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Obviously, you don't play golf. Scratch that. Obviously, you've never been to Singapore. I have very fond memories of walking out of the air-conditioned shoppi
by fxtentacle 6y ago
Obviously, you don't play golf. Scratch that. Obviously, you've never been to Singapore.
I have very fond memories of walking out of the air-conditioned shopping mall above the Waterfront MRT station and then walking through Mount Faber Park, Henderson Waves, Southern Ridges Park, Kent Ridge Park, and then back into an air-conditioned shopping mall at Kent Ridge MRT.
I took one of those walks almost every day, and in many cases co-workers or friends decided to join, because with the MRT system it's just so easy to quickly zip over to nature in your lunch break.
It's difficult to access this objectively, but I'm 100% convinced that this was a major factor in making my time in Singapore some of the most productive months I've ever had.
Also in Italy, the town squares were usually full with families and the elderly, sipping coffee and reading newspapers. But it was well understood that just by being there, they signal that they're available for you to just talk to people. Again, I felt like the strong communal spirit of having talked to 100+ neighbors in your village was fantastic, even if you only did small-talk about the newspaper.
Now if you could reduce the depression rate and related issues by 10% with a new well-maintained park. That'd be a significant GDP boost, so the economic value of such parks is probably in the billions of $$$.
- suduudeueu 6y agoHow silly of me not to include "public golf parks", Italian town squares, and Singapore in a discussion about America. But then, there's nothing surprising about someone so privileged they can travel the globe having a loose grip on the reality being faced by most of the country.
- nix23 6y agoI don't know in which shit-place you live, but the rest of the world loves parks. Homeless People in public library? Maybe ask your Government why that is.
- suduudeueu 6y ago"The rest of the world" isn't the topic.
- nix23 6y agoEveryone else but you....better?
- suduudeueu 6y agoGrammatically yes, in terms of relevance to the topic no.
- awiesenhofer 6y agowell actually it is, a pandemic is by definition a global event, the shift to WFH/remote happens globally too
- justinclift 6y agoNot sure why you're thinking that? HN audience is definitely global.
- rdtwo 6y agoBecause public institutions aren’t allowed to have decency standards in this country.
- fxtentacle 6y agoMy point was that parks can be truly good for the community. If that is not true for some parks in some parts of America, that seems more like a local problem to be fixed, rather than an issue with parks in general. In case you're not aware, there's plenty of people in the US who dislike the "all concrete walls" look of suburbia and instead would prefer more communal living areas - even within big cities - to be modeled after Italy or Singapore. So it makes a lot of sense to look at Singapore, even if you don't travel there yourself, for inspiration on how to combine skyscrapers and nature to make residents happy.