Many cities in many countries across the world have a place in the centre where people can go … not necessarily for any special purpose, but often just to be, to sit, to eat, to read, to watch, to relax and feel safe. In Italy it is a piazza, in Spain a plaza, in Germany a platz, and so on.

Not necessarily a place full of vegetation, plants or trees … but usually with shade to protect from the sun, usually with a central water feature help you relax or cool down, definitely with areas where people can sit sheltered from the weather.

A city square would serve a special purpose … it is a place where people can go that costs nothing to enter and where you are not expected to spend while you are there. Glenorchy has some places like that ( e.g. Tolosa Park, Montrose Bay) but none are in the centre of town easy for people to walk to.

You might imagine that Glenorchy’s council forecourt (view a short video of it) might serve that purpose. It is in the centre of the CBD. But if you watch what goes on in that lawn you will notice that few people stop … most use the paths in the lawn to go from somewhere to somewhere else. To the library. To their car. To a shopping centre.

Sociologists call places like that “third places” … places that are not home, not work, not education i.e places where you do not have to do anything if you don’t  want to. You can read a good explanation at this link.

It seems that the council lawn is not a third place.

Maybe it should be.

Maybe council should have a plan to make it a third place.

That would require a plan but council seems to lack any vision for what the council lawn could be.

Indeed a casual glance at the lawn gives the impression that changes to the lawn area are ad hoc without any particular destination in mind. That should now change.