The square after five

Jackson’s old public square is Bucky Harris Park, at Michigan Avenue and Jackson Street, where the early plat put the center of town. The county courthouse is a block south, on Jackson Street. After five, the question is whether that square has a reason to be there on a weekday.

A courthouse square is busy when the building is open and thin when it is not. Thursday evening is not a session of anything. The offices are done. What remains has to be the park itself, the sidewalk, and any room facing it that is open for someone other than a person with business at the court.

This piece does not report who was on the square on a particular Thursday, and it does not pretend October 4, a Sunday, was that test. The standing question is enough. A square that only works at lunch on a court day is a lawn in front of a workplace. A square that works after five is a public place.

Walk the park, the avenue, and the block to the courthouse. The Grand River is a separate few minutes away, and it will not answer for the square. The square has to answer for itself.

Jackson