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05/12/2005: Thought for the Day:
The attractions of Millennium Park, which also include a strip of indoor and outdoor eateries facing a skating rink, are experienced individually, but—like most theme parks—they don't mesh into a coherent whole. That's a shame, but it may be inevitable, given that this is an attempt to appeal to a wide variety of tastes and sensibilities. It's also a shame that Millennium Park has not learned an important lesson from the Magic Kingdom. The presence of so many security personnel, in bright orange vests, is much too obtrusive. They wander suspiciously around like museum guards (or tool around on Segways). It is as if, having created this public space, the authorities don't quite trust us to behave. There are far too many signs, too—explaining, naming, directing, prohibiting. Corporate and private sponsorship paid for almost half the cost of the park, as we are ceaselessly reminded. But the most poignant of the signs are the ones that warn, "No Loitering." As if there was any other reason to go to a park.
--Witold Rybczynski, on Chicago's Millenium Park
Len on 05.12.05 @ 07:32 AM CST
