Quote:
Originally Posted by pwright1
I fully understand that. But again, when I go to Bryant Park when I'm in NY, I visually see a beautiful park with grass, trees, flowers, a fountain. That is why I love going there. Yes it has activities and other things. People visit the park for their own reasons. If I were to go there and see lots of steps, lots of concrete, blocked from the sidewalk like Pershing Square, I would not go. Bryant Park is a beautiful park with beautiful grounds in a beautiful setting, and that is why I go.
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Unfortunately many parks are now designed to make them unattractive gathering/sleeping places for homeless people. No grass. No benches. No restrooms etc. This makes them also unusable for non-homeless. They are vacant spaces devoid of purpose. The wrecking of Pershing Square started in the late 1950s, when they tore up a nice central square with trees and fountains and grass, a put in a parking garage. The square was ruined. There were some down on their luck types in the 1950s, but they generally had beds in flophouses and shelters and SRO hotels. The square was also filled with plenty of "regular" people strolling around. It helped that the L.A. Philharmonic played in the auditorium across the street, and the Biltmore was the biggest & best hotel. As a kid, I remember the orators in Pershing Square, who would hold forth on various political subjects on the weekends. It was a busy scene. Now the square is a wasteland presided over by an unhappy & lonely scowling statue of Ludwig van Beethoven.