Beyond ‘Fortress’ and ‘Panoptic’ Cities—Towards a Safer Urban Public Realm

In this paper we present a perspective on approaches to enhancing the feeling of safety in the urban public realm. Many planning and urban design responses to concerns about a lack of safety in city centres seem often to have led to the ‘fortress’ city and/or the ‘panoptic’ city. These are repressive and oppressive, socially divisive and exclusive, and deny the city's inhabitants a richer urban experience. We suggest more positive ways of making city centres feel safer. We start by discussing the concept of the urban public realm, then briefly review crime and incivilities, and outline the spectres of the fortress city and the panoptic city. In the remainder of the paper we discuss positive strategies for safer city centres. By doing so, we seek to offer a resistance to the tendencies towards fortress and panoptic cities. The paper is aimed primarily at those concerned with the design and management of the urban public realm, such as local authorities, planners, urban designers, and city-centre managers. There is also a wider audience that includes retailers, city-centre property owners, the police, and others with interests in the city centre. Although many of the issues have universal applicability, the focus here is on English provincial cities.