Amen!
From Ode:
"Most of us take public spaces for granted until they disappear and we have no place to go. A new movement is now emerging to reinvigorate public life. To make contact with others, to create quite moments, to celebrate the joy of living in the city. An ode to streets, parks, squares, cafés and other places to meet."
This is what I miss most about Rome and DC. Both cities have fantastic public places---parks, squares, sidewalk cafes. What I like least about Austin is that it so lacks these things. So I need to find someplace with Austin's attitude and DC's public spaces. Any suggestions?
posted by Lisa @ 9:34 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
If you can take the cold, I recommend Chicago, it has GREAT public spaces, and is mellower and less expensive than big cities on the east coast (though I don't know much about DC specifically, I'm comparing it to Boston and NY mostly). However it is VERY crowded and EXTREMELY cold.
If you are looking for a small town and can handle 9 months of short, misty, overcast days, Portland, Oregon is pretty nice. The public spaces aren't big-city nice, but they are pretty good. It has reasonable cost of living and the total Austin mellow vibe. However, the unemployment rate is terrible.
San Francisco is fantastic for climate, public spaces and attitude, but the cost of living is insane.
Also, Austin has oodles of mostly unimproved parks if you are just looking to commune with open space. It doesn't have anything like the cool squares and improved parks of the major cities though. Check this article out if you haven't already. There are also a number of better known, mostly unimproved, natural areas around. If you are interested, ask me and I'll recommend some.
Yeah, I'm talking about more developed public areas---piazzas, cafes, urban parks.
I like being out in undeveloped parks, as well, but sometimes I want to be among others even if I'm not with others.
There are actually a surprising number of folks out at the undeveloped parks, but they are mostly out there to escape their semi urban lives and commune with nature, so it is a totally different vibe. I love public squares, urban parks, etc. too and definitely feel their lack here in Austin strongly. We do have a couple, notably Republic Square and some other downtown areas, however they are overrun with homeless (not different than other urban squares/parks there) without having a balancing number of non-homeless utilizing them. The one exception would be Zilker Park, I think that it certainly qualifies as an urban park with a balance of park-going public.
Also on the list of things I feel the sting of not having that most "real" cities have:
•"real" museums (supposedly will be rectified soon with the Blanton)
•"real" mass transit (as someone who recently tried to commute using CapMetro, I can attest that our bus system falls very short)
•"real" city planning (instead of the endless sprawl of strip malls, even small cities, like Portland, can get on that bandwagon, why can't we?)
•locally owned corner stores/delis
Definitely feeling the lack of museums---then again, after living in DC and Rome, I'm seriously spoiled on that.
Ditto on mass transit. And, really, Austin has no excuse. If DC, Maryland, Virginia, and the federal government can get it together enough to coordinate a mass transit system, then Austin should be able to do it.
And while I'm dreaming, how about some affordable downtown housing?
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