(highlight:: Social infrastructure as a Public Health Imperative
Key takeaways:
• Neighborhoods with high death rates in the Chicago heatwave had a depleted appearance and lacked strong community organizations and viable public spaces.
• The neighborhoods with better outcomes had more community institutions and resources available to them.
• Residents in neighborhoods with strong social infrastructure were more likely to survive the heatwave.
• The difference in death rates between neighborhoods was significant, with depleted neighborhoods resulting in a 10 times higher likelihood of death during the heatwave.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
And so what I observed is that the neighborhoods that had really high death rates, they looked depleted. They had lost enormous proportion of their population in the decades leading up to the heatwave. They had a lot of abandoned buildings. They had empty lots. The sidewalks were broken. They didn't have a lot of strong community organizations that had resources to put up impressive operations. Even the little playgrounds were in terrible shape, not well maintained. And across the street in the neighborhoods that did better, the public spaces were much more viable. They didn't have abandoned homes. They didn't have empty lots. There were community institutions, grocery shops, coffee shops, a branch library, places that anchored public life. In those neighborhoods in Chicago, people knocked on the door and they checked in on each other. And as a consequence, if you were lived in one of these poor neighborhoods that had a strong social infrastructure, you were more likely to survive the heatwave. People in the neighborhood across the street, the depleted neighborhood, they were 10 times more likely to die in the heatwave. And that difference was really quite stark.)
- Time 0:07:52
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(highlight:: Shared Public Spaces are Human Inventions Based on a Vision of Radical Inclusion
Key takeaways:
• Public spaces like playgrounds, schools, zoos, museums, and libraries are important for social infrastructure and community building.
• Shared public spaces are achievements and human inventions that should be appreciated and maintained for radical inclusion.
• The history of public spaces includes racial segregation, violence, and gender exclusion.
• We shouldn't take public spaces for granted and should work to update and improve them for inclusivity and shared community experiences.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
So what carries the train of our relationships? What are the actual railroad tracks?
Speaker 1
Think about a playground, for instance. We know that one of the core places that families go to meet other families in their neighborhood is a playground. All kinds of socializing that happens when parents or grandparents or caretakers of all kinds are pushing a swing and looking for a companion, someone to talk to. Those conversations that the swing set often lead to a shared little break together on the bench or maybe to a picnic and then a play to hate and then two families can know each other and Communities growing. If you took playgrounds out of American cities and suddenly there's no playground, our social lives would be radically different. Now take away our schools, take away our zoos, our museums, our libraries, piece by piece, we would erode our capacity to share space and engage one another. And we haven't exactly had a demolition plan to get rid of shared public spaces in America over the last several decades. But in a lot of places we haven't done much to update them or improve them or build new ones. You can build a social infrastructure that's very exclusive and that also leads to fragmentation and distrust. So for instance, the country club, that's an amazing social infrastructure, like the best social infrastructure that your money can buy. And it's likely to make you surrounded by people who are just as elite as you are. We act as if in the Old Testament on the fifth day God said, today I give you the playground and the library and it's our birthright to spend time in them. We forget that these are achievements. These are human inventions. We build giant parks, theaters, art spaces. We created a good society based on a vision of radical inclusion. Not quite radical enough. People have always been left out of our public spaces. There's no history of this idea that is complete if it doesn't pay attention to how racial segregation worked and how racial violence worked and how gender excluded some people from Some public realms. All of that stuff is there in the history of public space. I think in the last several decades, we've come to take all of these places for granted.)
- Time 0:09:15
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The Self-Reinforcing Stigmatization of Public Spaces (Like Libraries
Summary:
Public libraries are facing various physical problems due to under-investment.
They are often the last option for people who lack access to basic services. Libraries are used as shelters for the homeless, warm places for those suffering from addiction, and even childcare centers.
This over-reliance on libraries to solve societal issues has stigmatized these public spaces.
The lack of investment in addressing core problems has turned libraries into spaces of last resort.
This sends a message to affluent Americans that if they want a gathering place, they should build their own in the private sector.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
One of the problems we have now is most cities, suburbs, towns in America have public libraries there. There's neighborhood libraries. The building is there. The buildings are generally not updated. They need to have new HVACs. They need new bathrooms. They need new furniture, but a lot of new books. Stomachs still not accessible to people in wheelchairs. There's all kinds of problems with libraries, just physically because we've under-invested in them. Libraries, unfortunately, have become the place of last resort for everyone who falls through the safety net. If you wake up in the morning in the American city and you don't have a home, you're told to go to a library. If you wake up in the morning and you're suffering from an addiction problem, you need a warm place. They'll send you to a library. If you need to use a bathroom, you'll go to a library. If you don't have child care for your kid, you might send your kid to a library. If you're old and you're alone, you might go to the library. We've used the library to try to solve all these problems that deserve actual treatment. How many times have you talked to someone who said it's basically a homeless shelter? What's happened is we've stigmatized our public spaces because we've done so little to address core problems that we've turned them into spaces of last resort for people who need a Hand. As we do that, we send another message to affluent middle-class Americans, and that is if you want a gathering place, build your own in the private sector.)
- Time 0:21:13
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(highlight:: Libraries: A Socialist Utopian Fantasy
Key takeaways:
• Public libraries are one of the miracles of American life.
• The creation of public libraries is a utopian socialist fantasy.
• No governor in America would support the idea of a library if we didn't already have it.
• Public libraries are staffed by librarians who are public employees.
• People can take stuff out of libraries for free, and bring it back using the honor system.
• Dolly Parton would support the idea of a library.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
One of the miracles of American life is that we have these public libraries in every neighborhood. And it makes you think, how do we get these things? If you went to the governor of New York right now who's a Democrat and calls herself a progressive, and the library didn't exist, and you said, could you build a building in every neighborhood In New York and fill those buildings with books and videos and computers and comfortable furniture, tell people that they're welcome five, six, seven days a week in some places, the Building's going to be staffed by librarians who are public employees, people can take the stuff out for free and to make sure they bring it back, we'll use the honor system. If we didn't have a library already, if we hadn't invented that, do you think any governor in America would support that idea? Like no chance. No chance in hell. Holly Parton would do it, but I don't know if they would. Nobody would support the idea of a library if we didn't already have it. It's like a utopian socialist fantasy, the library. And the miracle is that we have them.)
- Time 0:23:42
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(highlight:: The Stigmatization of Collective Experience by Private Interests
Key takeaways:
• The American public park system and schools were built to promote collective experiences that are now discouraged.
• The signals people receive from each other, the state, and the corporate world discourage collective experiences.
• Society should imagine what rebuilding public spaces that promote collective experiences could look like.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
If you think about the American public park system, the public schools, like we built all these things, the reason so many of us feel like it's so hard to hang out and enjoy the companionship Of other people is because the signals we get from each other and from the state and from the corporate world tell us that we're freakish and weird if we want that kind of collective experience. Everybody knows happiness is in your phone. It's at the $22 cocktail bar. It's at the $9 coffee shop, the $14 ice cream cone. Those are the things that are supposed to give us pleasure. I think we need to start to imagine what a different kind of society might look like. How to rebuild public spaces that are the 21st century version of the 20th century library.)
- Time 0:24:49
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