Another thing one finds when organizing for change in public or semi-public spaces is the incredible density of red tape, which ultimately neutralizes non-antagonistic movements for change, however minor they are.
If someone wants to put in a couple of barbecue pits in a public park, or hire on a couple of student interns for a gardening program, one has to appeal to an incredible ecosystem of bureaucratic resources and processes, which can take a very long time, and consume serious resources.
At the same time, public governing bodies are afraid of the effects of certain changes on legal arrangements governing a given space, or whether a certain activity will require changes in an insurance policy, which can be fatal for a public organization that is pressed for cash.
What all of this amounts to is a pervasive fear from public officials of any kind of change that implies consequences that are more than superficial, a fear that at its base is a fear of upsetting the dense interconnection of often private interests that pervade our public sphere, which completely paralyses and shuts down the dynamic forces of a self-determining community.
One finds analogues of this density in our political and economic institutions. The built environment has become so dense, and so full of competing pressures and stimuli, that it has become nearly impossible to assemble a pointed discourse or practical organization for affecting change.
To effectively change something and have its results not only functional but effective, it takes a deep understanding of whatever is being changed. It takes time and energy to build the intellectual and practical understanding required to affect a given system, the demands of which grow with complexity and denseness. More information, density, stimulation, and overall complexity can also be paralyzing in this respect. Where to begin? What to address? One is flitting around from subject to subject, point of leverage to point of leverage, completely impotent and strung out.
To overcome this paralysis, it takes both shedding unnecessary complexity and regaining focus, and actively disobeying the laws, ordinances, and interests governing our public spaces. I say this like it is a solution, but then really these acts come with all sorts of problems of their own. So it goes.
