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McLuhan advocated for citizens to engage with their physical surroundings and with others in community and to become more involved in decision-making about media availability and restrictions; his position remains pertinent with the continuing need for increased citizen engagement and participation in urban life. Both as individuals and collectively, we can cultivate awareness of and assert some control over our relationship with media and technology, toning down the automatic operations of smart city logics, especially those that impose systemic regulations. Opportunities to engage with urban place are increased if reshaping and repurposing the urban environment becomes a common project – so that we are not simply users of urban space defined for us by actors in government and corporate positions but co-producers of open cities.