Measuring the public realm: A preliminary assessment of the link between public space and sense of community

Urban planners are vitally interested in the role, meaning, and use of public space. The recent trend toward building neighborhoods and towns according to the doctrine of new urbanism - a movement which seeks to promote sense of community by adhering to certain principles about the physical arrangement of space -brings the debate about the use of public space and its effect on social life to the forefront. New urbanism stresses the need to resurrect a more civic focus in town planning principles via the provision of public space (Kunstler, 1996; Hochstein, 1994), a view based on the premise that the value of public gathering places in generating a sense of community is paramount (Boyer, 1994; Hayden, 1995).