As the country prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence next year, now is an opportune time to reflect on the constitutional rights guaranteed to us as a free nation of self-governing citizens — a people ruled by laws, not kings. While Americans are familiar with many of our rights, including freedom of speech, press and religion, there is one fundamental liberty that is often overlooked: the freedom of assembly.

As the legal scholar John D. Inazu said, the right to peaceably assemble is more than mere permission to gather: It is “a form of expression — the existence of a group and its selection of members and leaders conveys a message” in itself. When we exercise our rights of free speech and public assembly in our streets, parks and recreation and community centers, we honor the long, enduring and essential relationship between public space and democracy.

Two thousand years ago, public debate in the open spaces of the agora (or marketplace) helped form the basis of emerging democracy in ancient Greece. Today, Americans are the inheritors of that early tradition of open public debate, whether expressed in rules of Congress or encoded in the “sunshine laws” that govern public decision making in the smallest borough or town meeting.

As the historian Gordon Wood observed, “Beginning with the Revolutionary Movement (but with deep roots in American history) the American people came to rely more and more on their ability to organize themselves and act ‘out-of-doors,’ whether as ‘mobs,’ as political clubs, or as conventions.” This tradition of outdoor protest in public places, from the Liberty Tree near Boston Common to the Tea Party in Boston Harbor, was so revered by the Founding Fathers that the rights of free speech and public assembly were encoded in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights.

One could not be had without the other. The public sphere and public space were one and the same, and critical to achieving democratic self-government.

Today, we are accustomed to images and reports of public protests, demonstrations and marches in the streets and public spaces of our cities, as we saw with the thousands of recent “No Kings” protests. However, our right to gather and express support or dissent for government decisions and policies in public spaces was hard earned over many decades and should not be taken for granted.

People must continue to regularly exercise their rights to free assembly and free speech in public, and communities must continue to provide places that support the expression of these fundamental rights.

City officials, planners and community leaders have a central role in supporting our constitutionally guaranteed rights. Here are a few ways to protect democracy through urban design and placemaking.

Create public spaces for gatherings large and small. While public protests and marches are often large — sometimes they start as smaller gatherings that can be supported by smaller spaces. High quality portfolios of public spaces contain places of varying sizes, to accommodate different needs. For example, Philadelphia’s 1.5-acre Sister Cities Park is located at the foot of the mile-long Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the city’s premier spot for large-scale civic gatherings. Despite its smaller scale, it attracts diverse users and provides a wide range of amenities and programming that encourage interaction in ways that connect people with each other and build social capital.

Ensure that gathering spaces feel welcoming and accessible to everyone. While it is true that exercising your right to free speech and free assembly can occur in a variety of diverse spaces like streets and sidewalks, the most successful protests occur in spaces that are well-maintained, comfortable and allow attendees to hear and see speakers and each other. These spaces provide things like trees and lush plantings for cooling and shade, access to restrooms, water and nearby food options, and plentiful seating.

Design and manage public spaces as a portfolio. Public spaces provide more benefits and impacts to people and communities when they are managed as a system of connected civic infrastructure, rather than imagined as standalone assets. Interestingly, large gatherings of people exercising free assembly often move among civic assets as if they are connected, for example from a park to a commercial corridor to a plaza.

Encourage peaceful interaction. Creating and communicating clear expectations for neighborly behavior in public space can help establish norms for parkgoers, whether protesting or not. In Memphis, this practice has been introduced in Tom Lee Park through the hiring of park rangers, who encourage friendly and welcoming interactions while imparting a sense of safety in a positive way.

In addition, research shows that incorporating activities and design (such as natural beauty) in your public spaces can impart joy and a sense of awe that inspire people to focus less on themselves and more on the collective wellbeing of the community. It’s a powerful way to ensure that protesters remain peaceful and motivated by the common good.

I believe that the period of social upheaval we are experiencing will eventually lead to renewed social cohesion, where collectively we will turn towards a rebuilding of the country’s future. Part of ensuring we remain a democracy will be creating opportunities to vigorously exercise our constitutional rights.

To paraphrase the historian Lisa Keller, if parks are the lungs of the city, they are also its vocal chords. The essential and enduring relationship between public space and democracy cannot be disputed or overstated — and history shows that we need to work continuously to secure and maintain the right to use public space for free speech and public assembly.

The erosion of those rights through inadequate or inequitable access to high-quality public space, privatization of the public sphere, human and technological over-surveillance, government regulations and restrictions — and most insidiously, through intentional under-investment and neglect of public space maintenance — represent real and fundamental threats to our democracy.

To preserve and promote all our rights and to protect the world’s oldest constitutional democracy, parks and recreation professionals and city and community leaders need to advocate for and expand the number of public spaces that are well-funded, maintained and welcoming to all.

Our Founding Fathers knew that public space to openly debate the people’s business was critical to self-government and the health of our democracy. Let’s not let them down.

This post was originally published on Next City.