PBS' 60 Favorite Public Spaces

I just saw that PBS unleashed recently a list of 60 'great places' around the world -- determining which make the cut as public spaces 'where serendipitous things happen, the places we tell stories about' and also 'decidedly local, but can also absorb a fair amount of tourism with out losing the qualities that make them great.'

The list is here.

There's a few surprises here. Corpus Christi's bus station? While 'Bleecker Street' (a touristy, lame Greenwich Village strip, way past its 'decidedly local' prime) for New York is a bit of an embarrassment. Some obvious inclusions -- Paris' Notre Dame, Rome's Spanish Steps, New Orleans' French Quarter -- are here, but no San Francisco! No Hanoi! No Beijing!

If PBS is willing to expand from a nice even 50 to an unusual 60, they might as well gone with 70. Here's ten they missed:


*HANOI's Old Quarter. Lanes still hold onto ancient identities -- as tin makers, instrument shops etc. And locals come out at 4.30am to nearby Hoan Kiem Lake to exercise.
*BROOKLYN's DUMBO. Phil Collins shot his awful 'Take Me Home' video from the city's greatest viewpoint, on the East River between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.
*SAN FRANCISCO's North Beach. If you can put in New Orleans' French Quarter, you can put in this Kerouacian Italian district up the hill from downtown.
*BERLIN's Prenslaeur Berg. The East Berlin 'Boho' neighborhood.
*AMARAPURA, MYANMAR's U Bein Bridge. A mile-long teak bridge with a stream of robed monks. It's public, even 'serendipitous.'
*CHICHICASTENANGO, GUATEMALA's market. Traditional Mayan market occurs weekly.
*BOGOTA's La Candelaria. The historic center of Colombia's capital is backed by Andean mountains and filled with cafes serving cheese-filled hot chocolate or local spirits with yerba buena tea.
*NEW YORK CITY's Bryant Park. In the middle of Midtown, a Paris-style cafe backed by the library and skyscrapers, hosts fashion shows and free movies. Plus there's free wi-fi!
*MERIDA, MEXICO's weekend street fair. It's open-air bands, tacos and closed-off streets in this colonial Yucatan town built from broken Mayan pyramids.
*BEIJING's Tiananmen Square. It faces the Forbidden City's Mao mural, and the loooong lines of locals coming to see Mao's mausoleum is hard to forget.

That and many many more.