This piece of municipal infrastructure is my current obsession.

Why? Because with this simple sign, a social contract for a shared public space is written and enabled.

Everything is clear. You can play for this long. This is how we establish order. And it’s all done without anyone having to speak or touch anything shared. It doesn’t require an app. It exists in the physical space for which it is required.

How do we create this kind of tool in other spaces, as part of our reintegration post/mid Covid? How, to use an example that is very relevant to my 8-year-old son, would we create one of these for basketball courts? For stores? For our homes?

As we enter the next phase of this new reality, things will get tricky and require elegant solutions such as this. Blunt instruments are easy. Nuanced social contracts are hard. They require clarity. Process. Buy in. They need to be immediately accessible and understood by all.

Not everything can or should be solved through apps or websites. Sometimes we just need really good signs and a piece of plywood with a couple of pegs in it.