Events and rapidly changing technology over the first decade of this new century are challenging the relevancy of this historical notion. Advances in telecommunications have radically altered the way communities define themselves and relate to one another.
The traditional role of town hall as meeting place is moving towards irrelevance, accelerated along its path by alternate forms of disseminating and debating information.
Skepticism with government is at an all time high with a disenfranchised citizenry, encouraged towards polarization by a 24 hr political news cycle that favors sensationalism over substance.
All of these trends have coincided with an assault on public space by the increasing privatization of the contemporary urban condition, and a subsequent decrease in physical interactions between members of society that used to define the essence of urban life.
Finally, security driven over-reactions in a post 9-11 American Society have brought the schism between the citizen and the body of civic governance into the physical realm, as city hall's across the country have been all but fortified, protected from unrestricted public access.
THE DISCONNECT REALIZED
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