“That’s public space. Nobody can use it.”

That was one Portland city official’s response when Mark Lakeman and his neighbors first began building unauthorized gathering places in their neighborhood in 1996.To Lakeman, an urban designer, this seemed like a fundamental misunderstanding of public space. Together with his neighbors, he formed the City Repair Project, a volunteer-run nonprofit that set out to change the way Portlanders think about the places where people come together.

In May ‘10, YES! Magazine shared a Q & A with May ‘14 CreativeMornings/Portland speaker Mark Lakeman about his City Repair Project, a Portland group that helps neighbors turn public spaces into gathering places.