|
PRESS RELEASE
PLACES
TO VISIT OR AVOID: The people have their say
New York, April 3 If you're
planning to book a vacation in Las Vegas be
warned: "There is nothing remotely redeeming about
this entirely artificial
landscape. The touted greenery is evidence of the
greed of the entire
concept of Las Vegas."
A visitor's verdict on New Orleans'
Vietnamese market sounds preferable: "At
5am each Saturday, over 20 vendors set up shop in
a dilapidated shopping
square, spreading out produce on blankets; live ducks,
rabbits and chickens
wail to a background chanting of Asian pop music."
Such travel tidbits can be found
at an unlikely source - the new website of
Project for Public Spaces, America's leading public
spaces' nonprofit. The
site, Great Public Spaces, Great Community Places,
(http://www.greatpublicspaces.org)
invites people to praise or damn the
places where they live or visit. Not only can you
sound off, but you can
find tips about parks, walkable streets, trails and
farmers' markets.
World-renowned spaces such as New
York's Grand Central Station and Edinburgh's Royal
Botanic Gardens are assessed with the same "place"
characteristicsthat are used on neighborhood parks
and main streets.
And it is the lesser-known places
that provoke the most passion: vibrant
community gardens tendered by volunteers, obscure
flea markets and other
treasures hidden within local neighborhoods.
"There is a pizza and bread-making
oven, theatre, ice rink, playground,
wading pool, baseball diamond, basketball court, chess,
checkers, gardens,
crafts for kids, card playing for older visitors,
drop in center activities... and best of all, beautiful
and abundant old shady trees." (Dufferin Grove
Park, Toronto, Canada)
"Though the neighborhood seems,
at first sight, gloomy and messy, it is a
place with a very intense community life. In a very
human scale environment,
children play in alleys embellished with lots of flowerpots,
the elderly
chat at entrance-doors, and in the summer, everybody
dressing "Yukata"
gathers at outdoors to celebrate dancing the Obon
festival" (Kyojima, Tokyo,
Japan).
__________________________
To browse the listings, chime in
with your opinions, nominate a Great Public
Space, or a contender for the Hall of Shame:
http://www.greatpublicspaces.org
To find out more about Project
for Public Spaces go to http://www.pps.org
To join the dicusssion about public
spaces, sign up for the PPS listserve:
http://www.pps.org/listserve.htm
or send an email to public.spaces-subscribe@topica.com
Project for Public Spaces
provides resources, techniques and tools to help
people build great public spaces. A nonprofit, PPS
has helped over 1,000
neighborhoods in 46 states and 12 countries improve
their parks, markets,
streets, transit stations, libraries and countless
other public spaces. PPS
run training & education programs, sell publications
and manage two
websites. http://www.pps.org
/ http://www.urbanparks.pps.org.
|
