This article originally appeared in the author’s book, How to Design Our World for Happiness. As social activity began to move out into the street, drivers and pedestrians instinctively learned to share the space. Although most of these people are poor by our standards, he notes, they enjoy a richness of life missing in most North American communities. Lakeman came home to Portland with the idea of creating a similar commons in his own neighborhood. Lakeman worried about angry opposition arising to quash the experiment, until talking to Brian Shaw, who lived right at the corner.