Bangalore (could be any place within the city)

Hello Nextbangalore,

Thanking you for allowing this platform. I’m not greatly aware of the possibilities of these suggestions with reference to all the spaces you have, but I hope you’ll consider and think through these lines for better possibilities.

1. A rain water harvesting space.
Bangalore is in a critical stage with regards to the overexploited groundwater levels, any initiative to help that cause will be of great help.

the following links will give you a basic view about how critical the situation is…

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Stop-drilling-theres-no-groundwater-left/articleshow/31914653.cms

http://www.thealternative.in/society/bangalore-lakes-and-status-of-ground-water/

2. A space where Solid/Dry waste can be helped to be sold or collected.
We don’t really have a system in place to recycle waste, personally i don’t like to throw away (and thus unfortunately end up collecting) many of the plastic bags, cigarette packets, tetra packs, glass and plastic bottles etc. and there is no space that i know where i can sell them (or even give them off…) where i’m assured that they will be recycled in the correct manner (and not downcycled to cause more pollution!). If this can be helped that’ll be great for many citizens who’ve come to realize the value of these things. There are a few collection points for dry waste in Bangalore, but they are far and very sparse in terms of their distribution across the city, not many people knows about them and even if they are, the travel and the cost associated with it, diminishes their chances.

Here is what is listed for a population of 4.3 million people…

http://www.thealternative.in/lifestyle/dry-waste-collection-centres-in-bangalore/

3. Something related to the idea of commons
Perhaps this is a bit troublesome to work out, but nevertheless… a space where ‘all the nobodies’ can take shelter or some sort of refuge in, a space where we could perhaps grow something organic from which whoever needy/hungry… human or animal could find some sort of resource from, may be at least to feed themselves for once in a day’s time.

Long time back, there was a news about a man in Kerala who managed to do agriculture in empty spaces of the city/town (even the sides of the roads, basically in the patches of land that he didn’t own) where he harvested many kinds of crops, including rice… it was risky because whoever owned those spaces could take away his hardwork/source of income/profit etc. at any point of time… but I guess he did well enough and was a great humanitarian… what people/animals took away, if i remember right, he accepted and allowed all that… even if a moth is eating away your crop, for that being too is a form of life. and life in whatever form you feed, is always going to be thankful deed. May be the people who benefits could later pool into helping the initiative, plant, plow or water, or may be a wealthy, well to do person who wants an exercise or some sort of good karma could do that for them, ideally regardless a sense of profit/credit, may be somewhere there is a possibility where the space could transform and become an expression of kindredness and generosity.

Last January, I came across an artistic project somewhere in Europe (as part of Kochi Beinnale) where they made an oxygen releasing pond, a quiet tranquil space for the people to come in and just be by themselves… think that too was a good common’s space project. But yes, it all depends on the space and the kind of public it inhabits.

About commons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons

Sincere apologies if what I’ve written are not really pragmatic in terms of space references, but once again many thanks for the sounding board, wishing all of you the very best with regards to this project.