Squares and Public Spaces
The Beirut Central District contains over 60 gardens, squares and open spaces. These spaces comprise landscaped streets, gardens, historical squares, pedestrian areas and sea promenades thus totaling to an area of 96 acres (39 ha) of open spaces. This makes the BCD home to 50% of the entire public spaces in Beirut, despite the fact that the BCD itself is only 10% of Beirut City. These public spaces gradually developed into a thriving social scene for the Beirut residents, thanks in part to the city's mild weather. City officials have imposed several plans to attract the urban users and the nature lovers to Beirut's squares and spaces. One of the plans is a "temporary uses" policy focused on a rambla pedestrian spine that links the existing city center and Beirut Souks northwards to the terraced corniche and promenade. The spine is now open for jogging and cycling, with surrounding roads being closed off to traffic on the weekends. They also include street markets and festivals, health and environment awareness campaigns, cat walks and dog shows.
Read more about this topic: Beirut Central District
Famous quotes containing the words squares, public and/or spaces:
“An afternoon of nurses and rumours;
The provinces of his body revolted,
The squares of his mind were empty,
Silence invaded the suburbs,”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“The approval of the public is to be avoided like the plague. It is absolutely essential to keep the public from entering if one wishes to avoid confusion. I must add that the public must be kept panting in expectation at the gate by a system of challenges and provocations.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)
“In any case, raw aggression is thought to be the peculiar province of men, as nurturing is the peculiar province of women.... The psychologist Erik Erikson discovered that, while little girls playing with blocks generally create pleasant interior spaces and attractive entrances, little boys are inclined to pile up the blocks as high as they can and then watch them fall down: “the contemplation of ruins,” Erikson observes, “is a masculine specialty.””
—Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938)