Jay Pitter

Check out my 10 Rules For Better Public Spaces 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 This is not intended to be an exhaustive list; I didn’t include public space healing, which is a significant part of my practice. But I’ve captured several key ideas. Thoughts? Additional ideas? #cities #public #space

The fact that property taxes are so central to how people vote suggests that we're not fully appreciating the extraordinary collaborative project that is a city. A city is a grand experiment that we get to invest in—not only through our tax dollars, but relationally, intellectually & spiritually.

Thanks to Claire Nelischer, director of UCLA cityLAB, for hosting me. I shared my book & Public Joy Framework. Concluded by exploring what what co-stewardship of public joy looks like. I am proud that this work is shaping scholarship, practice, policy, narratives, and of course place.

This is the part we don’t talk about enough. The reversal of good placemaking—from literally ripping up bike lanes to reducing library hours to scraping public transit projects—creates cynicism. Someone should calculate both the social and economic cost of this issue.

On April 5, 1977, people with disabilities occupied government buildings across the country with simple demands: access to education, jobs, and public spaces. It has been fifty years since the Section 504 sit-ins, but the fight for those with disabilities continues.

Currently in San Diego, moving between the past and the future. A shot from last week's OPPI Public Joy Walk & Mini Design Charrette in my 'hood, midday call with UK collaborators, and rewatching my sea lion videos from yesterday in La Jolla.

74 social housing apartments currently under construction on the outskirts of Paris By Nicholas Hugoo Architects

BREAKING: Pete Fry has a HUGE lead in the current vote count at this point over current Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, AND the One City, Greens and Cope progressive council candidates would win all 10 Council seats if the count ended now. Will we see a huge progressive take-over of Vancouver Council?

After Friday’s engagement, urban planner Lauren Vraets finished knitting me a beautiful scarf at our dinner table, using yarn called Joy, purchased in my ‘hood. Her knitting is a public joy practice, sparking curiosity & connection in public spaces. Fun fact: Her dad is a two-time Olympic cyclist. 🇨🇦

Consider the glare of the city's gaze. By glare I mean car headlights, illuminated towers, surveillance cameras, digital screens & judgmental expressions. To be still—to insist on our continued presence while refusing to over perform for that gaze—is an expression of dignified belonging.

I got a new library card! I chose the kraken design :)

Six cities, multiple engagements—from closing out the Creative City Summit in Calgary, to convening a small CityLAB session focused on Altadena’s post-fire recovery in Los Angeles, to an author event at the UC San Diego Bookstore bringing together folks from across the university & community.

Transit-oriented development isn't particularly transit-oriented if the average transit user can't afford to live in it. Building high-cost housing around stations while pushing transit-dependent residents further away from them is a contradiction overlooked by status quo planners & advocates.

Such a cute yet strategic way of advancing the pedestrianization of streets. No advocacy or political jargon. No use of the word “closure” just here’s a map of safe, fun places for people. 👌🏾

Here’s my second public joy principle. Public joy doesn’t mean we have to feel joyful about public space crises like encampments, transit safety or violence at festivals. It’s a value & practice that helps us navigate fear, discomfort & anger while choosing connection, hope & collective flourishing.

This year’s Word On The Street was more jammed than an ’80s basement party. Book signings are one of my favourite parts of these events. I ask each book buyer to tell me something about themselves or public joy. I learn so much plus it turns the usual autograph dynamic into an authentic exchange.

They warned us Mamdani would impose Sharia law. Instead, he unleashed the real threat: line dancing in Bryant Park.

I'm harvesting the last of my summer #garden salad greens, including these Garden nasturtiums, which typically #flower from midsummer right through to the first autumn frosts. Both the flowers and the leaves are edible and add a peppery bite to salads #BloomScrolling #KitchenGarden #FlowersOnFriday

Transforming a parking lot into housing where 51 people can experience collective flourishing is top-tier public joy and a powerful public space precedent. #PublicJoyFramework Source: Andrew Boozary MD

From housing to parks to road maintenance, Mayor Mamdani is delivering a master class on impactful and transparent governance that goes beyond values-based messaging. He leverages qualitative, place-based storytelling (alongside actual numbers) to demonstrate daily impact. Exceptional leadership.

Yesterday, during an IG Live with my Jacksonville collaborator Kady, I shared my gratitude for 100-person cohort engaging with the Public Joy Framework in James Weldon Johnson Park — the city’s first park. Implementation at this scale will enable deeper documentation and evaluation of the framework.

Long day. Longer game. Also, I’ve read a few comments across platforms re: bright eyeshadow not being “professional.” Odd ‘cause I’m a boss.

“If you are staring at an example of social disorder or social inefficiency, and the left refuses to explain either why it has happened or how they will fix it, then the right gets to point at someone in the immediate area and say, ‘That’s who did it.’” crazy how much Mamdani speaks my language

The first Public Joy Residency is launching in Jacksonville. My Public Joy Framework will be the foundation for PlacemakingJax’s Public Space Lab, and I’ll guide a 100-person cohort as they apply it at James Weldon Johnson Park. Excited to spend time in the city translating my framework to practice.

Here’s my first Weekly Public Joy Highlight — a series celebrating the people, places, & practices that illuminate public joy. ✨ This week I’m celebrating my friend Prasanna Ranganathan, a lawyer & advocate for more accessible public spaces and public life, bringing incredible swagger to the runway.

I just completed the draft of my upcoming Mindful article, “Belonging Begins in the Body.” In the piece, I explore three concepts that support dignified belonging. Excerpt: Lingering is a gentle yet radical act of asserting one’s presence and right to truly be in public. Article to follow.

May seem boring but public bathrooms are an important component of public joy infrastructure.

If we’re going to talk about the #WARonWALKING (great framing), policy deserves way more attention: histories of anti-vagrancy laws; sundown-town ordinances; redlining & racialized zoning; loitering laws; exclusionary public-space bylaws; and curfews are powerful invisible weapons.

If we’re going to talk about the #WARonWALKING (great framing), social conditions deserve way more attention: inadequate street-level social supports; race-based police profiling; gender-based street harassment; social hostility & polarization; and lack of belonging & healthy spatial entitlement.

Okay, so if we’re talking about the #WaronWalking (great framing), the sidewalk deserves way more attention. A lack of connective sidewalk infrastructure, tree canopies, seating, public restrooms, lighting, pedestrian oriented wayfinding, and street-level retail & cultural hubs are major factors.

Healthy Spatial Entitlement Reflection: Recall the first time you were corrected as a child for occupying space “inappropriately.” How does that shape how you occupy space today? This week, where might you shrink yourself—and how can you prepare to occupy that space in a more healthy manner?

Safety is not only freedom from physical harm or harassment. It also has psychological, cultural & historical dimensions. Historical safety means inhabiting a place without its histories of exclusion, displacement or harm being ignored or reproduced. Safety enables us to express & access public joy.