One of the tragedies of modern cities, especially ones that had rejected sound URBAN principles for the fragmented SUB-urban isolation, is that we spend more and more energy, time, and valuable resource into building, sustaining, and ever-expanding infrastructure for cars. One deletrious effect of this type of growing a city is that we leave our homes through the garage door, get in our individual cars, and drive away to wherever we're going.....never having to come in contact with any one of our neighbors, let alone any of the diverse group of people living in our community!

To remedy this lack of community, I would propose a space like what colleges and universities have...eg: Memorial Union at NDSU, the Maize at Concordia, and Comstock at MSUM...a public and civic minded space where people gather not only for shopping, but a space also for different civic groups to raise awareness about issues they care about, recruit new members; a space for street musicians; parades, celebrations/festivals or protest marches; small vendors; farmers market...you get the idea? A space for people to see and come in contact with others of our city and be seen/heard/acknowledged in return.

In short, a space like what is available during the street fair...except all year round!