the public park has been transformed. @FrankLawOlmsted's vision of a "public safety valve" faces closure, restriction, policing #openspaces
— Ethnic Studies 181AC (@PIC_Abolition) May 9, 2014

Mike Davis' City of Quartz observes the transformation of downtown Los Angeles into a "new Berlin," with a massive divide between the poor urban class of newly minted elites who operate in the downtown area. Frank Law Olmsted envisioned American parks as the answer to Europe's piazzas and squares: sites of uprising and disorder. In a bucolic setting, he figured citizens were less likely to demand upheaval violently and mope likely to congregate and communicate... The state of policing policy imperils this vision.