I worked on this piece for Common Edge over several of months, trying to figure out how to tie together a lot of different ideas I had been ruminating on for some time. I had no idea if it would resonate, so I was thrilled to see it get so much traction and feedback on LinkedIn. There’s a lot of focus on rebuilding community — rightly so — but not enough discussion about how the built environment enables or hinders our ability to connect in meaningful ways. The key point is this: we shape of our neighborhoods and thereafter they shape us (for better or worse):
We cannot build community without building neighborhoods that make community possible. If a place is wholly car-dependent, zoned for separate uses, and lacking in shared public spaces, then “community engagement” efforts tend to feel forced because the environment itself is working against connection. But when the physical form supports proximity, routine encounters, and a diversity of public life, social relations and civic engagement still take effort, but they don’t need to be engineered; they emerge.