Notebook
A Bench Is a Political Object
In Beirut, the right to sit without buying anything is nearly revolutionary.
A bench looks harmless until you ask who may use it.
If a city has no free place to remain, the citizen becomes either customer, worker, trespasser, or threat. A public bench says: you may stay without explaining your economic purpose.
After war, blast, collapse, and exile, this is not urban amenity. It is civic repair.
