What is the single largest physical asset owned by most cities and towns, and therefore by the public?    Your first guess isn’t likely to be correct.  The answer is the public way – the street.

Now think of the word:  “Street.”  Quick – what image comes to mind?

Cars?  More cars!

There are other possible images:  On the Fourth of July we gather in huge crowds to watch parades go down the street.  Kids play basketball, baseball, and hockey in the street.  Hand-written posters announce block parties that bring neighbors together to socialize in the street.  Festivals bring music or local foods or theater into the streets.  In some neighborhoods, families still hang out on the stoop and socialize in the street.  Some lucky commercial areas have reclaimed the entire street – the vehicular roadway, the car-parking spaces, and the pedestrian sidewalk – as shared space: full of places to sit and talk and eat and buy things and attracting additional customers to local stores.  Occasionally, farmers’ markets take over parking lots.  Trolleys and buses can take up part of a street, as can bike lanes and pedestrian crossings.  Bus stops, benches, median strips, planted green areas, and even small gardens can be part of the street.