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Home » Rational Urbanism » Where to Sit

Where to Sit

I began my post yesterday with a little joke: “Have a seat.”

  There’s a bench on that triangle, see:
  
That triangle is located here:

  
So either someone actually believed that a human being might fight their way through the on and off ramps connecting Interstate 91 to the Holyoke Mall to get to that bench OR they thought that a fabulous way to humanize that place would be to allow people to imagine, to project perhaps, what it would be like if a person sat on that bench to enjoy that “public space”; the Marquise de Sade perhaps, or one of his assistants. 

Interestingly, there are no benches to be found in this public space: 

 
There used to be benches. Lots of them. Really nice benches. But the wrong people were sitting on them so they had to be removed for repairs. Years and years ago. No benches here either:

  

So people waiting for food at the soup kitchen sit on the plinth of the statue:

  
Animals.

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4 thoughts on “Where to Sit”

  1. Eric says:
    March 27, 2016 at 8:36 am

    Two great posts. Thank you. I have to visit Springfield sometime.

    Reply
    • Steve says:
      March 27, 2016 at 8:40 am

      Come! Sit a spell…wait…stand a spell!!!

      Reply
  2. Cynthia Van Ness says:
    March 27, 2016 at 1:21 pm

    It’d be a great social media project to solicit photos of wildly inappropriate bench placements. And omissions.

    Reply
  3. Randy says:
    April 10, 2016 at 8:27 am

    For shits and giggles, you should have had a picnic on that triangle to illustrate the absurdity of the situation. When I lived in the area, I thought of doing the same thing at that HUGE rotary at the intersections of Routes 5 and 57 in Agawam. There’s a tremendous amount of manicured landscape that would otherwise make a great park.

    Reply

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