Over the past month, multiple people have described parks across both London and Buenos Aires as “lungs of the city”.
I love this metaphor. Parks provide a respite for residents, they lower the temperature of surrounding neighbourhoods, and they play an essential role in balancing and regulating the rhythms of people and air quality in a city.
They also great examples of long term thinking. Almost all of them could be sold for eye-watering sums for development, yet their persistence is evidence of their role in keeping a city healthy.
Written on a warm spring afternoon in Hampstead Heath.