Abstract
By now it should be evident that the public realm must possess a range of different attributes to succeed. It must be a multifunctional constellation of streets, squares, and parks that is open to anybody. It must have something for everybody, attract and retain a market, provide a framework for urbanization, and sustain a habitable environment that nurtures a civil society for all citizens. As important as these six characteristics may be, however, what ultimately matters is the impact that the city’s entire public realm network has on the everyday life.
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Notes
- 1.
Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, author of The London Square: Gardens in the Midst of Town (New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press, 2012), writes that he does not subscribe to the common belief that there are over six hundred squares in Greater London. See 13–15.
- 2.
Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, author of The London Square: Gardens in the Midst of Town (New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press, 2012), 219.
- 3.
Robert Thorne, Covent Garden Market: Its History and Restoration (London: The Architectural Press, 1980), 2–5.
- 4.
Steen Eiler Rasmussen, London: The Unique City (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1967), 166.
- 5.
For further discussion of the business aspects of long-term leases in use in London, see Rasmussen, London, 191–195, and John Summerson, Georgian London (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1988), 51–56.
- 6.
Summerson, Georgian London, 80–81; Longstaffe-Gowan, London Square, 50–53.
- 7.
London Parks and Gardens Trust, Open Gardens Squares Weekend (London: National Trust, 2013), 56.
- 8.
Longstaffe-Gowan, London Square, 76, 159–161.
- 9.
Charles Dickens, “Leicester Square,” Household Words, London, 1958, 67.
- 10.
Longstaffe-Gowan, London Square, 161–163.
- 11.
http://minneapolisparks.org/.
- 12.
Peter Harnick, 2014 City Parks Facts (Washington, D.C., The Trust for Public Land).
- 13.
Alexander Garvin, The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t, 3rd ed. (New York, McGraw-Hill Education, 2013), 75–78.
- 14.
Harnick, 2014 City Parks Facts.
- 15.
Theodore Wirth, Minneapolis Park System 1883–1944 (Minneapolis: Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners, 1945), 19.
- 16.
Parkscore.tpl.org.
- 17.
Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, https://www.minneapolisparks.org/
- 18.
H. W. S. Cleveland, “Suggestions for a System of Parks and Parkways for the City of Minneapolis,” reproduced in Wirth, Minneapolis Park System, 28–34.
- 19.
Frederick Law Olmsted, “Letter to the Park Commissioners of Minneapolis,” reproduced in Wirth, Minneapolis Park System, 34–39.
- 20.
American College of Sports Medicine. Actively Moving America to Better Health: Health and Community Fitness Status of the 50 Largest Metropolitan Areas. 2014. http://americanfitnessindex.org/docs/reports/acsm_2014AFI_report_final.pdf.
- 21.
Michael Kimmelman, “In Madrid’s Heart, Park Blooms Where a Freeway Once Blighted,” New York Times, December 26, 2011.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
“The Last Time I Saw Paris,” from the film Lady Be Good (1941), music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
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© 2016 Alexander Garvin
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Heinberg, R. (2016). Using the Public Realm to Shape Everyday Life. In: What Makes a Great City. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-759-9_9
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