The New York City landscape envelopes eight million people in thousands upon thousands of interactions twenty-four hours a day. The problem? The New York City landscape doesn’t pay nearly enough attention to the spaces in which these people meet, live, laugh, and interact meaningfully with each other, or even with the city around them. Public spaces are crucial to the successful development of cities, and to the joining of communities that may not have otherwise been connected. The effectiveness of a public space, however, is not always defined by the aesthetics of a place, but by the people who choose to engage themselves in what the space has to offer wholeheartedly.
Public spaces tell a lot about a person; how they interact with others, what they think about themselves, what feelings they may be missing in their daily lives. They force introspection and welcome comfort and vulnerability. The importance of public spaces within cities lies simply in the fact that cities are non traditional environments that . They operate at an abnormally fast pace, influencing those who live in them to keep up, and quickly.
**Introduce diversity in the city and its relationship to public spaces
Very few public spaces have found their place in the city successfully. To name a few, Central Park, Times Square, and The High Line have all contributed to the joining of people and personalities. While they have all brought people together, the question is whether they have done so in a lasting and meaningful way. A public space should never be just one thing, it should be many. It should be inclusive, genuine, intriguing by design. People are drawn to places that are visually stimulating, beautiful by design, and real, but they are just as attuned to the way a place makes them feel. Do they feel connected? Is the space accessible to the people they would like to share it with?
**Next paragraph will begin to intertwine with the Hispanic residents in the Lower East Side. Note to self: Keep in mind the accessibility and inclusivity of public spaces. Speak to existing public spaces for Hispanic minority group; what are they doing right and what are they doing wrong?
The Lower East Side in Manhattan is primarily made up of Hispanic residents currently standing at 50% of the neighborhood’s population. The Lower East Side has undergone drastic gentrification over the past thirty years and now lends itself to the budding trendy nightlife, restaurant, and boutique scene. While New York City is known for its diversity, it lacks its ability to support and provide for certain minority groups, the Hispanic group being one of them.
