A neighborhood commons is a shared community space where neighborhood residents can come together to celebrate life, and young and old can be in each other’s presence but not in each other’s way. It can be a small-scale, multi-use facility, combining a sitting area, tot lot, playground, park, and community garden, designed and constructed on one or more vacant lots by residents, volunteer professionals, and youth work teams.
The term "neighborhood commons" was first widely used by landscape architect, educator, and psychologist Karl Linn, who guided the creation of many such spaces during the 1960s through 1980s, primarily in the northeastern United States.
Read more about Neighborhood Commons: Karl Linn and Community Design Centers
Famous quotes containing the words neighborhood and/or commons:
“It is remarkable how many creatures live wild and free though secret in the woods, and still sustain themselves in the neighborhood of towns, suspected by hunters only.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“[I]n Great-Britain it is said that their constitution relies on the house of commons for honesty, and the lords for wisdom; which would be a rational reliance if honesty were to be bought with money, and if wisdom were hereditary.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)