The Median Picnic: Street Design, Urban Informality and Public Space Enforcement

Medians or central reservations have received scant attention in the vast literature on the history, morphology and design of streets, and are rarely considered as places where people can gather. They are mostly conceived as safety barriers, traffic-calming elements or visual features on multi-way streets. However, by focusing on a case study from Berkeley, California, this paper demonstrates how medians transform into active, informal gathering places despite the presence of prominent prohibitory signage and apparent safety risks. The paper explains how the 'unlawful' activity of sitting on the median, or 'picnicking' in this instance, is selectively condoned by the City of Berkeley to suit its own liberal image, and because of the commercial interests at stake, underscoring the political dimension in the production of public space. The paper thus engages a discussion of the concepts and practices related to street design, urban informality and public space enforcement, for which the 'median picnic' stands as a striking example.