Excessive dispersion of community facilities

Lack of central neighbourhood nodes
Unfocused town centre
Poorly planned town centre
Inconvenient community centre
Undefined village node

Nature

Public buildings and land areas play a critical role in maintaining civic pride, yet communities grow up in a haphazard and visually unpleasing manner. Many rural communities seem uncertain about their right to decide the use of land in their villages; as a result little space is designated for such things as a community meeting hall, plaza or even recreation area.

Incidence

Studies of pedestrian behaviour in America show that people seek out concentrations in a community.

Claim

Very few communities have public facilities arranged in compact and meaningful ways: facilities should be grouped densely in small areas, such as small public squares. Conspicuous by their absence are: small squares surrounded by a combination of mutually supportive community facilities and shops; groupings of evening entertainments, to attract the citizen to a particular area yet leave him free to choose his actual form of diversion; groupings of kindergartens and small parks and gardens, so arranged that young families with children could use any of these facilities.