{"id":97406,"date":"2025-12-16T23:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/97406\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T23:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:03:10","slug":"how-reliance-on-hostile-architecture-reflects-our-abandonment-of-public-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/97406\/","title":{"rendered":"How reliance on \u2018hostile architecture\u2019 reflects our abandonment of public space"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Bus benches with dividers on Second Avenue. (Photo by Calista Stocker\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

In 2017, the Metropolitan Transit System spent $1.4 million upgrading bus stop benches throughout the county. In addition to improved water drainage and material updates, the new benches came with dividers, which their contractor refers to as \u201cvagrant bars.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

That was a year after the city of San Diego raced to install jagged rocks<\/a> downtown under Interstate 5 in time for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Petco Park, and five years before the Downtown Partnership built a controversial bike rack\/bench<\/a> designed to deter lying down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These are all examples of what urban designers call \u201chostile architecture.\u201d Commonly referred to as \u201canti-homeless architecture\u201d or \u201cdefensive design,\u201d the concept is used to describe public infrastructure design intended to subtly (or not so subtly) change behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Missing bench at a Second Avenue bus stop. (Photo by Calista Stocker\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

San Diego-based urban designer Howard Blackson argues that hostile architecture reflects the hostility of human nature.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Hostile architecture] makes people feel bad. \u2018Oh, gosh, look what we\u2019re doing.\u2019\u201d But then, when you walk down the street and you encounter a person who\u2019s mentally ill and on the streets living, it makes people very, very fearful \u2026 And it creates a dialogue within our community about the level of public interaction,\u201d Blackson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While common modern-day examples target unhoused populations and intend to prevent sitting, sleeping, lying down or loitering, hostile architecture goes beyond a bus bench \u2013 it has a long history. <\/p>\n

Moat-surrounded castles. Low-clearance bridges built to block buses<\/a> traveling from poor New York neighborhoods to Long Island beaches. Victorian-era London designs like urine deflectors<\/a>. Segregation-era Detroit\u2019s Birwood Wall, used to enforce that separation<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hostile architecture, however, also can be the lack of infrastructure. Some bus benches in San Diego have been removed<\/a>. Public bathrooms constantly face closure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the term \u201chostile architecture\u201d has entered the cultural zeitgeist \u2014 with New Yorkers making an Instagram account to capture their most creative examples \u2014 people have taken notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s the most vulnerable people that is targeted and they don\u2019t have anywhere else to go,\u201d said North Park resident Adam Alas, who relies on MTS buses. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s personally affected me, but I\u2019m aware of it, and I understand exactly what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Irna Jane, another San Diegan reliant on public transportation, the dividers help her feel safe: \u201cThey\u2019re really alright. I don\u2019t think I would like it [without them].\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>MTS bus bench with dividers on Second Avenue. (Photo by Calista Stocker\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

MTS spokesperson Hector Zerme\u00f1o says the bench dividers are the industry standard and meet all ADA requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe upgraded seating is more comfortable and better suited for daily transit use,\u201d Zerme\u00f1o stated. \u201cThe updated bench design improves usability by providing defined seating space, added arm support and a layout intended to prioritize availability for customers waiting for transit.\u201d<\/p>\n

While MTS is responsible for transit architecture, other hostile architecture examples come from decisions made by city leaders or private developers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Spheres added to a ledge outside Lani Coffee. (Photo by Calista Stocker)<\/p>\n

Some, however, are hard to track down. Sometime between 2019 and 2022, spheres were added to a concrete ledge outside Lani Coffee in the Marina District by an unknown source.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unhoused downtown resident Starr Howen is frustrated by the city\u2019s various methods to prevent sitting and lying. Howen often looks for outdoor seating when waiting for various doctor and government appointments, but often resorts to using her bike seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not fair to me, and clearly it\u2019s not fair to the next person,\u201d Howen said. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re supposed to be able to sit down at a place somewhere if we can\u2019t go inside. Why do we have to go a block away when we\u2019re waiting right here?\u201d<\/p>\n

In Blackson\u2019s 36 years of experience designing for cities and private developers, he has watched how downtown infrastructure intentionally obstructs public space access.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens is the streetscapes are devoid of people because the people just don\u2019t touch the ground \u2026 We\u2019ve essentially given up on street life. The streets and the parks are where civilization, people, come together. That\u2019s our public space, our common space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many downtown San Diego high-rises, he says, are built with a bottom floor of businesses, middle floors of parking garage and top floors of residential. As a result, the apartments are only accessible via a resident\u2019s car entering the garage and do not have direct street access.<\/p>\n

Blackson uses East Village as an example of this design, where a lack of street access and public services discourages walkability and community and reinforces the demand for security.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[This design] creates the perception of fear and the perception of being isolated,\u201d Blackson said. \u201c\u2026 But I think you create that reality because then you have all these gates and all these things, and then any sort of person from the outside becomes an intruder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackson argues that hostile architecture targeting unhoused populations creates the very narrative it tries to fix, all while harming those it tries to comfort.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBy making public places hostile towards [those] who are unable to rent private space, it makes our common public realm hostile for everyone because we\u2019re all people and we all live public and private lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bus benches with dividers on Second Avenue. (Photo by Calista Stocker\/Times of San Diego) In 2017, the Metropolitan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1853,53301,1493,53302,17603,983,2855,74,76,75,53303],"class_list":{"0":"post-97406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-architecture","9":"tag-bus-bench","10":"tag-homelessness","11":"tag-hostile-architecture","12":"tag-metropolitan-transit-system","13":"tag-north-park","14":"tag-public-transit","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-headlines","17":"tag-san-diego-news","18":"tag-urban-design"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}