Recommended Listening
On the TED Radio Hour just now, I heard Amanda Burden, former city commissioner of New York City, talking about the importance of public spaces in a city: "How Can Public Spaces Change a City's Character?" This is a very timely TED Talk for us in Hudson, as we contemplate the future of the Dunn building and consider open space and ways to make our city more livable and enjoyable.
One thing that Burden says toward the end of her talk, when enumerating the tests of a successful park, struck me as having great relevance for our most historic and most under utilized park: "Can you see into it and out of it?" If the time ever comes that we are able to restore and revitalize Promenade Hill, this element of a successful park should be borne in mind.
COPYRIGHT 2017 CAROLE OSTERINK
Burden is right and she's echoing William H. Whyte, particularly as was applied in the 1990s to Bryant Park in NYC. The high shrubs that surrounded the perimeter made people in that park feel unsafe (well, that and some unsavory characters). Improving the ease and flow of inside/outside of the park was one reason for the makeover's success.
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If the time ever comes that we are able to restore and revitalize Promenade Hill, I hope that we'll do a better job in future honoring the grantors' one condition that "the Parade ... be granted to the Common Council forever ... for the purpose of a Public Walk or Mall and for no other purpose whatever" (March 9, 1795).
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