Sunday Morning Coming Down

Sunday morning, before the sun rose above the tallest trees, as I walked along Markham Avenue in one of Durham’s prettiest neighborhoods, Trinity Park, I turned a question over in my mind that I have turned over in my mind many times before: Can we all be rich, or can only some be rich, and only then because others are poor? There on Markham, on a quiet Sunday morning in Durham, the sunlight was pretty and the trees were pretty; the houses were pretty, and so were the gardens in the front yards. Everywhere I looked, everything was pretty! I was aware of my great fortune, the fortune of living in a place and a moment in which loveliness and freedom and quietude coexisted in such abundance. The entire scene was so beautiful, I marveled that not every single soul in Durham had congregated on Markham. But I was the only soul on the street. I had block after block all to myself. Even the inhabitants of the attractive houses that I was walking past were indoors; most had not ventured outside yet, judging by the numerous morning newspapers still resting on the sidewalk in their blue plastic bags.

It was a mix of private beauty and natural beauty, a mix of what only a property owner had the right to enjoy and what could not be denied to even the most indigent human being. The sunlight, the birdsong, the trees—they were all there, gratis, for anyone to see and hear. Even a view of the pretty houses, in the absence of high and solid fences, was there for anyone who wished to look. But to walk among the small gardens, to take a seat on a front porch . . .

I once wondered out loud to a German visitor why parks in America were so woeful compared to the splendid parks in Europe. His answer was simple, yet it was one I had not comprehended before. In Europe, he explained, most people live in small apartments, usually with no outdoor space at all. To compensate, Europeans build and maintain lavish parks and inviting public squares. In America, our private spaces are roomy and attractive: we all have big back yards with our own private gardens. There is not much need, he said, for public parks in such a country.

In an irony that should not be surprising, the best "public" parks in Durham are actually on private land. I'm thinking of the Sarah P. Duke Gardens and the magnificent lawns on Duke's East Campus. As for public squares, I don't think we have any, at least not one that would naturally be the place for Durhamites to congregate if we had to (or wanted to) congregate quickly and spontaneously. Durham Central Park? The plaza on Corcoran? American Tobacco? Again, the only place that currently functions as a public square is not on public property at all but at the outdoor areas at the Streets at Southpoint. God help us if that's where we all needed or wanted to gather when we needed or wanted to gather somewhere fast.