Madrid Replaces a Highway with Park Space

You think the article starts off as typical faux urbanism -- against cars at the surface, more "open space," and all the other 1950s conventions -- but it ends with an O.Henry ending i.e. a surprise finish. 

In times of economic hardship, large infrastructural projects are usually welcomed for creating jobs and building public assets. The works of the WPA in the USA during the great depression are often referenced in this way. Certainly the Madrid Rio, seen alone, is a valuable addition to the city that has done much to correct decades of neglect and bad planning. But in Madrid, these projects were undertaken not in a crisis, but in the heat of a speculative boom. In all this excitement, and with seemingly overflowing municipal coffers, urban renewal was not undertaken in an incremental way — it was an attempt at instant transformation. What's more, the rush seemed too political, a kind of legacy-making that was more pharaonic than benevolent. via sustainablecitiescollective.com