The Amazonification of Public Space

There are still plenty of great third places where you can hang out comfortably as long as you want, of course—but they increasingly feel like luxury goods, carrying an expectation of higher spending or restricting access outright (there are also true public spaces like parks and libraries, which are a separate category altogether). When a single c... See more

Over the years, I have written a lot about commercial (and domestic) spaces becoming more “logistical.” The degraded customer experience may be worthwhile from a cost-benefit perspective—and we can at least hope to recoup our losses in other domains, such as convenience—but the plight of physical space is real. The less pleasant it is to spend time... See more