The new Columbia Heights public plaza on 14th Street NW

is featured in an entry in the Prince of Petworth blog. I can't figure out why the bulk of the reader comments are so negative.

Photo by an anonymous reader of Prince of Petworth.

I think we need more pocket park and small neighborhood/commercial district plaza type spaces, and this seems like a step forward to me.

Also see, from the Project for Public Spaces, "Ten Principles for Creating Successful Squares."

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P.S. I should have mentioned that this is one of a number of public realm improvements planned for as a result of a particular DC Office of Planning process, which resulted in the Columbia Heights Public Realm Framework Plan.

This is a rendering from the plan. You see that the imprinted brick design was extended to the abutting streets, although after this plan was done, DC's Dept. of Transportation made a ruling that such pavement imprinting wouldn't work in the DC street environment. (This idea was also expressed in the transportation plan for H Street NE.)