Main Street Parks and Plazas, Open Air “Third Places”

 MAIN STREET “THIRD PLACES” WHERE PEOPLE MEET CASUALLY, IN A PLEASANT SETTING. 

Downtown parks and plazas are ideal “third places”. Character downtowns have extensive areas and lands devoted to parks and open spaces. When systematically organized, the collection of parks, plazas, school grounds, stormwater ponds, protected wetlands, lakes, streams, private lawns and gardens becomes a holistic system of lands and waters that make ideal meeting places for people of all ages. 

 DESIGN MAIN STREET AS A PARK. 

Many cities use their downtown open space system to define their towns as character places. Publicly accessible and connected open space is a community asset too precious to be ignored or squandered or isolated. 

• Parks have open spaces, active spaces, natural areas, pathways, stormwater areas, shelters, shops, restaurants and maintenance yards. 
• Downtowns have all the same uses and activities as sophisticated parks with a different scale and proportion. Think of downtown, all of downtown, as a park.