The importance of public spaces

So I'm in New York City for a couple of days and I just had the opportunity to visit the new Times Square pedestrian mall.  One of the busiest cities in the world is taking its busiest intersection and slowly shutting it down to vehicular traffic.  The result is simply amazing.  Now i'll give you that its the middle of summer on a great summer evening and the "great white way" doesn't need any incentive to bring people downtown but the fact that the city is taking proactive measures to create a more pedestrian friendly environment says something about the importance of walkable public spaces to creating vibrancy.  And, if you're interested in learning more about how public spaces can be used then come to the League Convention in Kalamazoo on Sept 22-25 and hear from Fred Kent of the Project for Public Spaces, one of the world's foremost leading experts on working with communities on creating and utilizing great public spaces.