I think the part of t-city i have frequented the most over the years has to be mamas and second to that it would be the memorial chorten. I’ve seen the chorten more so its surroundings evolve in the past 5-6 years and honestly I feel like it is a prime example of grassroot policies and really just the person making the decision having so much context into how the space is used.

To give you a brief demographic overview; The chorten is mostly frequented by angays and agays but also by small kids that the agay or angay brings or some parents bring along with them while korachabshiling.

Most of the time these kids are small aged around 4-13 years old, so their prefrontal cortex is not fully developed. in other words they’re dumb and sometimes while playing around with other kids they completely get lost in their games.

Now there is a sangphor on the backside of the chorten and this sangphor is kinda built inside. so that it requires you to step down and lil kids could potentially fall and smack their tiny heads. I think the picture below makes it clearer.

So then what does whoever takes care of this place do? They build a small railing ish so that kids dont fall into it here.

Another small change that i’ve seen over the years; you see the small wooden chairs that the apala, amalas and the angaylas are resting on. Heres a clearer picture

The seats werent there a year ago. it was just the bare floor. But if you frequented this place enough you would know that the angays and agays sit here after woodhushiling after korachabshiling to just talk or chant guru prayers. Again whoever takes care of this place saw this and built out some wooden seats so that they could rest here without having to sit on the floor. Again its just a really thoughtful investment. plus factor into how the seats look nice and at the same time are really built for long term use and didnt call for a huge investment. Again smart g.

Another image which shows whoever did this knows the place like the back of their hand is this picture

If these changes were top down you would never think to place the seats next to the mani dungkors but if you frequented this place enough you would also realize that agays and angays really like to sit here and turn the prayer wheel. Previously there were no seats so then they sat on the ground again and they would also bring some mats which honestly made the place look a bit dirty. Again whoever did this found such a win win solution for all, its crazy i love this place.

Lastly this place also caters to a lot of tourists as well and in general it is a really nice place. and whoever architected this put the iconic chair in the right spot. its made for pictures but its also made for reverence.

I also dont know if you notice but previously there were some railing like the ones near the sangphor to prevent people from walking on the grass. They’ve no removed it and it feels really free. I dont know if this was intentional (prolly not) but years of having this railing has made instilled a habit of never stepping on it. So now even without it people still dont walk over it. And overall it makes the place prettier without the grass being turned into tragedy of the commons. If someone actually planned this, its bat shit crazy and i would vote for this person to be the next prime minister.

All of these small details you can notice that the changes weren’t made thinking something along the lines of “Oh if i make something like this, it would look nice and people will use it in this way”. You notice the exact opposite at memorial chorten it really is the reverse. The person in charge notices: “Oh people use this, this way ehh, How can I make it better for them?”. And you can also see in all the changes here that its been done by someone who has the context for this, who has seen who the people who frequent it is, just this really contextual background to this that makes it feel like someone was trying to build for them their own home rather than a public good.

Also this is the drubi equivalent of a park for most of the older generation and it is lovely to see how well maintained this is. And how even the toilets are pretty clean and how they’ve removed the toilet fee knowing that agays and angays stay here for quite a while and have to go quite frequently.

Now i just wish they did something with this area cause i feel like its wasted a bit right now

While writing this i just realized the placement of clocks as well and how easy it is to look up the time. woowww kudos to this place.