Public Spaces in Suburbia and Tourism Destinations

This book analyses six public spaces in suburbia and tourism destinations. For each public space, it compares one in New Jersey to one in the Netherlands. These spaces are analyzed based on six criteria: public access, public use or the presence of strangers, use restrictions, public governance, public ownership, and public history or collective memory. Of these six spaces, the suburban parks were the best. The shopping malls were filled with a crowd of immense diversity, but lacked many of the characteristics of a good public space. The office parks were bare and deserted, which is why they are some of the worst public spaces. In the summer, beaches can become a high quality public space teeming with people of all ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds. Once the high season is over, however, these beaches become parochial rather than truly public. The two heritage sites visited offered good public spaces, but the popularity of heritage sites remains uneven. The theme parks were filled with a highly diverse crowd, but they lack four of the six characteristics of a good public space.