Urban Design and Protest

6: Reading Response: How Urban Design can Make or Break a Protest

In 2020, Peter Schwartzstein published an article in Smithsonian Magazine titled “How Urban Design Can Make or Break Protests.” Schwartzstien often works on geo-political issues and consults with UNICEF; however, he is also a “semi-regular” contributor to the history stories within Smithsonian Magazine (Schwartzstien). Within his article, Schwartstein analyzes how the design of a city impacts the ability of protests to form. Schwartzstein, in particular, notes how the layout of a city either encourages or discourages the formation of large groups. The cities designed with large, open areas for pedestrians enable protest as they create numerous sites for congregation. Mainly, they create easily communicated spaces and can support large gatherings. The example Schwartzstein provides of this is Cario and the 2011 Arab Spring revolutionaries (Smithsonian Magazine). However, as Schwartzstein counters, cities that lack these areas discourage protest as they are not accessible locations or routes for people to move about. To highlight this concept, Schwartzstein provides New York as an example. As a visual illustration of these ideas, the images below contrast what protests look like in both cities.

All Images Courtesy of: Magazine, Smithsonian. “How Urban Design Can Make or Break a Protest.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 29 June 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/geography-protest-how-urban-design-can-make-or-break-people-power-180975189/.

One component of Schwarzstien’s article that is particularly interesting is the questions he raises about how intentional these consequences may be. Namely, Schwarzstein notes that, while cities usually aren’t initially designed to be protest-proof, “myriad states have reworked traditional rally points so as to inhibit the emergence of large crowds” (Smithsonian Magazine). This commentary exemplifies the idea that political motivations can be behind the design – and changes to – of a city. Furthermore, this also expresses Schwartzstein’s concern that the modern political climate is working to restrict people’s ability to protest. Schwartzstein particularly alludes to this concern in his discussion of Washington, D.C. Originally, D.C. was designed to have broad avenues and many open areas. However, following 9/11, the city changed considerably; as Schwartzstein states, “new walls, new fences, and new barriers have isolated protesters from key government structures” (Smithsonian Magazine). One should note that the correlation to 9/11 is intentional. Specifically, this statement shows that Schwartzstein believes that terrorism is, at least partly, the reason why the atmosphere around protesting has changed. Even if these opinions are untrue, Schwartzstein’s observations show that city planning has shifted to be less encouraging of protests. This indicates that future generations will have an even more difficult time successfully organizing and protesting if these trends continue.

While this article is still incredibly recent, the past two years have only served to further emphasize the relevance of Schwartzstein’s thoughts. For example, climate change activists have been protesting for many years. Initially, these protests occurred in the highly traditional fashion of large groups walking through cities. These forms of protest still happen. However, the difficulties protestors faced here has led some activist to protest in different locations. For example, the Just Stop Oil group performed a protest by throwing soup onto Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” painting and gluing themselves to the walls (Veltman). This group is not only using art as a form of protest; however, the increase in the frequency of these unusual protests reframes Schwartzstein’s article. If cities are truly being redesigned to discourage protest, will that result in an increase in these less traditional forms of protest? This correlation also leads to one question how such a shift will influence the effectiveness of demonstrations? Ultimately, the answers to these questions will not be known for some time, but asking them now will allow discussions around protests to be more self-reflective. 

Word Count: 579

Works Cited

1. Magazine, Smithsonian. “How Urban Design Can Make or Break a Protest.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 29 June 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/geography-protest-how-urban-design-can-make-or-break-people-power-180975189/.
2. Schwartzstein, Peter. “Bio.” Peter Schwartzstein, http://pschwartzstein.com/bio/.
3. Veltman, Chloe. “Climate Activists Have Been Attacking Artworks Recently, but How Effective Is This?” NPR, NPR, 28 Oct. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/10/28/1131912007/climate-activists-have-been-attacking-artworks-recently-but-how-effective-is-thi.