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Many of the statistics you post are meaningless. Having a larger percentage of parks does not equal more livability. It's more important where the green spaces are located and the quality of them.
New York is impressive when one considers its range of architecture and the heterogeneity of its streetscapes. There are dozens of iconic NYC streetscapes ranging from brownstones, mansions, cast-iron buildings on up to skyscrapers.
All taken by me yesterday in a 5 min walk but I also want to make clear that the vast majority of the city is not high-rises and many of its "nicest" streetscapes are the ones without them.
Many of the statistics you post are meaningless. Having a larger percentage of parks does not equal more livability. It's more important where the green spaces are located and the quality of them.
There are major parks in the centre of New York as well as it's boroughs, and the same applies to London and Paris, and green space is important feature of any city. I certainly don't find that statistic meaningless and nor do I find public green space meaningless.
No one said green spaces aren't important. But it's far more important where the green spaces are located and the quality of them. New York's largest parks are on the periphery of the city and are relatively little used. If the municipal boundaries were drawn so they're excluded from the city, would it be less of a city?
San Francisco has hundred of square miles of open space at its fingertips but since they're outside of its small municipal boundaries, they don't count. London on the other hand, has municipal boundaries double that of NYC and includes its greenbelt.
See why superficial statistics don't tell the full story?
No one said green spaces aren't important. But it's far more important where the green spaces are located and the quality of them. New York's largest parks are on the periphery of the city and are relatively little used. If the municipal boundaries were drawn so they're excluded from the city, would it be less of a city?
San Francisco has hundred of square miles of open space at its fingertips but since they're outside of its small municipal boundaries, they don't count. London on the other hand, has municipal boundaries double that of NYC and includes its greenbelt.
See why superficial statistics don't tell the full story?
They are not superficial statistics London has lots of green space, and if you looked at the study it is public green space and not green belt green space and London with over 3,000 public parks has plenty of public green space. Every borough in London has numerous parks including the centre where you have Hyde Park,, St James Park, Primrose Hill and Regents Park, Kensington Gardens, Holland Park, Battersea Park, Burgess Park, Hampstead Heath, Wandsworth Common and numerous other green spaces such as Lincolns Inn fields or Finsbury Circus. London also being famous for it's hundreds of green squares and tree lined suburbs.
In terms of NYC it has a park at it's beating heart in Manhattan and every borough has parks and public green spaces, this is not always the case in other cities such as Mumbai, some Chinese cities and indeed Tokyo.
You have to admire Central Park for the quality of what it delivers given its spatial constraints.
NYC has a very beautiful park right in the centre and has far more public green space than Tokyo. Which for many people make the city far more liveable and pleasant.
Maybe I'll just let this thread get back on topic before you turn this into a parks of London thread.
Well maybe you won't suggest that data relating to green public spaces isn't important because it's very important. Nobody wants to live in miles after mile of grim concrete or have no where to escape the madness of many very large cities.
Tokyo is probably great to visit, but in terms of living there, no thanks. To much lights, too many people and not enough space to get away from the crowds.
At least 14% NYC is public green space, compared with 3.4% in Tokyo, making NYC far more livable imho. You just need to look at the pic of Tokyo above, where's the green space and parks on it.
I find green space very important personally, and I also agree that NYC's Art Deco Skyscrapers have far more character than many of the current crop of nondescript glass skyscrapers.
The dearth of green space in Tokyo compared to NYC doesn't seem entirely accurate to me at least from being within the cities. Is there some kind of oddity within the methodology (possibly not counting parks within temples and castles?) that's cause for the discrepancy?
Since when, the 80s? Have you been to Times Square lately??
Best to just ignore that poster all together. BennyBucks can be found all over the inter web spewing how gleaming and fabulous London is (when a strong case can be made that London is nothing more than a miserable, overcast, and ugly cesspool of drab buildings and working-class chavs without proper dental care that teeters on the third-world via mass immigration from countries even more destitute than the ones that land in the U.S.). BennyBucks seems to reside in an alternate universe of London; one in which the town is more beautiful than Paris and everyone is a wonderful, civilized model-citizen.
London is many great things things but London. It's a fun place, it's very multi-cultured. Zone 1 is great and vibrant. But London, beautiful? LOL. Never.
Last edited by Louis XVI; 06-16-2014 at 11:27 AM..
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