Public Place: Citizen Participation in the Neighbourhood and the City

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

Public Place is a compilation of editorials that appeared in Place
Publique, a bilingual community newspaper based in Montreal, from 1994
to 1999. The overarching theme of the editorials is community
development, preservation, and citizen participation—saving
neighborhoods, in other words.

Community newspapers are an important participant in any democratic
struggle. The growth of national papers, which fail to give adequate
coverage to community issues, has made the role of the community
newspaper even more significant in recent years. As the author points
out, “It is inconceivable to have community organizations without a
community media that informs and educates.” Although his book will be
of particular interest to Montrealers, the environmental issues (water,
air, garbage, etc.) he covers in the final section are relevant to
communities throughout Canada.