Great Public Spaces

I've been getting a big kick commenting on the Great Public Spaces site at Project for Public Spaces (full disclosure, I work for PPS). Once I started, I couldn't stop. It became a fun exercise forcing me to think about what actually matters in a public space, why we gravitate towards one space over another, and how certain spaces continue to wow us with their pure existence, without all the baggage of philosophy or social science.



The more I failed to find spaces that I wanted to comment on, the more I realized that this list could use some serious updating. First, what sprung to mind were the personally most comforting places. What about Hoxton Square in East London? Controversial as it might be in the gentrification and displacement debate, the highly neglected park is undeniably the most sociable place. The surrounding pubs and hip boutiques are relaxed enough to allow users spill out into the square, taking with them whatever makes them more comfortable, whether it is a chair or a pint.



Mostly, I'm surprised that neighborhoods in some of the biggest cities in what are still considered developing countries aren't listed - Sao Paolo, Rio, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Cairo, Bangkok, Hong Kong, just to name a few. (Not that I've been to all those places). These non-Western cities tend to deal with density, people, sociability, and public spaces the best because space is so valuable that any free space is treated like very important public space.