The Public Spaces Listserve, now some 500 members strong, is an open forum for people of all backgrounds to discuss the pressing (and sometimes not-so-pressing) issues concerning public spaces. Below are some highlights from recent discussions.

On PUBLIC SPACE SECURITY

Posted Tuesday, February 26th.

In the old days, the playground of my youth in NYC's Riverside Park at 96th Street had, Monday-Friday, two paid parks employees: a matron who kept the balls and equipment & manned the first aid kit (for scraped knees) and a porter who kept the 1.6 acre playground clean, maintained immaculate restrooms, and scared off the pedophiles and what we called in those innocent days, "bums."

If the problem was too rough, then the cops who worked the park would be called (these were two cops who refused to go on the Pad at the 24th precinct - they were the only ones not transferred after Serpico). This was the playground that the new NYC Parks Commissioner Benepe remembers from his youth (we've reminiscenced about this) and is viewed as a kind of "Paradise Lost" in the New York City of today, where Parks gets less than 4 tenths of 1 percent of the total NYC budget and shrinking. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, in contrast, Parks funding was 2% of the NYC budget.

- Adam Honigman

On PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Posted Thursday, January 17th

As regards displays of affection in public, a friend of mine was working on a documentary in Moscow last year and was walking around the city with a Moscovite who was involved with the film. They passed a couple in a deep and passionate embrace. This prompted her to ask her companion if this was a sign of changing attitudes in Russian society. Her companion replied in a Slavic deadpan, "No, it's a sign of a housing shortage."

People do have public and private behavior. It could be that a really successful public place allows us to blur the lines. If you lose the ability to draw the line all together you're going to make people feel uneasy. You could also draw hostility.

Certainly as a gay man, I would have to know that I was in a gay milieu or a very urban one to be very physically affectionate with another man. If you've ever been sucker punched at 3 in the morning you'll understand why.

- Gene Threndyle

On TEENS IN PUBLIC SPACES

Posted Friday, February 8th

Teens seem to have an eye for the best urban spaces around. Maybe because they are wired to be part of a social setting or because they don't drive, but many of the finest public spaces are the hangouts for teens. Jackson Square in New Orleans, Harvard Square in Cambridge, the downtown square in Portland, OR (forgetting the name), Copley Square, Boston, and like pigeons they also seem drawn to the great downtown monuments.

- Michael Behrendt

On THE WORLD TRADE CENTER MEMORIAL SITE

Posted Wednesday, January 2nd

I and others believe that the best memorial would be a school on the site, and a playground. Out of the ashes, we shall grow. The sight and sound of children playing and learning is a great anodyne, as is music - much like the Cello player in the ruins of Sarajevo.

- John Hooker, AIA

On DREAM PLACES

Posted Wednesday, February 27th

Here are the views of Limmy, aged 5, on the kind of public spaces he wants.

Limmy’s Place: It’s at a special park. It’s got an enormous ladder that’s got a big point at the top and it looks like an enormous rocket about to blast off. And it’s got some very very powerful swings that can nearly go as high as the moon. And there’s an enormous wiggly slide that comes down from the enormous ladder that looks like a rocket. It goes into the big big pool of water.

The big big pool of water has a shark watching place and some great shoals of fish. It’s got a little bit that comes out of the water that you can shoot water with a water gun.

It’s got another island with trees and some birds and it’s got a gigantic octopus and a gigantic jellyfish and a starfish and an angler fish and an underwater moving café. There are underwater chairs for sitting on with your friends. There is a rocket that shoots up really high, even further than the moon. There is a special satellite that gives air to people so that they can breathe under water. And there’s a big glass bridge for watching everything that’s going on.

- Limmy Ausden