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Eyes on the street: the role of ‘third places’ in improving perceived neighbourhood safety

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Gordon Holden discusses the role of ‘third places’ in improving perceived neighbourhood safety

Image courtesy of interviewee. September 25, 2024

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In 2017, editors Carol Bosman and Joanne Pasco collected contributions for the book "Rethinking Third Places: Informal Public Space and Community Building." This video project aimed to reexamine Ray Oldenburg's 1989 theory on "third places," which are informal public spaces that enhance social capital and neighborhood safety. Oldenburg categorized places into three types: first places (home), second places (work), and third places (cafes, parks, etc.).

The book addresses the evolution of third place theory in light of the digital communication revolution and highlights new contexts and examples. It features various chapters covering feminist perspectives, child-friendly spaces, and the connection between third places and social capital.

The author discusses their interest in the role of third places in enhancing neighborhood safety and explores the concept of "eyes on the street," popularized by urbanist Jane Jacobs. Jacobs argued that active public spaces create natural surveillance that can deter crime.

A significant part of the research involves analyzing the Gold Coast, Queensland, through eight case studies that examined different urban forms and socio-economic profiles. It highlights that while third places can foster community, perceptions of safety can differ from actual safety, with high activity not always correlating to lower crime.

The findings indicate that more secure environments often have preferable physical conditions (like good lighting and surveillance), but can also promote reclusiveness, as seen in gated communities. Conversely, busy shopping streets may have third places that offer eyes on the street yet still experience high crime rates, suggesting a complex relationship between the presence of third places and safety.

The author emphasizes the need for tailored urban planning strategies to create effective and safe community spaces, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Further research is called for to assess the impacts of digital environments on social cohesion and safety, particularly post-COVID-19, highlighting the importance of physical places in fostering community interaction.

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Here are five key points from the video:

1. **The Concept of Third Places**: The video discusses the idea of third places, which are informal public spaces (e.g., cafes, parks, or libraries) important for community building and social capital, as articulated by Ray Oldenburg in his 1989 book *The Great Good Place*. These places are positioned as crucial between the home (first place) and workplace (second place) for fostering social interactions and contributing to neighborhood safety.

2. **Impact of Digital Communication**: Since the late 1980s, the rise of digital and personal communication has changed how people engage with third places. The need for contemporary analysis of third places arises from how these developments might challenge Oldenburg's theory, indicating that new examples and approaches to understanding third places are necessary.

3. **Research Methodology and Findings**: The research involved detailed case studies in Gold Coast, Queensland, analyzing various neighborhoods with different urban types, densities, and socioeconomic profiles in relation to the presence of third places and their influence on perceived and actual safety. It was found that communities with strong engagement and well-designed environments showed increased perceptions of safety.

4. **Eyes on the Street Concept**: The video references Jane Jacobs' concept of "eyes on the street," which suggests that active community engagement in public spaces can deter crime. Jacobs emphasized that urban safety relies not just on surveillance but also on fostering vibrant, diverse neighborhoods. However, the research reveals that simply having third places does not guarantee safety, and crime can still occur in busy areas.

5. **Recommendations for Urban Planning**: The findings suggest that urban planners must consider the complex interrelationships in neighborhoods to promote third places effectively. A tailored approach to planning and maintaining urban environments is required rather than applying blanket solutions. Additionally, there’s a need for further research on how digital environments and pandemic-related changes affect community engagement and perceptions of safety in urban settings.

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Here are some key quotes extracted from the video regarding third places, community, and safety:

1. **On the concept of third places:**
- “Third places are important contributors to social capital with consequences for neighborhood safety.”
- “Oldenburg sums up third places as, ‘anchors of community life where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances.’”

2. **On the role of urban environments:**
- “Active and engaged individuals in a community can help deter crime.”
- “Jacobs proposed that people who consciously or even unconsciously use public spaces…generate natural surveillance of space.”

3. **On perceived vs. actual safety:**
- “I was especially interested in the interface between perceived and actual safety.”
- “The literature showed that no simple model can explain human behavior in typical constructed environments.”

4. **On the importance of community and third places:**
- “Third places alone cannot create community cohesion and a sense of security.”
- “The presence of high numbers of third places alone is insufficient to deter crime.”

5. **On urban planning and community building:**
- “Urban planners and local governments have numerous tools available to promote urban elements such as public works, maintenance, street lighting, signage, zoning, and development control.”
- “A key recommendation…is to avoid a blanket or panacea approach.”

6. **On the influence of digital environments:**
- “Further research is needed to identify what has changed, potentially leading to how to provide community building opportunities and how to improve perceived and actual neighborhood safety.”
- “Further research is also needed to investigate the impact of the rapidly expanding digital devices and social media environments on people's sense of safety.”

7. **On the relationship between safety, crime, and community structure:**
- “The literature suggests that the perception of safety in such communities is higher than for regular suburbs.”
- “Gated communities actually displace the potential crime to adjacent areas, so it's not…contributing to the betterment of the wider social community.”

These quotes encapsulate key themes in the video about the role of third places, community dynamics, safety perceptions, urban design, and the impact of modern technology.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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In 2017, editors, Carol Bosman

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and Joanne Pasco invited several contributors

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to prepare a chapter submission,

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for a forthcoming book titled, rethinking Third Places,

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subtitled in Informal Public Space

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and Community Building.

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It was subsequently pub published by Edward Alga.

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Uh, the motivation was to revisit

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Ray Oldenberg an American.

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His 19, 89 theory presented in a book called Great,

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good Places.

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And what you were saying there was

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that third places are important contributors

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to social capital with consequences

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for neighbor hood safety.

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First place is being the home,

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second place being the workplace.

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And third place is a generic term for informal places

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that people visit, such as coffee, shacks, cafes, bars,

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parks, community, buildings, libraries, plazas

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and, and such forth.

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The reason to revisit third places was

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that since the late 1980s, the digital

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and personal communication revolution had taken place,

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and subsequent research triggered by third place theory

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has been, has extended the concept somewhat.

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These influences may challenge Oldenburg's theory,

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and it was thought that a contemporary approach

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and new examples were needed.

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Topics addressed, by chapters in the book,

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contributors including, feminist perspective,

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child friendly places, places

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and social capital, places in transit.

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But in all, there were 11 chapters.

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I won't go through all of them.

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I chose to engage with the potential of third places

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to contribute to neighborhood safety with implications

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for community building.

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And because of my longstanding interest in pedestrian use

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of the urban environment,

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I was especially interested in the interface

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between perceived and actual safety,

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and in the role of third places that generate

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eyes on the street for different neighborhood urban types.

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The concept of eyes on the Street was popularized by

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a very famous, urbanist

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Jane Jacobs in 1961.

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Through her book, death

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and Life of Great American Cities,

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Jacobs concluded from her observation of urban areas

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that active and engaged individuals in a community can help

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de deter crime.

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She proposed that people who consciously

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or even unconsciously use public spaces

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or observe them from their homes generate natural

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surveillance of space.

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And this deters criminal activity,

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this was all speculation on, on her part,

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but she suggests

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that would be perpetrators avoid being in sight of others

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who may report them.

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Jacobs also proposed that urban safety isn't just about

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surveillance, but is also also about fostering the vitality

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and diversity essential for a socially

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and culturally healthy city.

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Aspects of,

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that Jacobs did not investigate in depth were the

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perspectives of perceived and actual safety.

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I approached the research by first

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reviewing international literature, related

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to the subject to establish key criteria

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that could potentially be researched in the field.

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Now, this, this is an area

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that I've had long standing interest in, so much

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of the literature I was familiar with,

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but I did, I did review it, for the purpose

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of of, of this work.

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The literature showed that no simple model can explain human

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behavior in typical constructed environments.

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Such environments exhibit complex interrelationships

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of relationships of multidimensional aspects.

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If you've got, you know, multipliers in there, that,

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makes everything rather complicated to Inca

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to engage in case study field work.

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Key elements identified from the literature were,

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were extracted, scoping across types of urban form,

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different occupation densities

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and different socioeconomic profiles.

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This allowed exposure of broad issues,

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and it also allowed conclusions that may generate,

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generalization, conclusions.

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Eight case studies were undertaken at the

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Gold Coast Queensland.

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Now the Gold Coast is where I live, where I am now.

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It's a city of approximately 650,000 people.

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It's the fastest growing city in Australia.

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There were four study areas that I chose with two different

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but adjacent sites, in each area,

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neighborhoods call them.

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The idea being to investigate a range of urban types,

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a range of densities

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and socioeconomic profiles that had a range of

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occurrences of third places.

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So the new dimension of third places come, comes into play

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at a more detailed level,

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predictable third places were tested for their presence.

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In each of the case studies, further elements identified

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from the literature that may influence neighborhood safety

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were tested for their presence, including accessibility,

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well constructed and maintained environments, lighting

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night, nighttime lighting activity level.

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The literature revealed that people's sense of safety

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mainly related to two aspects, personal violation

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and burglary and burglary is seen

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as a violation of another type.

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The case study research was cons considerably aided

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through accessing what was then available the international

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internet accessible Queensland crime map.

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Just a footnote here

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that this has subsequently been taken down

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from the internet.

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It was freely available at the time,

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but, apparently, a number

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of people became rather concerned

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that anybody could look up their own neighborhood, see

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where their house is,

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and look at all of the criminal activity

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that was going on around them.

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And, and it was thought that this,

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this wasn't in the best interest of society.

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Um, but this is a digital data bank

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of all crimes recorded in Queensland.

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Over a 10 to 15 year period,

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crimes are categorized under standard classifications in,

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in the police world, with their location, the date

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and time of the crime event,

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and whether the crime was solved.

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The data can be viewed two dimensionally

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at neighborhood plan level that shows every building

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and the land use and streets.

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When the studied neighborhood was cross referred to Bureau

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of Census data, reasonably reliable people, density

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and socioeconomic profiles were able to be identified.

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My background is first of all in architecture

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and secondly in urban design, mainly in education,

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but with some practice

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and certainly in research,

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I've been an academic most of my career.

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Uh, following my undergraduate qualifications in

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architecture, I completed a ma completed a Master

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of Urban Design in 1976.

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That was actually at Manchester University, England,

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and later a PhD titled Epistemology

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of City Center Urban Design Guidelines, A study

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of the Australian Scene.

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So you can sense from this that I'm looking for

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how design intervention through guidelines can address,

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the improvement of performance of urban areas,

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and both qualifications exposed me to wide range

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of theories and practices.

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Uh, to, to that end, during my career,

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I elected on theories, concepts

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and practice in urban design, which included design measures

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that can be taken to improve personal safety.

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I've supervised several PhDs

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and master's research projects

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that scope across the subject, and I've researched

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and published on aspects of the subject with,

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I haven't counted them all out, probably 10

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or 15, publications that,

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that touch on the subject in different ways.

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I'm going to connect here, with first

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of all the literature, beyond oldenberg.

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There is considerable literature of relevance to the concept

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of third places and safety

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key influential publications are Appleton, the experience

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of Landscape, Cal Horn, design out crime gal, cities

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for people, hillier

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and evidence based approach to crime and urban design.

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Uh, lowen perceived safety from crime in the urban

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environment, and minary measuring crime prevention

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through environmental design, as well as Newman,

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with his seminal work on defensible space.

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Now, just as an observation, these are all English

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speaking authors,

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mostly from the United States of America and England,

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but also one or two from Australia across the literature.

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Third places and eyes on the Street are not necessarily

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explicitly referred to in those terms,

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but the underlying concepts are present.

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Oldenberg sums up third places as,

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and I quote, anchors of community life

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where you relax in public,

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where you encounter familiar faces

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and make new acquaintances.

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He goes on to say what suburbia cries out for are the means

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for people to gather easily, inexpensively,

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regularly, and ably a place on the corner.

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Here I'm reminded of the theme song

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of the 1980s sitcom series.

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Cheers. If you, if you've seen that, you'll, you'll,

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you'll hear the echoes of where everybody knows your name

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and are glad you came more broadly,

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most third places in contemporary neighborhoods are not

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as intimate as in cheers,

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but many of the nodding acquaintance's

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characteristics are present.

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The concept of third places has spread widely

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with numerous countries having adopted guidelines

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for designing urban environments that are conducive

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to building social capital

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and are intended to reduce urban crime.

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These embrace principles derive from both eyes on the street

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and third places.

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A fa familiar reference that is used a a across most

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of the English speaking world

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and translated elsewhere is Sted, an acronym

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for crime prevention through environmental design,

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which is often inserted as a compliance requirement,

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for new developments

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and for the rehabilitation of existing,

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urban environments.

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Fascinating. I love, I love Cheers, especially Sam Malone.

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Really good. Anyway, let's keep going.

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Urban planners, how can they promote the development

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of third places going forward?

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Um, the, some key factors here, of the eight,

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and I'll refer now to, to the field work of my study

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of the eight neighborhoods, neighborhoods studied

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the gated community retirement village,

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and the intentional community Eco Village

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had the lowest levels of actual crime.

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The, the literature suggests that the perception

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of safety in such communities is higher than

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for regular suburbs.

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So we're talking here perception,

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but it's also actual the sales literature

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for such communities emphasize safety,

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which inforce perception,

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most mentioned studies in included third places.

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Both of those mentioned studies include third places,

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including a social club community, open space,

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and a retail outlet.

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But I never considered these

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to be highly significant in adding

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to the perception of safety.

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For these examples, the most relevant factor for both is

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that there are factors

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that there is a strong sense of community.

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In the case of the gated community,

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this is derived from the surrounding enclosure,

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fenced place, high levels of maintenance, good lighting,

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the diligence of occupants, giving eyes on the street, close

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neighborhood relationships

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and closed circuit security cameras,

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and of course the security gate that restricted access.

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In the case of the ego village, there's a strong sense

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of community also,

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but here the underpinning value is that of sustainability,

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the diligence of the occupants, giving eyes on the street,

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close neighbors, surveillance cameras, good lighting

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and high maintenance.

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Despite the, high performance relating to both perceived

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and actual safety.

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A downside to gated communities is that they tend

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to reclusiveness

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and have less wide neighborhood engagement,

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thereby not contributing much to

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so social capital in a wider sense.

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The literature also suggests that

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because of high security, that deters would be criminals,

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gated communities actually displace the potential crime

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to adjacent areas, so it's not, again, contributing

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to the betterment of the wider social community.

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The eco community, on the other hand, is an open access one

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that proudly welcomes visitors

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to view the numerous sustainability innovations, thus

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contributing positively to social capital.

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In the studies of the two suburbs with busy

16:04.055 --> 16:08.415
shopping streets, they had both the highest level of crime,

16:09.435 --> 16:13.055
but curiously, the highest number of third places that

16:13.335 --> 16:14.415
provided eyes on the street.

16:16.075 --> 16:17.725
This starts to challenge the theory.

16:18.845 --> 16:21.745
An explanation from criminology literature suggests

16:21.745 --> 16:25.705
that would be perpetrators of crime, find

16:25.705 --> 16:30.505
that busy places are convenient for masking their activities

16:30.815 --> 16:34.705
because the would be perpetrator blends into the crowd.

16:35.735 --> 16:38.745
Clearly, in this study, the presence of high numbers

16:39.525 --> 16:42.625
of third places alone is insufficient

16:43.045 --> 16:45.225
to de deter crime.

16:47.085 --> 16:50.295
Despite the wider community's perception,

16:50.365 --> 16:51.775
that business equates

16:51.775 --> 16:55.935
to high bus busyness equates to higher safety.

16:56.715 --> 16:58.855
The shopping streets were well maintained.

16:59.165 --> 17:01.735
They were very accessible, had surveillance cameras,

17:01.835 --> 17:02.895
and had good lighting.

17:04.825 --> 17:06.765
The crime events there were pretty,

17:06.765 --> 17:08.605
even across day and nighttime.

17:10.435 --> 17:13.975
The, the two regular suburbs had a medium level of crime,

17:14.135 --> 17:16.015
a medium level of eyes on the street,

17:16.315 --> 17:18.135
and a medium number of third places.

17:19.125 --> 17:22.575
They had high levels of night lighting, pri a lot

17:22.575 --> 17:24.415
of PR private surveillance.

17:25.275 --> 17:28.575
Uh, they were well maintained and were very accessible.

17:28.625 --> 17:33.335
These are mid to high socioeconomic, suburbs.

17:34.705 --> 17:37.645
The lowest socioeconomic regular suburb

17:38.305 --> 17:40.085
had relatively high crime rates.

17:40.595 --> 17:42.525
Similar to that in the shopping streets.

17:43.625 --> 17:46.955
This suburb had lower maintenance of private property,

17:47.535 --> 17:51.445
but good lighting, but lighting and accessibility.

17:52.295 --> 17:54.205
There appeared to be fewer private

17:54.605 --> 17:55.845
surveillance systems present.

17:57.745 --> 17:59.925
And the eighth,

18:00.055 --> 18:03.165
study area was a rural residential suburb.

18:04.025 --> 18:08.605
It had low levels of crime, second only to the gated

18:08.745 --> 18:10.925
and the intentional communities.

18:11.615 --> 18:12.925
There were no third places,

18:13.745 --> 18:15.525
but there was a lot of open space.

18:16.645 --> 18:18.425
The suburb was very accessible

18:18.805 --> 18:22.785
for the houses spaced well apart on large portions of land,

18:23.475 --> 18:26.425
there was lower lighting than in the other study areas,

18:27.045 --> 18:31.105
but there was a high level of private surveillance,

18:31.105 --> 18:34.145
through cameras and a high level of eyes on the street

18:34.775 --> 18:38.425
with occupants being able to view the movement of strangers

18:39.005 --> 18:41.945
who were conspicuous, from a distance.

18:42.015 --> 18:44.825
What can urban planners and local governments promote

18:44.845 --> 18:47.745
and develop as suggested in the literature

18:48.605 --> 18:50.025
and confirmed in this study,

18:50.795 --> 18:55.305
third places alone cannot create con community cohesion

18:55.765 --> 18:56.985
and a sense of security.

18:57.715 --> 18:58.905
While urban planners

18:58.905 --> 19:01.465
and local governments have numerous tools available

19:01.525 --> 19:05.985
to promote urban elements such as public works, maintenance,

19:06.245 --> 19:08.585
street lighting, signage, zoning,

19:08.765 --> 19:11.705
and development control, these need

19:11.705 --> 19:13.425
to be exercised selectively

19:14.045 --> 19:15.985
and they need to fall within the context

19:16.525 --> 19:19.745
of the wider complex web of interrelationships.

19:21.025 --> 19:25.825
A key recommendation from me is to, to avoid a blanket

19:26.445 --> 19:28.345
or panacea approach.

19:30.665 --> 19:33.345
A lesson is passed to us from Kevin Lynch,

19:34.565 --> 19:37.265
who developed the concept of strengthening the image

19:37.285 --> 19:41.225
of a city using the elements of clear paths,

19:41.995 --> 19:46.115
edges, districts, nodes, landmarks, which he identified

19:46.425 --> 19:47.875
through studying a city.

19:48.895 --> 19:50.835
He saw these elements as essential

19:51.335 --> 19:53.155
for the memorability of that city.

19:54.135 --> 19:56.745
However, these elements were taken up by planners

19:56.745 --> 20:01.105
and governments as reliable criteria to apply to places

20:01.765 --> 20:03.905
to achieve high image ability.

20:05.265 --> 20:06.985
Lynch later pointed out

20:07.375 --> 20:10.585
that the essential message from his study was

20:10.585 --> 20:13.985
that every place needs to be studied in its own terms

20:14.845 --> 20:17.545
to identify what key elements are present.

20:19.055 --> 20:20.625
Regarding third places

20:20.845 --> 20:23.225
and eyes on the street, there is a need

20:23.225 --> 20:26.785
to study each neighborhood to identify opportunities

20:27.525 --> 20:28.625
and problem elements

20:28.885 --> 20:31.585
and interact them on a case by case basis.

20:33.185 --> 20:35.855
Third places and eyes on the street are pieces

20:35.995 --> 20:39.935
of the complex puzzle surrounding community building

20:40.355 --> 20:42.015
and perceived an actual safety.

20:42.965 --> 20:46.415
Circumstances at Indi, individual places vary,

20:47.295 --> 20:48.645
influenced by one

20:48.945 --> 20:50.365
or a combination of factors

20:51.115 --> 20:55.685
with urban form being significant as revealed in my study,

20:56.825 --> 21:00.605
the function of third places, their location, accessibility,

21:00.635 --> 21:04.125
opening hours, level of night lighting, quality

21:04.305 --> 21:06.645
and maintenance of adjacent buildings

21:06.645 --> 21:09.805
and spaces, surveillance apparatus

21:09.865 --> 21:12.405
and the level of nearby pedestrian vehicular

21:12.765 --> 21:14.405
activity all play a part.

21:15.505 --> 21:17.725
And all of this warrants further research

21:19.165 --> 21:23.105
beyond neighborhood safety, the capacity for the building

21:23.685 --> 21:27.345
of social capital as an essential part of the conversation,

21:28.755 --> 21:31.335
in this post covid pandemic time,

21:32.265 --> 21:34.455
which disrupted third place usage.

21:35.145 --> 21:38.595
Further research is needed to identify what has changed,

21:39.065 --> 21:40.675
potentially leading to how

21:41.175 --> 21:43.555
to provide community building opportunities

21:44.535 --> 21:48.715
and how to improve perceived and actual neighborhood safety.

21:49.715 --> 21:53.055
And in conclusion, further research is also needed

21:53.635 --> 21:56.335
to investigate the impact of the rapidly

21:57.125 --> 21:58.655
expanding digital devices

21:58.755 --> 22:03.215
and social media environments on people's sense

22:03.235 --> 22:07.575
of safety and on personal contact and the need for,

22:07.635 --> 22:12.615
and the role of physical places to improve social cohesion.

Rethinking Third Places: The Intersection of Informal Public Spaces, Community Building, and Urban Safety

00:00:00 - In 2017, editors, Carol Bosman and Joanne Pasco invited several contributors to prepare a chapter submission, for a forthcoming book titled, rethinking Third Places, subtitled in Informal Public Space and Community Building. It was subsequently pub published by Edward Alga. the motivation was to revisit Ray Oldenberg an American. His 19, 89 theory presented in a book called Great, good Places. And what you were saying there was
00:00:44 - to social capital with consequences for neighbor hood safety. First place is being the home, second place being the workplace. And third place is a generic term for informal places that people visit, such as coffee, shacks, cafes, bars, parks, community, buildings, libraries, plazas and, and such forth. The reason to revisit third places was that since the late 1980s, the digital and personal communication revolution had taken place,
00:01:27 - has been, has extended the concept somewhat. These influences may challenge Oldenburg's theory, and it was thought that a contemporary approach and new examples were needed. Topics addressed, by chapters in the book, contributors including, feminist perspective, child friendly places, places and social capital, places in transit. But in all, there were 11 chapters. I won't go through all of them. I chose to engage with the potential of third places
00:02:10 - for community building. And because of my longstanding interest in pedestrian use of the urban environment, I was especially interested in the interface between perceived and actual safety, and in the role of third places that generate eyes on the street for different neighborhood urban types. The concept of eyes on the Street was popularized by a very famous, urbanist Jane Jacobs in 1961. Through her book, death and Life of Great American Cities,
00:02:52 - that active and engaged individuals in a community can help de deter crime. She proposed that people who consciously or even unconsciously use public spaces or observe them from their homes generate natural surveillance of space. And this deters criminal activity, this was all speculation on, on her part, but she suggests that would be perpetrators avoid being in sight of others who may report them. Jacobs also proposed that urban safety isn't just about
00:03:37 - and diversity essential for a socially and culturally healthy city. Aspects of, that Jacobs did not investigate in depth were the perspectives of perceived and actual safety. I approached the research by first reviewing international literature, related to the subject to establish key criteria that could potentially be researched in the field. Now, this, this is an area that I've had long standing interest in, so much of the literature I was familiar with,

"Understanding the Complexity of Human Behavior in Urban Environments: Insights from Case Studies on Third Places and Community Safety"

00:04:16 - of of, of this work. The literature showed that no simple model can explain human behavior in typical constructed environments. Such environments exhibit complex interrelationships of relationships of multidimensional aspects. If you've got, you know, multipliers in there, that, makes everything rather complicated to Inca to engage in case study field work. Key elements identified from the literature were, were extracted, scoping across types of urban form, different occupation densities
00:04:58 - This allowed exposure of broad issues, and it also allowed conclusions that may generate, generalization, conclusions. Eight case studies were undertaken at the Gold Coast Queensland. Now the Gold Coast is where I live, where I am now. It's a city of approximately 650,000 people. It's the fastest growing city in Australia. There were four study areas that I chose with two different but adjacent sites, in each area, neighborhoods call them.
00:05:40 - a range of densities and socioeconomic profiles that had a range of occurrences of third places. So the new dimension of third places come, comes into play at a more detailed level, predictable third places were tested for their presence. In each of the case studies, further elements identified from the literature that may influence neighborhood safety were tested for their presence, including accessibility, well constructed and maintained environments, lighting
00:06:23 - The literature revealed that people's sense of safety mainly related to two aspects, personal violation and burglary and burglary is seen as a violation of another type. The case study research was cons considerably aided through accessing what was then available the international internet accessible Queensland crime map. Just a footnote here that this has subsequently been taken down from the internet. It was freely available at the time,
00:07:05 - of people became rather concerned that anybody could look up their own neighborhood, see where their house is, and look at all of the criminal activity that was going on around them. And, and it was thought that this, this wasn't in the best interest of society. but this is a digital data bank of all crimes recorded in Queensland. Over a 10 to 15 year period, crimes are categorized under standard classifications in, in the police world, with their location, the date and time of the crime event,
00:07:47 - The data can be viewed two dimensionally at neighborhood plan level that shows every building and the land use and streets. When the studied neighborhood was cross referred to Bureau of Census data, reasonably reliable people, density and socioeconomic profiles were able to be identified. My background is first of all in architecture and secondly in urban design, mainly in education, but with some practice and certainly in research, I've been an academic most of my career.

"Exploring Urban Design: Educational Foundations and Influential Theories for Enhancing Community Safety"

00:08:31 - architecture, I completed a ma completed a Master of Urban Design in 1976. That was actually at Manchester University, England, and later a PhD titled Epistemology of City Center Urban Design Guidelines, A study of the Australian Scene. So you can sense from this that I'm looking for how design intervention through guidelines can address, the improvement of performance of urban areas, and both qualifications exposed me to wide range of theories and practices.
00:09:13 - I elected on theories, concepts and practice in urban design, which included design measures that can be taken to improve personal safety. I've supervised several PhDs and master's research projects that scope across the subject, and I've researched and published on aspects of the subject with, I haven't counted them all out, probably 10 or 15, publications that, that touch on the subject in different ways. I'm going to connect here, with first of all the literature, beyond oldenberg.
00:09:55 - of third places and safety key influential publications are Appleton, the experience of Landscape, Cal Horn, design out crime gal, cities for people, hillier and evidence based approach to crime and urban design. lowen perceived safety from crime in the urban environment, and minary measuring crime prevention through environmental design, as well as Newman, with his seminal work on defensible space. Now, just as an observation, these are all English
00:10:36 - mostly from the United States of America and England, but also one or two from Australia across the literature. Third places and eyes on the Street are not necessarily explicitly referred to in those terms, but the underlying concepts are present. Oldenberg sums up third places as, and I quote, anchors of community life where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces and make new acquaintances. He goes on to say what suburbia cries out for are the means
00:11:21 - regularly, and ably a place on the corner. Here I'm reminded of the theme song of the 1980s sitcom series. Cheers. If you, if you've seen that, you'll, you'll, you'll hear the echoes of where everybody knows your name and are glad you came more broadly, most third places in contemporary neighborhoods are not as intimate as in cheers, but many of the nodding acquaintance's characteristics are present.
00:12:01 - with numerous countries having adopted guidelines for designing urban environments that are conducive to building social capital and are intended to reduce urban crime. These embrace principles derive from both eyes on the street and third places. A fa familiar reference that is used a a across most of the English speaking world and translated elsewhere is Sted, an acronym for crime prevention through environmental design, which is often inserted as a compliance requirement,

"Exploring the Impact of Community Design on Safety and Social Capital: Insights from Urban Neighborhoods"

00:12:40 - and for the rehabilitation of existing, urban environments. Fascinating. I love, I love Cheers, especially Sam Malone. Really good. Anyway, let's keep going. Urban planners, how can they promote the development of third places going forward? the, some key factors here, of the eight, and I'll refer now to, to the field work of my study of the eight neighborhoods, neighborhoods studied the gated community retirement village, and the intentional community Eco Village had the lowest levels of actual crime.
00:13:24 - of safety in such communities is higher than for regular suburbs. So we're talking here perception, but it's also actual the sales literature for such communities emphasize safety, which inforce perception, most mentioned studies in included third places. Both of those mentioned studies include third places, including a social club community, open space, and a retail outlet. But I never considered these to be highly significant in adding to the perception of safety. For these examples, the most relevant factor for both is
00:14:07 - that there is a strong sense of community. In the case of the gated community, this is derived from the surrounding enclosure, fenced place, high levels of maintenance, good lighting, the diligence of occupants, giving eyes on the street, close neighborhood relationships and closed circuit security cameras, and of course the security gate that restricted access. In the case of the ego village, there's a strong sense of community also, but here the underpinning value is that of sustainability,
00:14:53 - close neighbors, surveillance cameras, good lighting and high maintenance. Despite the, high performance relating to both perceived and actual safety. A downside to gated communities is that they tend to reclusiveness and have less wide neighborhood engagement, thereby not contributing much to so social capital in a wider sense. The literature also suggests that because of high security, that deters would be criminals,
00:15:37 - to adjacent areas, so it's not, again, contributing to the betterment of the wider social community. The eco community, on the other hand, is an open access one that proudly welcomes visitors to view the numerous sustainability innovations, thus contributing positively to social capital. In the studies of the two suburbs with busy shopping streets, they had both the highest level of crime, but curiously, the highest number of third places that
00:16:16 - This starts to challenge the theory. An explanation from criminology literature suggests that would be perpetrators of crime, find that busy places are convenient for masking their activities because the would be perpetrator blends into the crowd. Clearly, in this study, the presence of high numbers of third places alone is insufficient to de deter crime. Despite the wider community's perception, that business equates to high bus busyness equates to higher safety.

"Examining the Role of Urban Design and Community Safety in Socioeconomic Suburbs"

00:16:59 - They were very accessible, had surveillance cameras, and had good lighting. The crime events there were pretty, even across day and nighttime. The, the two regular suburbs had a medium level of crime, a medium level of eyes on the street, and a medium number of third places. They had high levels of night lighting, pri a lot of PR private surveillance. they were well maintained and were very accessible. These are mid to high socioeconomic, suburbs. The lowest socioeconomic regular suburb
00:17:40 - Similar to that in the shopping streets. This suburb had lower maintenance of private property, but good lighting, but lighting and accessibility. There appeared to be fewer private surveillance systems present. And the eighth, study area was a rural residential suburb. It had low levels of crime, second only to the gated and the intentional communities. There were no third places, but there was a lot of open space. The suburb was very accessible
00:18:23 - there was lower lighting than in the other study areas, but there was a high level of private surveillance, through cameras and a high level of eyes on the street with occupants being able to view the movement of strangers who were conspicuous, from a distance. What can urban planners and local governments promote and develop as suggested in the literature and confirmed in this study, third places alone cannot create con community cohesion and a sense of security. While urban planners
00:19:01 - to promote urban elements such as public works, maintenance, street lighting, signage, zoning, and development control, these need to be exercised selectively and they need to fall within the context of the wider complex web of interrelationships. A key recommendation from me is to, to avoid a blanket or panacea approach. A lesson is passed to us from Kevin Lynch, who developed the concept of strengthening the image of a city using the elements of clear paths,
00:19:46 - through studying a city. He saw these elements as essential for the memorability of that city. However, these elements were taken up by planners and governments as reliable criteria to apply to places to achieve high image ability. Lynch later pointed out that the essential message from his study was that every place needs to be studied in its own terms to identify what key elements are present. Regarding third places and eyes on the street, there is a need
00:20:27 - and problem elements and interact them on a case by case basis. Third places and eyes on the street are pieces of the complex puzzle surrounding community building and perceived an actual safety. Circumstances at Indi, individual places vary, influenced by one or a combination of factors with urban form being significant as revealed in my study, the function of third places, their location, accessibility, opening hours, level of night lighting, quality

"Exploring Community Building and Safety in a Post-Pandemic World: A Call for Further Research"

00:21:06 - and spaces, surveillance apparatus and the level of nearby pedestrian vehicular activity all play a part. And all of this warrants further research beyond neighborhood safety, the capacity for the building of social capital as an essential part of the conversation, in this post covid pandemic time, which disrupted third place usage. Further research is needed to identify what has changed, potentially leading to how to provide community building opportunities
00:22:07 - And in conclusion, further research is also needed to investigate the impact of the rapidly expanding digital devices and social media environments on people's sense of safety and on personal contact and the need for, and the role of physical places to improve social cohesion.

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