Public Space, Private Space & 1963 Chevrolet C10

From our man in south Saskatchewan, Alex Emond:
"In Lafleche, this old building immediately made me think of "Wolf Willow" where Stegner describes a place that the town's business owners built as a draw, a gesture of consideration, for the farmers and their families who came into town. A public restroom, a place where people could freshen up after a dusty drive into town. Men's side. Woman's side. You could even bunk there for a rest, a nap, or stay the night if it rained and the roads got too gumbo to driv . This building might be one of the very last  examples standing of such a thing. And, hey, parked alongside of it was this fine Chevy pickup. Nobody is in a mad hurry to erase the past in this mellow corner of the country. You gotta love that."-AE

[Many farm towns in Western Canada had these retreats. There was certainly one in Olds, Alberta when I worked on the wheat harvests there. I guess everything is privatized now: go pee at the MacDonald's up on the interstate (but don't even think of napping there!) The shrinkage of public spaces that allow people to feel respected is something that infuriates me.  Private space masquerading as public space just won't do: the North American shopping mall, for example. Why are malls so boring and depressing, and actual downtowns or main streets encouraging and stimulating? (Of course many once-lively downtowns and main streets have become more or less shopping malls, in spirit: e.g. Santa Barbara, CA; Fredricksburg TX; Camden ME) Public space needs to be about a mix of things, not just shopping: any urban geographer will tell you that. I feel alive in space (buildings, towns, streets, built landscapes) that somehow allow me to feel a sense of the dignity of being human. I never feel any trace of human dignity in a mall, where humans are merely shopping machines, or wannabes. Malls make me ashamed of our species. Everyone seems like a teenager at the mall, even the old people, who should know better, wearing ludicrous branded clothes (isn't branding just a strategy to sell things that have actually become commodities?), sucking on sugar, onlooking, consuming, yearning. But not quite living. 
       No dignity allowed to humans=bad space That's what it comes down to: my litmus test for architecture and built space.]--PB