Rajanish Kakade/Associated PressMakeshift houses in Mumbai, Maharashtra in this Aug. 26, 2009 file photo.MUMBAIâ€"In Mumbai, a metropolis teeming with more than 13 million people, activists and ordinary citizens alike lament the dearth of places to get a simple breath of fresh air. A new study demonstrates just how scarce open space is: a mere 6 percent of the city is reserved for it, and of that area, approximately 60 percent is neither developed nor accessible to the public.
That translates to just nine square feet of open space per person, and protecting even that limited amount of turf can sometimes involve lengthy court battles, as I wrote Tuesday in The New York Times.
Traveling the streets of Mumbai, it is readily apparent that the city's denizens embrace the few large open spaces available. On any given evening, shouts from several simultaneous cricket matches can be heard at Oval Maidan, families congregate at Juhu Beach enjoying the sea spray, tourists mill about having their pictures taken at the Gateway of India and Azad Maidan provides a much-needed platform for political gatherings.
Kuni Takahashi for The New York TimesA schoolgirl making her way through narrow lanes between houses in Ambedkar Naga r in Mumbai, Maharashtra.Mumbaikars: Are there spaces in the city that you think the city should do more to develop so the public can enjoy them?
What suggestions would you give the city government as it revises Mumbai's Development Plan, the blueprint for land use for the next 20 years?
Please leave your suggestions in the comments section below.
