Changing public space

easy access (Lofland, 1998). This can be achieved by contorted or confusing paths of approach,
but also by suggesting that one needs to pay to enter the particular area, for example at sidewalk
cafés where people are given the impression that they need to order a drink to be able to stay. The
result, called slippery space (Flusty, 1997) or introversion (Loukaitou-Sideris & Banerjee, 1998), is
illustrated by plazas in central Los Angeles:
Their exteriors give few clues to the space within. Design features are utilized to achieve
an inward orientation of these spaces, which are supposedly open to the public: high
enclosing walls, blank facades, isolation from the street, de-emphasis of street-level
accesses, major entrances through parking structures, and the like …. (Loukaitou-Sideris
& Banerjee, 1998: 96)
Lastly, secured public space can be characterised by the installation of ‘sadistic’ street furniture,
a term coined by Davis (1992). The purpose is to discourage certain behaviour. Spiked metal
bars prevent people from sitting on ledges, benches with multiple armrests keep people from
lying down, and sprinkler systems can douse ‘undesirables’ at random moments (Ellin, 2001;
Bergenhenegouwen & Van Weesep, 2003). Such places of deliberate discomfort have been
called prickly space (Flusty, 1997). In the most ultimate form, this tactic implies the removal of all
street furniture. Brunt and Deben (2001: 17) have called this ‘lady shaving’ and state that this is
increasingly done with the intention to create a ‘pleasant emptiness’ or ‘grandiose perspectives’.
The latent motive is to improve the controllability of the particular area by preventing loitering.
Many of the instruments described above are accompanied by strict regulation, including a
zero-tolerance and target-hardening policy to tackle both petty and serious crime (Deben, 1999).
The number of rules has increased, prohibiting behaviour such as smoking, sleeping, skating,
etc. in public spaces. Sometimes the rules apply to a specific user group. Staeheli and Mitchell
describe how young persons under 18 are only allowed to enter the Carousel Center Mall in
Syracuse in company of an adult in the weekend: “Youth are apparently part of the public
when consuming, but not when socialising – or at least not on Friday and Saturday evening …”
(Staeheli & Mitchell, 2006: 987). The example shows that youth – an important consumption
group – are sometimes already seen as undesirable users.
In the Netherlands, the indirect instruments described above are also used after
redevelopment of public space. A Dutch sociologist, surveying how the centre of Amsterdam
has changed over the past few decades, found that the iconic krul (or curl – an open-air urinal)
as well as many benches and phone booths had disappeared, and that many alleys, passages,
stairwells, and porches were permanently or intermittently closed to the public (Brunt, 1996).
Just recently, Rotterdam introduced a new indirect instrument called the Mosquito, a device
that emits ultrasonic noise said to be audible and irritating only to people under age 25. It
is currently being tested in the metro station Zuidplein and is supposed to disperse loitering
youths. Similar changes can be observed in other Dutch cities, because the control over people
and unsafe situations in public space has become a major subject within the general debate on
public space in the Netherlands. The general adage in public space policy has for a long time
been ‘clean-whole-secure’ (schoon-heel-veilig). Hajer and Reijndorp (2001: 9-11) denote this as
the safety discourse. More recently, cities have realised that they should look beyond the adage;
that it is not about the cleanest square, but the most meaningful one. Since then, aesthetics and
entertainment have become important elements of contemporary public space, which Hajer and
Reijndorp define as the mobility and design discourse. The mobility discourse focuses on public
space as transitional space or non-space (Augé, 1995), characterised by a lack of social or historic
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