InstaBlog: Sometimes, you just have to admit you were wrong.

Sometimes, you just have to admit you were wrong.

For the past few years, I've watched this hotel—a Holiday Inn—being built in the Garment District, at 39th & 8th Ave. The developers clearly received a height bonus for including a public plaza, one of New York City's many so-called privately-owned public places (or POPS). POPS have a sad history: not only have they more often than not been dead, lifeless afterthoughts, but developers had an incentive to make them that way—after all, they had no desire for non-tenants to hang out on their property.

Given that history and this space, which is tightly tucked between two buildings, I was fairly sure it was going to be a failure. As late as 2016, it looked like the plaza was going to be a lightless, empty disaster, a space devoid of people where no one wanted to be. I was even ready to take pictures of the legally mandated "Public Space" signs and snark about how only the best public spaces require signs to inform you of their nature.

Well, I'm glad to admit that I was totally wrong. The Garment District is a region almost devoid of public space, and this one is almost always full of a variety of people doing different things, including simply enjoying the city. There are many reasons it has worked: it is a relatively humanistic design with plenty of seating and plants, it is often bustling with hotel guests which in turn makes it more comfortable & interesting for other people to use, and it is not overly policed (in my experience, no one who isn't overtly begging is asked to leave). Whatever the exact reasons however, this space is working, and it has turned into a great addition to a neighborhood that desperately needed one.

In other words, sometimes it is a good thing to be wrong.