Fascinating, Farah!

Fascinating, Farah! I may be wrong here, but I believe in the United States properties must be deeded to a city, state or the federal government to be used as common grounds. Now, maybe it isn’t a “must” as much as a “should” because of liability concerns. If you own the land, even if it’s used for the common good, and someone gets injured on that land, you are responsible for the liability of that injury. Yes, we are a litigious society. All the properties I know of that were once personally owned and are now used for the “common good” were transferred to some other entity, such as a city, county, state or the federal government.

But, regardless of the legalities (excuse me, I work for lawyers), I loved your piece and its celebration of communal properties that we can all use.

Most everyone I know who visits NYC goes there for the shopping and the Broadway shows — not me, I love the public greenspaces. I can spend days going from one NYC park to the next — whether city parks or neighborhood ones. To me, it’s the parks that make NYC magnificent.

And, it sounds like your city is much the same.