There's nothing like seeing a city by foot. In a place like the Pike Place Market there's no other way to do it, but I think people everywhere appreciate why you need to go somewhere to understand what it's all about: that's why we travel. But we don't all realize why this phenomenon happens. The 20th century French philosopher Michel de Certeau made this the topic of study in his book The Practice of Everyday Life, especially in the chapter "Walking in the City."
Certeau says that governments, corporations, and other institutions plan and build in cities according to "strategies" and that people change their environment as they interact with it every day by means of "tactics." When we walk through a city we see individual interactions and inconsistencies that arise from daily use, and it might take a good tour guide to make sense of how it all fits together.
The Pike Place Market embodies a complex layering of strategies and tactics. The Market was created by farmers who broke the status quo in 1907 by setting up shop in the street. Being wildly successful, they soon built the covered market stalls we see today. In this act, the once-rebellious farmers were now establishing their own strategies. Since then, the Market has been institutionalized by the Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA), which governs which vendors, buskers and tours can operate in the Market.
Of course not all the rules are followed. One example in Pike Place is the huge amount of gum being stuck on the walls of Lower Post Ally, which was first deemed unacceptable by the PDA. The tactics of local theater-goers continuing the tradition eventually won in 1998 when the PDA wrote the new tourist-attraction into its strategy as the "Gum Wall". However, still today only one side of the alley is legit, so my name written in gum on the West side of the alley was scraped off!
Observing the ebb an flow between strategies and tactics is one way that makes exploring by foot (or however we are able) unique. To me, Certeau's theory gets at how the built environment shapes behavior and how we (individually or en masse) shape the built environment.
Certeau says that governments, corporations, and other institutions plan and build in cities according to "strategies" and that people change their environment as they interact with it every day by means of "tactics." When we walk through a city we see individual interactions and inconsistencies that arise from daily use, and it might take a good tour guide to make sense of how it all fits together.
The Pike Place Market embodies a complex layering of strategies and tactics. The Market was created by farmers who broke the status quo in 1907 by setting up shop in the street. Being wildly successful, they soon built the covered market stalls we see today. In this act, the once-rebellious farmers were now establishing their own strategies. Since then, the Market has been institutionalized by the Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA), which governs which vendors, buskers and tours can operate in the Market.
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| The group on my Seattle Free Walking Tour Oct 21st. The cool kids are in the back! |
Of course not all the rules are followed. One example in Pike Place is the huge amount of gum being stuck on the walls of Lower Post Ally, which was first deemed unacceptable by the PDA. The tactics of local theater-goers continuing the tradition eventually won in 1998 when the PDA wrote the new tourist-attraction into its strategy as the "Gum Wall". However, still today only one side of the alley is legit, so my name written in gum on the West side of the alley was scraped off!
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| Even when I thought I was contributing to a tourist attraction, being on the wrong side of the alley made all the difference for my legacy in gum. |
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