Suggestion for Asheville activists: Guerilla benching

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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A few months ago, the powers-that-be in Asheville decided to remove the benches in front of Pack Memorial Library because it was decided that the benches were attracting an unseemly element, namely drunken homeless people.

A few people protested with signs, and that was it.  Then I ran across this blog post, and thought it worth passing along. You can check out Guerilla Benching here.

After authorities in London deemed that some existing park benches were a potential nuisance (attractors for the homeless, etc) they were summarily removed. Rather than protesting in front of the city council or writing a letter to the editors of a newspaper, one group of Londoners decided to reclaim the public space by installing their own benches under cover of darkness. Actually this band of ‘anarchists’, who were armed only with power tools and wearing yellow safety vests, bolted their benches onto the sidewalks in broad daylight. Nobody ever thought to stop them. Why would they? Some of London’s city council members may not like park benches, but perhaps that’s because they spend too much time in the backs of cabs rather than walking down the streets of the city they represent.