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where's the "play" here? it seems a run-down...

At Jeff Cohen's suggestion, I just watched William Whyte's video, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces--The Street Corner, which documented an extensive project of trying to figure out what makes some city plazas "work" as places of sociability, while others remain so bleak and empty. Rather than looking @  running, Whyte focused on sitting.

His major finding was that cities are hard places to sit--so his #1 recommendation was to make the plazas more "sit-able." It also seems that the number one activity in the lively plazas is people looking @ people. Whyte observed that an important part of a space is its relationship to the street: vigorous street life in front of and w/in a park, which shouldn't be cut off from people walking by-and-through it. Light is also very important (this doesn't have to be direct sunlight--it can be "bounce light" from nearby buildings). Other amenities include accessible water, trees (planted in groves to make canopies), food, and what Whyte calls "triangulation"--some activity (an arrest, a mime, a sculpture, vendors) that draws the attention of a crowd, providing a connection between them. Scale matters, too...

Whyte's finale: "Street is the river of life for the city.
People come to these places not to escape it, but to partake of it."
So: maybe it is about movement after all....