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Can you imagine kids playing freely on urban streets? Stephanie H. Murray’s piece on so-called ‘playstreets’ (free archived view) evokes a world that once thrived but has since faded from our collective memory.
Consider this: in the 1920s, as cars slowly began to overtake streets, US courts routinely ruled that “a child has an absolute right to use the street, that it’s the responsibility of everyone else to watch out for the child. The parent does not have to be there.” Motorists pleading innocence at the time were firmly rebuffed: “That’s no excuse. You chose to operate a dangerous machine that gave you, the driver, the responsibility.”
With deliberate efforts by the auto industry – including ‘educating’ children that the street was not a safe space for play – streets became the exclusive domain of cars, reduced to nothing more than arteries for transportation. In this transformation, something vital has been lost.
The street, once alive with human activity, now lies bare, ruled by the tyranny of the car. However, a grassroots movement is gaining momentum, seeking to reclaim these spaces for life, not just transit. Playstreets – neighbour-led, temporary street closures – carve out safe spaces for children to play freely together.
According to Murray, playstreets reveal a profound truth: “Suddenly, the modern approach to children’s play, in which parents shuttle their kids to playgrounds or other structured activities, seemed both needlessly extravagant and wholly insufficient. Kids didn’t need special equipment or lessons; they just needed to be less reliant on their time-strapped parents to get outside.”
This simple act of reclaiming the street for play does more than provide children with a place to run around. As Murray notes, “Neighborhoods across the country have discovered that allowing kids to play out in the open has helped residents reclaim something they didn’t know they were missing: the ability to connect with the people living closest to them.”
It turns out that playstreets are a catalyst, breaking down the barriers we’ve unconsciously erected between ourselves and our neighbours. They transform the street from a place of transit to a place of lingering, of chance encounters, of shared experiences. It’s a recognition that our car-centric urban planning has robbed us of something fundamental to the human experience.
“Playgrounds are one of the few places in America where striking up a conversation with a stranger is considered socially acceptable and even expected. By siloing play there, we may have inadvertently undercut children’s capacity to bind us to one another.”
The playstreet, then, is not just about children. It’s about all of us. It’s a reminder of what we’ve lost and a glimpse of what we might regain: the joy of spontaneous interaction, the richness of community life, and the simple pleasure of knowing and being known by those around us.
– Kai
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Apps & Sites
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Learn to draw or play music
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Simply is a suite of apps centred around helping people pick up a new hobby. Learn how to play the piano or the guitar, or how to sing. There is also an app that teaches you to draw better. Their music apps come with a ‘song recognition’ feature that listens to what you’re playing and then makes suggestions for improvements accordingly.
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Tinkercad is a free, web-based 3D modelling tool, widely used for educational purposes, hobby projects and prototyping. Its user-friendly interface offers an easy intro to 3D design, electronics and coding.
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OpenResearch is a new US-based “nonprofit research organization with a startup mentality that asks complex, open-ended questions”. One of their first big projects was a comprehensive unconditional cash study where they gave 1000 people $1000 per month over three years (and enrolled 2000 others with $50/month as a control group). The findings are captured in depth on this beautiful website. This overview with some interactive statistics summarises the findings and the many benefits the cash had on people’s lives.
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A fascinating science project: Dawn Chorus maps over 55,000 recordings of bird songs from around the world, assigning them to species with a little help by AI. “Many bird species are so-called indicator species as they provide information about different properties of a habitat. Long-term collections of early-morning bird sound recordings can thus help us to detect changes in habitats, for example by telling us where species disappear or appear, or how birds change their behaviour.”
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Worthy Five: Jihern Baek
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Five recommendations by product designer and Bay Area maximalist Jihern Baek
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A video worth watching:
Made by San Francisco documentarian Mario Riveira, this video highlights the Bay Area’s culture around skateboarding/hill bombing. It serves as a symbol for local culture, community, and especially recently, defiance against local law enforcement.
A concept worth understanding:
Kenya Hara, who is perhaps best known for his work as the art director of MUJI, references the concept of ‘making the known unknown’ in his book Designing Design. This concept refers to a practice where we understand how little we know about something as we get to know it more deeply. As a designer, the concept of identifying more questions nicely juxtaposes my typical responsibility to find answers.
A book worth reading:
How to Kill a City by P.E. Moskowitz is a great primer to understand the current state of major cities. It delves into various dimensions – like culture, government and policy, urban planning and infrastructure, and real estate and displacement – that have impacted many US cities.
An activity worth doing:
Hosting more listening parties! Invite some friends, pick out a record or a playlist, and enjoy/connect! If you’re not sure what to listen to, my friend and I have been enjoying Elevator Music.
A quote worth repeating:
In Julio Torres’ Problemista, Tilda Swinton’s character shares these invaluable words: “I want you to promise me that you don’t just plump for these unacceptable options that the thoughtless people that run this planet are going to put in front of you. When they tell you you can only turn left or right, you let them know that you are going up. Always send food back, stand up for yourself, and remember, it’s not just a matter of everything or nothing at all. It’s everything or everything.”
(Did you know? Friends of DD can respond to and engage with guest contributors like Jihern Baek in one click.)
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Books & Accessories
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Navigating a fractured reality
In her latest book, culture critic Naomi Klein explores her experience of being mistaken for Naomi Wolf and uses this doppelganger phenomenon to delve into broader themes of political polarisation, conspiracy theories, and social media’s impact on modern society. A hard-to-define book with a deep dive into uncharted waters. “With the assistance of Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peele, Alfred Hitchcock, and bell hooks, among other accomplices, Klein uses wry humor and a keen sense of the ridiculous to face the strange doubles that haunt us – and that have come to feel as intimate and proximate as a warped reflection in the mirror.”
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A mix of daily life, science & philosophy
Part graphic novel, part illustrated essay, and part memoir – some friends had many positive things to say about this collection of writing by Melbourne-based artist and author Sarah Firth. She tackles big themes like identity, the human experience, climate anxiety and more with grace and humour that will make you feel grounded. “With raw honesty and vulnerability, Firth reminds us that the profane and the sacred, the tender and the cruel, the rigorous and the silly, all coexist in dynamic tension.”
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Overheard on Threads
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And to my great grandchildren I leave my 38,563 display fonts.
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Food for Thought
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When UK residents temporarily closed their street to traffic and allowed children to play outside, something magical happened. It helped not just kids but also adults connect with each other, highlighting how car-centric environments have made it harder for families to engage in community life. A lovely piece that summarises the impact (and the limits) of the so-called ‘playstreets’ movement. “Playgrounds are one of the few places in America where striking up a conversation with a stranger is considered socially acceptable and even expected. By siloing play there, we may have inadvertently undercut children's capacity to bind us to one another.” (Paywalled – free archived view)
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Gen Z’er Freya India argues that social media has redefined friendship into shallow interactions, leaving her generation lonelier despite being more connected than ever. Her advice? For friendship, seek out those who aren’t online much. “Actually, my advice is keep whoever has the least interest in your social media. The ones who take your online persona the least seriously. They want the whole you, and they know an Instagram grid couldn’t possibly capture it. They like your ugly laugh, not the fake one you use for TikTok. They like those candid, silly pictures when you forgot to perform yourself for a moment, not the staged Instagram selfies that don’t even look like you. Even better – they cringe at that! Keep those people! The ones that aren’t afraid to laugh at you!”
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This is more of an addendum to an article on book sales I shared in DD298: A diligent reader pointed me to this response to the original essay, highlighting that, yes, most books sell fewer copies than expected, but popular titles can still be very profitable for publishers. “Is one billion plus a lot of print books? Depends on your point of view. For comparison’s sake, there were 825 million movie tickets sold in the US and Canada in 2023. So roughly as many books are purchased as movie tickets, two somewhat comparable entertainment options in terms of price.”
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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I featured the photographic work of Daniel Rueda & Anna Devís before and it’s nice to see they are still going strong: under the moniker ‘Happytecture’ they share small but highly stylised moments of visual joy. Their body of work is now also available as a coffee table book.
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Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist Raku Inoue experiments with flowers and other plant materials to create striking compositions.
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A stunning rooftop conversion from Isfahan, Iran: the Kharposhteh Apartment by SE-BÆR Studio seeks to revive the once-vibrant rooftop culture that has gradually faded into obscurity. “Roofs were once integral parts of homes and cities, serving as multifunctional spaces for various activities, from social gatherings to keeping pigeons. However, in modern times, these spaces have been neglected, relegated to housing utility fixtures and storage. With the rich historical backdrop of Isfahan, the project poses a poignant question: how can we reclaim and reimagine these abandoned spaces in a contemporary context?”
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Sayke is a modern and elegant didone typeface with serifs made for book covers, signs, magazines and brochures.
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Notable Numbers
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New blood tests could help doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s disease faster and more accurately. While primary care doctors’ initial diagnosis was 61% accurate and the specialists’ 73%, the new blood test was 91% accurate, according to a new study.
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In its 2022 publication, the UN estimated that, in its medium scenario, the global population would peak in 2086 at around 10.4 billion people. This year’s edition brings this peak forward slightly to 2084, with the population topping at just under 10.3 billion.
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Pixar’s sequel Inside Out 2 has crossed a major box office milestone, topping $1.505 billion to become the biggest animated movie of all time.
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Classifieds
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The Week in a GIF
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Reply with your favourite GIF and it might get featured here in a future issue.
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