like how when talking about art, we say it is a Pollock etc, we start to belong to a street which they associate with themselves. How street names can elicit bodily responses from us like meeting points and friend's neighborhood.

this is not super related: but just thinking about le sens de mots et de la marche reminded me of how people have been going on walks to see friends and talk especially during COVID and before too. Especially in my house, even though we live together, people tend to go on walks to be able to talk and verbalize their feelings through movement.

similar to Esme's comment, by organizing the city on their own terms -- making it exist and emerge -- is definitely a way to make the city one's own. To find some system in the chaos that drowns you out

makes me think when people are in a crowd, their individuality is sort of drowned out by the city's over stimulus, which is why the "God-view" is where they can detach themselves and "read" the text that is the city

reminds me of Islamic art especially from Persia where painting from the "God's perspective" was the only way to see true beauty

personifies the city

the structure and makeup of the city is so contingent on the particular area of NY that you can tell just by looking from an elevated view, especially how the green Central Park stands out from the chaos of the city as if the aura of city quiets down near it.

However such divisions and visions of a place take such hold in people's minds that they exclude others and create constraints to preserve the image of that place

Is this like a creation of a transcendent experience?

Switching from governmental policing to community organizing or control

This movement toward expanding public space and communal sense of ownership of things may be an interesting way of countering the notion of "mediocre" privileges that Debord talks about

To create a new plan for the city the old restrictions and constraints must be removed.

Beyond aesthetic pleasure, such urban beauty engravings in us a subconscious understanding of the socio-economic context of the setting, situating us right in the center of it all

Reminds one of this neoliberal agenda to slowly remove people’s affinity for public services without a proper replacement, essentially disproportionately affecting the vulnerable and the underprivileged

Agreed with Esme. It’s heartbreaking how Haussmann’s design solidified a class divide that can still be felt. However, it’s also interesting to see how it also encouraged people’s exploration of the back alleys and streets to find connections.

reminds me of confederate statues

interesting how art is assumed to be inherently separated from social practices

When I think of monuments, I only connect it to positive commemoration. So it is harsh because just a monument can change how we perceive ourselves and our shared history

how do we judge these remembrances? Does it have to a shared collective memory?

almost like we need to establish places and tangible things to preserve the memories of a history

sounds like story-telling is the only way this place can go on, to preserve it outside of time

this is a bit tangential but this reminds me of Proust quote where he talks about memories being outside of time and so I believe that space can exist without time in our own reconstructions of memory

can such a feeling not be attained from a bigger space like the city?

inclusion by exclusion

interesting how context changes the meaning of public space, a "shared" space that even the public can't agree on

I feel like this points to the neoliberal agenda of using people's weakness and blame the cause of it on them. The question then is how to educate about their resources and rights when they barely have access to either such resources and such education?

reminds me of the Platonian description of how a leader can turn into a tyrant by taking on this solo voice

Connected to my previous comment, interesting how those we elect to represent us in government take on the form of this far-removed entity that converts public to private. Are we implicated in this then?

This reminds me of the Michael Asher art piece where his invitation for people to just go see the George Washington piece in the mayor's office reminded the public that in fact, they can stroll in to the mayor's office because it is a public building. TLDR: often the public forgets the public space is public when there's a disconnect when we start to associate such spaces with power

Q. but didn't pocket watches exist for the elite back then too before watches were mass produced in such a way? I find it really interesting how the watches are used as the analogy for a loss of community and its replacement with this individualistic idea of being rooted in your own world rather than share a collective experience with others.