Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician
Chicago just ain't a plaza kind of town. It's not in the city's DNA. It's a city of parks, waterfronts, and buildings. Who cares? I mean...who...really...should care about this? So what if we can't be like Paris? Paris can't be Chicago either. Chicago is one of the most miserable cities on earth according to a recent article, so people are too miserable to sit around and feed pigeons. Besides, plazas downtown attract their share of homeless people, and why on God's green earth would I want to hang out next to them?
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Your view of them, in my opinion, is a little narrow for the city.
There are a few great plazas in town - I already mentioned two - and there's more. The city also has an initiative to develop more sites into plazas that are currently underused. Go to Mariano Park (Viagra Triangle) on a nice summer day, especially the weekend. The area is PACKED all day - it's one of the most vibrant areas of town and it's a plaza with only a few restaurants and bars near it. Homeless people? There's like one homeless guy that ever hangs out there, and then he's there for like 10 minutes. Everyone hanging out there is from the neighborhood and some tourists or people eating at places like Gibson's. If you think it's just full of homeless people, then you haven't hung out there lately very much.
Even south of there, Connors Park is where Argo Tea put a green house but a lot of outdoor space with seating (that is still public for the record). They did this because there was a plaza there, underutilized and residents were angry it was being used too much by the homeless. To say it has been successful would be true. No homeless people hang out there at night and when Argo is open and their seating is outside, there are a lot of people hanging outside and there's even free live music. I live right near here and the difference between 4 years ago and today with who hangs out in this one alone is stark.
I think your view of them is too narrow, honestly. These two plazas are great examples of it in Chicago and they're two working examples where homeless people are not hanging out at, but neighborhood residents are and they're vibrant, especially Mariano Park.