k10ery
Senior Member
The problem with Canada Square is not that it's cheap or that it isn't flashy. It's that no one figured out why it should exist. It wasn't designed with success as a public space in mind. Parks and plazas that are built just to spare passersby from looking at an ugly concrete parking lot are often the worst. They're just ornamental, with no real practical purpose. They end up as dead spaces.
It doesn't Jane Jacobs to figure out there's something unpleasant about a public space that seems shunned by the public in its emptiness. It takes thought to create a successful public space that doesn't need planned events to be vibrant. It doesn't necessarily take a lot of money.
This might be right in general, but as a critique of Canada Square it is way off base. People's objection is that it is too utilitarian and not ornamental enough.
In my view, it's too soon for all this hand wringing. I think the space is attractive, and it's a nice place to stop as we move through the area. Last summer I found it mostly well used and well programmed - Ontario Square too.
Mostly what it needs is time. With larger trees and more people, hence more uses for the space, I think it will work very well. After all, what does Union Square NY have that this park does not? A couple of equestrian statues? I doubt that's what matters. What I like about Union Square is that it has people, who are doing real things, amid a lot of greenery that is a welcome respite in the city. There is no reason that Canada Squae cannot soon be all those things.