If you want to see how well-designed public spaces add to community-building, there’s no better place on a sunny day than Jim Deva Plaza, at Bute and Davie streets in Vancouver.
Notice how these friends (well, they are now) have assembled the movable deck chairs in the middle of the park, both to capture the sun and to people watch. You can’t help but interact with them in some way.
Sweet.
Compare with the plaza at Oak St and w49th Ave required by the Cambie Corridor Plan (1 May version, p 102).
Estimated annual average daily traffic (AADT) of the intersection is 70,000.
I live in the neighbourhood. To be honest, there are good things and not so neighbourly things about this plaza’s use. There is good programming, game nights, art weekends. It is kept reasonably clean. Lots of people use the space in a respectful manner and just simply enjoy it. However, I have never walked through without having to deal with smoke. Regularly people are drinking, being loud and just not neighbourly. Often people are passed out or sleeping on the ground. Because of these negatives, I do not sit and enjoy the space.