I decided to comment on Alana Ayasse's blog about going to Orange County to find someplace to drink tea and the difficulties thereof.
Here it is:
I was first attracted to your blog because of your declarative attempts to locate some tea in Orange County. I, a tea aficionado was intrigued. I read on however and found that I was not most interested in the discussion about tea contained in your blog, but rather about your experience trying to enjoy your meal in a parking lot lined section of outdoor seating.
Ever since taking Professor Michael Curry's Introduction to Cultural Geography, coupled with my interest in theater arts-I have been interested, nay, obsessed with the prospect of creating places and spaces.
For instance: A beach is a place. When people find this beach and the implied bounty of seafood inclusive, perhaps what was a beach becomes a holy place: a hub for life giving sustenance that sustains the entire population of people living there. Let's imagine now that white imperialists sail from Spain or northern Europe and decide that this place is now under the legal jurisdiction of the Queen and the greater England. (as it were) Where once stood shrines and ritual offerings now stands a courthouse which then implies and imposes the governing laws of England upon the beach itself and on the people. Let's imagine further that this place has undergone years of change and an international business conglomerate decides to build one of many luxury hotels on the beach and include a three Michelin star rated restaurant located in the ground level overlooking said beach. The conduct of such a place is now that of being reserved, perhaps quiet and the purpose and intention of the space is to eat food and enjoy it in a cultured, unobtrusive fashion. If you attempted to use the space as a beach, courthouse, or place of worship you might be kicked out and asked to never return. In this way, the function of the space has changed over time, just as the function of a torn down coffee-shop can arbitrarily be re-assigned and re-engendered with the functionality and effect of an insurance firm.
We live in a society where different places have been turned into "spaces" thereby re-assigning the meaning and this dictating the appropriate behavior that should be conducted within. In a busy restaurant, you are expected to leave and might feel uncomfortable if you stay sitting there after your meal is done. In a coffee shop, you can stay there all day without anyone complaining-as long as you buy something. In a park, you can sit, stand play and eat all day and maybe even sleep there.
Your particular post reminded me of an article called "The Future of Public Space: Beyond Invented Streets and Reinvented Places" where Tridib Banerjee talked about "a steady
withering of the public realm, a trend recently exacerbated by a worldwide campaign for market liberalism." (Banerjee 9)There are less and less public places where one is encouraged to stay outside and engage in the built environment provided by the city, such as a park due to various economic changes. The fact that you were so discouraged to continue eating says to me that the function of the space and the effect it has on you is not one where you can sit and eat, but rather one that encourages you to skitter away and return to the private comfort of your home. The intersection of outdoor seating and a parking lot is just such a space.
