What makes our neighborhoods feel like home isn't just the buildings that surround us but the countless human connections that happen within them. Author Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani spent decades exploring this phenomenon by asking residents to guide her through their neighborhoods, showing her the places that matter most in their daily lives.

Her approach revealed something profound: places we might walk past without a second glance often contain rich histories and social significance for community members. Take the electronics store in Brooklyn where, years after the owner's death, his cricket-playing friends still gather every Thursday afternoon around a table in the back room. The store remains untouched, merchandise still on shelves, functioning as both informal memorial and vital community space. When planners see only a "redevelopment opportunity" in such places, they miss the essential community functions these spaces serve.

Ready to reconnect with your neighborhood's everyday places? Listen to our full conversation with Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, then visit your local bookstore to pick up "The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places."

Show Notes:

• Buscada is Bendiner-Viani’s interdisciplinary practice, which creates vital spaces for dialogue to foster more just cities through art, strategic planning, and research.
• Get a copy of the book from the publisher MIT Press or check out other ways to buy from the authors website
• Author Recommended Reading: 
  • American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland by Robert O. Self
  • Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehadeh
  • The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring
• To view the show transcripts, click on the episode at https://bookedonplanning.buzzsprout.com/

Confluence
A professional consulting firm comprised of landscape architects, urban designers and planners.

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