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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

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.

Ditulis Oleh : admin // 9:08 AM
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