Loss of community and rise in violence

With the terrible tragedy in Colorado this past Thursday, I've been thinking a lot about why this continues to happen.  It's almost to the point of being an epidemic in the United States.  If you're like me, one of the first reactions is anger and the thought, "this has got to stop!" As Colorado Governor John Hikenlooper said in a press conference on Friday, "Everyone I've talked to all day is filled with an anger that can't find focus." I have an idea of where we could place our focus, beyond guns, ... community.

Loss of a safe public realm

During the Ideal Cities era, public space was the most important aspect of the city.  They took great care in designing accessible quality space for everybody.  To get the public space just right, they even put the right size and use buildings around the edges of the space. There was great attention paid to the details.  Then, with the invention of the automobile, we boarded the Crazy Train.

As I wrote about in a past post, everything we'd known went out the window.  We were in a new time!  A Modern time.  Instead of taking great care for public space, as we'd done in the past, our primary concern first getting people away from the smoke stacks (by moving them to suburbs) and, then, dealing with the traffic followed.  We went so far as to demolish vast tracts of existing neighborhoods with no regard for context.  It was considered solely an engineering problem.

Now, we've gone from a time when cities where designed for human beings and civic space was paramount to one where it's considered normal to have over 30,000 people die each year in car-related deaths (for relation, ~3,000 died on 9/11).  Just the other day, in Portland, an 18-month old child was hit by a car while in a stroller waiting to cross the street with his mother. A 5-year old child was also hit and taken to the hospital.

Perhaps, these shootings are just another symptom of something gone terrible wrong. Maybe people trying to reach out and communicate something in their own SICK and terrible way.

Source: NHTSA's 2010 Motor Vehicle Crashes: Overview Report

What We're Missing

It's hard to know what you're missing until you experience it. In a world where we're no longer citizens but consumers, it's easy to get caught up in your own world and only think about the day-today.  Families, especially women, are so busy there is often little time to think beyond the daily tasks.  In general, it seems, we think very little about civic engagement or community.  Many people just lead their day-to-day lives trying to get by and, hopefully, have enough money for their upcoming vacation or a new widget.  

I didn't even think about a different world, though I had a sense something was wrong from the age of 12, until I took a Human Geography class my first year of undergrad.  Then, I studied in Holland.  It was love.  Every day I'd go outside with my friends and love the city.  We'd go to the central square and walk around, perhaps have a beer or two, and people watch.  Within a month, I felt right at home.  There was something natural about meeting in the public space and being outside.

I've since seen this same outdoor living (due to a high-quality public realm) in other places like Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Bordeaux, France. In those cities, people are outside.  There are many public spaces where people can go be away from the noise and threat of automobiles. As a case in point, take a look at this video.  When I watched it, I thought, "This is fantastic!!!!  But ... where could this happen in any U.S. city?"  I realized quality public space facilitated the event.  A safe place that's full of people - women, children, elderly, .... 

Is there a connection?

I can't say what drove the gunman, or any of the gunmen (have they all been men?), to commit such senseless violence.  Perhaps there is something hard-wired in this type of individual from the time they are a child (I tend to think all people are good and violence is learned). Maybe there is some chemical problem in their brain which drives these individuals to madness.  Perhaps it goes back to their childhood.  Maybe it's society. I don't think anybody knows. And even if we do know one particular motive, why are there so many of them?

I'm sure with the right statistics and SPSS one could do the statistical analysis.  It'd be interesting to see what connections arise. Even if there is no significant connection between the degradation of community and an increase in spree shootings, what would we lose by creating more quality public spaces? What do you think?  Am I on to something here or is it just poppycock? Leave your comments below.