How to care

One of the things I like about Denmark is how they care about public spaces. The strong spirit of equality and cooperation is one of the keystones of Danish society. Most people take public spaces for their own and they act accordingly. The streets are usually clean (except for Friday nights). And on Saturdays, people stroll through the shopping streets, sit in the park and the public space is full. Even crowded to my taste. People are everywhere and yet, they keep everything clean. Danes view public spaces as their own, and because of that, they care about it.

Another thing worthy of mention is how Danes can work with public space. Below you can see a fountain on a square, early spring. The weather is cold and damp. No one around to enjoy it.

Flash forward to mid-June. Same fountain, different angle. See those plastic things in the fountain. Those are plastic shovels, rakes and buckets.

Because. They have built a beach next to a fountain! And a wooden platform with picnic tables. And all of that is public. You can enjoy the sand and fountain or just sit down and have a sandwich. And there are children nearly every day playing. And this happens every summer. The platform is assembled, the sand is placed. And after summer, everything disappears again. And people will focus on their home comfort for next few months.

However, this view of public space is mainly Danish thing. Many countries struggle with keeping public spaces in good condition. People do not care and slowly, public spaces fall apart. In most cases, people only care for their own.

Therefore, when people will start to see public space as their own, they might care for them as well. In the end, we all pay for them with taxes. And not caring about public space is going to cost all of us. Danes realise that. We all should, too.

Cheers

Ondrej