A good square is a place where a human being can be. That means if you want it to be vibrant the connecting streets also have to be places where humans want/nee

A good square is a place where a human being can be. That means if you want it to be vibrant the connecting streets also have to be places where humans want/need to be. And I specifically mean humans who walk and not cars. But how do they get there if you need to keep cars out? Other reasons my european mind can think of why this doesn't work in the US: - weird car-centric zoning regulations that lead to weirdly unorganic space use. Where I have my grocery store, my gym, my record shop and my doctor all within walking distance of my home that would be often utopian in the US. Good spaces are mixed spaces, and for that mixing has to be allowed - generally an egoistic cut-throat society, where some would rather burn the money, than risk the chance of having someone else profit from it. But good public spaces thrive from the surrounding owners caring about the public spaces and the people within it as well. - commercial interest trumps everything. In Europe many nice places are surounded by shops/redtaurants that are family owned for generations. And while economics do play a role also in Europe, they are not the be-all and end-all, when it comes to decisions. If your business has meaning to your whole family, you decide differently than a faceless megacorp that looks to extract value like a leech from everything that makes life worth living