In his Monday, November 12, 2018 column, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Justin Fox reports on a new park in Tulsa, OK called the Gathering Place, which he sees as an example of a great public space like those described in Eric Klinenberg’s Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. These “palaces” also include other forms of social infrastructure such as vacant lots turned into mini-parks, swimming pools, athletic fields, sidewalks and, most particularly, libraries.

He concludes, “In their recent bestseller Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, James and Deborah Fallows tell many similar stories. The notion that cities and towns are uniquely placed to be sources of political innovation and societal renewal is a frequently voiced one these days, in part because there seems to be so little chance of such a coming-together at the national level.”