The following principles inform The Plaza Perspective‘s articles:
Community is essential for happy people and
societies
For people and societies to flourish, neighbors must know each other and play regular supportive roles in each others’ lives. This must ultimately happen not through indirect methods such as the internet but through face to face contact. The ills of modern society – loneliness, psychological disorder, intolerance, drug abuse, a lack of free time, and other issues – can all be ameliorated by strong communities.
Further reading
- Your Neighbors Are Waiting For You To Ring Their Doorbell
- 4 Easy Steps To Building Community On Your Block
- 5 Tactics To Make You An Instant Block Party Pro
- Why You Should Hold Meetings On The Sidewalk
- It’s Time To Stop Building High Rises
Community can only thrive with 
access to common land
Strong communities need common land. Such land includes pedestrian-priority residential streets, pedestrian malls, and plazas/squares. Such common land must be located in the heart of communities, be accessible by public transportation, be well maintained, and offer a healthy number of activities.
Further reading
- 6 Inspiring Pedestrian Streets in the US
- 5 Essential Ingredients Of A Great Public Space
- How To Answer Objections To Pedestrianization
- Children Belong Among Us, Not Shut Away In Playgrounds
Streets are for people, first and foremost
Transforming streets into places that prioritize people and social contact over vehicular movement must represent the main way of restoring common land to the people. Walkable towns and cities offer the best opportunities for people to meet each other and to live in beautiful, safe, and affordable places. “Walkable” means not only walking access to all one’s daily needs but also that the walk to such places should be pleasant and danger-free.
Further reading
- Why Road-Widening Doesn’t Work… And What Does
- The Complete Case For One To Two-Way Street Conversions
- The 10-Minute Neighborhood
- Are Your Merchants Resisting Change? Here’s How To Turn Them Into Radicals
We all have the right to live in a beautiful 
place
If a visitor from Venice, Italy, thinks that where the rest of us live is beautiful then we have succeeded; until then, we have work to do. Beauty requires fully embracing the human scale: Destinations are easily reached by walking, buildings and public spaces are the appropriate sizes and shapes. Beauty also depends on places designed, built, and approved by local communities with materials that are as natural as possible.
Further reading
