It soon became apparent that the alley was not a great place to be: Further down the way was a cardboard box used as a makeshift toilet. Once, he saw a pool of blood and the apparent weapon, a pointy umbrella...
Vogel asked an architect friend what he should do. “She said the answer was simple: All I needed to do was put people in it [the alley],” said Vogel.
— Yes Magazine
Although the traditional civic approach to dangerous alley behavior (violence, drug use, impromptu toilets) is to block off public access and turn them into garbage-only collection points, director of the International Sustainability Institute in Seattle Todd Vogel decided on the opposite approach: put the public back into them, en masse. Poetry readings, World Cup viewings, circus acts, and neighborhood-maintained planters soon transformed the alleys into destination points and greatly enriched the city's civic life. Crucially, the initial idea for all of this came from an architect, of course.
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