As a resident of the neighbourhood, Berlynn MacPherson drives through Prince George's Gateway area every day, but on Tuesday (April 20), she saw something that made her feel angry.
She saw metal rods bent into triangles have been installed along the flower beds of 20th Avenue in order to prevent people from sitting down.
“I was disappointed and angry when I saw them,” says MacPherson to PrinceGeorgeMatters. “I was surprised to see such a backwards step.”
The flower bed installation meets the definition of ‘hostile architecture,’ an urban-design strategy that uses elements of the built environment to restrict behaviour in an effort to prevent crime and protect property.
“It was about a year ago that I learned what hostile architecture was and it blew my mind. Never did I see it so blatantly here,” says MacPherson, adding that she is passionate about helping people with homelessness and addictions in the city.
“I’ve started volunteering at St. Vincent’s drop-in centre just over a year ago. So I have got to know some of the people in that community and it means a lot to me for services to be available so people are taken care of.”
MacPherson has since started an online petition, that's gained over 300 signatures, to ask that the triangles be removed and raise awareness about hostile architecture.
The flower beds are on private property and the features were installed by the Gateway Business Improvement Area Society.
“All it does is move the so-called problem somewhere else,” says MacPherson.
“If you have people using drugs and leaving garbage outside your business they are just going to do it in front of someone else’s business or in front of someone else’s home.”
She says a problem with hostile architecture is that it does not address the root causes of the issues and just moves people along.
“It’s absolutely not acknowledging or solving any problem. It is just moving it and treating it like an aesthetic problem and not an actual societal problem,” notes MacPherson.
“We have a lot of homeless people we have a lot of people addicted to drugs. We do have a lot of people living on the streets in the area and obviously it is a problem but we need to talk about why and how we can actually fix the problem -- We need to treat the problem and not the symptoms of the problem.”
MacPherson says when she first posted the photo of the flower beds on social media, she received a lot of comments from people who were not familiar with the concept of hostile architecture.
“There has been a lot of feedback from people who don’t understand what they are looking at,” says MacPherson. “It’s important for people to realize what hostile architecture is because we have it all over the city as well.”
She notes bus benches with armrests which also prevent people from lying down and opera music which is sometimes used to discourage people from loitering as examples.
“I just think it’s disgusting and it needs to be taken out,” adds MacPherson. “They just want to move it somewhere where they aren’t going to see it and that doesn’t help anybody.”
She says she hopes the Gateway Business Association listens to the feedback from the petition.
“I know I am not the only one with these feelings so I hope that they listen and understand that wasn’t the best choice that they could have done and maybe understand why.”
PrinceGeorgeMatters has reached out to the Gateway Business Improvement Area Society for comment.
