Outdoor Public Space Should Be Part of Your Home Search

If you’ve traveled with small children, you know how important it is for them to be able to run around and burn off energy — otherwise they’ll make your life difficult. So on a recent family vacation to Paris, my wife and I made sure to look around for outdoor spaces where our kids could play.

Fortunately, Paris has public spaces all over the city in the form of public plazas. They appeal to the young, old, couples, singles — people from all walks of life — who share a common purpose of seeking outdoor community space. 

Whether you call them plazas, piazzas, places, town squares or city squares, they are common in towns throughout Europe, and have been important to the fabric of their cultures for centuries. And while their public activities may have changed over the years (there are no more public executions, thankfully), they remain places where residents can gather, play, celebrate and relax.

So our kids had their time to play outside (with their own Razor scooters, which my wife had the foresight to pack) — at the Place de la Concorde, the plazas outside the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, and elsewhere. And our Paris vacation was less stressful for it.

Then I thought about Brooklyn. How important are outdoor public spaces to our communities? How well-served is Brooklyn when it comes to such spaces?

When I work with clients looking to buy homes in brownstone Brooklyn, they are of course concerned about the usual things related to the home itself.

But what about outdoor public space? Is there a place to gather and meet your neighbors? How close is your new home to a park, playground, plaza or ball field?

Homebuyers rarely, if ever, discuss this. No one has ever asked me, “How close is the nearest park?” I believe community spaces are important to the value of the home, and I make sure to point them out, but it usually generates little interest.

Of course this is understandable. Buyers are naturally focused on the real estate itself, after narrowing down the neighborhood. Does the home meet their needs in terms of number of rooms, size, configuration, style, age, condition, outdoor space and of course, price? Other major concerns are mass transit, schools and safety. Again, all understandable, especially considering the dollars involved in buying a home.

But public space takes on a greater importance once the buyers settle into their new home. Not until they have experienced their community — and the function that common spaces serve — do home buyers fully appreciate how these spaces impact their neighborhood experience and the value of their real estate.

So I see the appreciation of public spaces as more of a learned behavior.

For my young children, park time is an important part of their playtime — and they like to go to each of our local parks for different reasons. (They especially enjoy the swings at Pierrepont Street, the sand box at , and the big blacktop at .) But park time is also an important time for me and my wife, as part of our social and community experience.

When you think of it, public space might well help determine how happy you are in your new home and your new neighborhood. So if you’re looking for a new home, add to your list of “wants,” a good public space nearby.

What’s your favorite public space in Brooklyn? We’d like to know! Tell us on Facebook.