-dimensional and participatory, reflecting an appeal to many purposes and sensibilities. Could we be entering a new era of the commons?….a deepening of our collective perception of public space to encompass the environment and its renewal? In the past half-century, we’ve expanded its definition from city parks, plazas, and playgrounds to a more vitalizing field of wildlife and creek corridors, wetlands and habitat restoration, greenways and paths, and community gardens. Why has this shift occurred….and how is our understanding of the commons evolving? What does it mean to the experience of community? What are the implications for the future of public open space? The presenter will reflect on these questions in the context of the restoration and “re-storying” of the commons and will draw on examples from his own city, Berkeley, and others in the East Bay.
John Steere is an environmental planner whose 20-year career spans public, private, and non-profit sectors of land use and resource management planning. An environmental planning consultant, he is the author of the award-winning Restoring the Estuary and numerous articles on habitat partnerships. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard College and a joint Masters degree in city and regional planning and landscape architecture from University of California at Berkeley. Active in urban habitat, greening, and park issues, he has helped develop a couple parks in the community, is the founder of East Bay Citizens for Creek Restoration, and serves on the boards of Livable Berkeley and Berkeley Partners for Parks.
This talk is part of the Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning Colloquium (LD ARCH 253), taught by Georgia Silvera.