18 August 2011

Parks quote


Parks are volatile places.  They tend to run to extremes of popularity and unpopularity.  Their behavior is far from simple.  They can be delightful features of city districts, and economic assets to their surroundings as well, but pitifully few are.  They can grow more beloved and valuable with the years, but pitifully few show this staying power.  Foe every Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, or Rockefeller Plaza or Washington Square in New York, or Boston Common, or their loved equivalents in other cities, there are dozens of dispirited city vacuums called parks, eaten around with decay, little used, unloved.
-Jane Jacobs
The Death and Life of Great American Cities

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