Public and Private Spaces in Northfield

As part of our community scholars retreat on Sunday we took a tour of Northfield! It was itneresting to take a look at a few of the facets of this small community, and how each plays a role in how the individual engages with their space. We covered so little, yet the web was so complex. One of the subjects we covered was the us of public space. Public spaces for gathering bring a community together, tying strangers together while their kids play, or while they feed ducks on the river. When a community looses that space as a center, urban sprawl takes over, and decrentralizes everything. Cars become more necessary and neighbors talk less. With less free, open, public space, lives become increasingly private. In Gay New York, prohibition blurred the lines between public and private space, and we saw the gay and straight communities overlapping and interacting more and more. When the enforcement committees struck hard, stratification struck as well. They communities were divided once again.  In Northfield communities, the stratification is between socioeconomic classes, and fissure form between individuals instead.

Way Park was given to the City by a man with the last name of Way. It was given particularly for opening up the community. After the hospital was demolished, Northfielders fought to keep the town from selling off the land again. Now Nate Jacobi, director of Community Scholars, told us about how he would talk to his neighbors while is children play. And now they have been an apitheater into the hill, probably to create a space for even more gathering.

At the very opposite edge of the spectrum, there is Mayflower Heights. That is what is pictured above. It's a sprawling community full of small developments. Because of the way it was funded, there is no center. Its exclusiveness is epitomized by the two streets that will let you in. Here we didn't see any neighbors out. There were no parks, grocery stores, or community centers within walking distance. I didn't see many people out, and the few that were minded their own business. Within this more expensive neighborhood, space has been completely privatized, and community has all together been abandoned.