I totally disagree.
Parks don't "cause" more bums. That's an absurd concept.
We do have parks that are dominated by bums. This boils down to two main reasons:
1. We don't have enough parks, causing the bums to be concentrated. This discourages others from using the parks. Adding parks would spread the bums out more, and remove some of the disincentive that keeps others away.
2. Certain parks don't have enough middle-class people around them, particularly at night. City Hall Park and Occidental Park are good examples.
The best way to address these problems are to build more parks, and to add more regular people. This particular project avoids much of this problem by having an active mix of uses in the tower and around the plaza.
And if it does attract street people, at least there will be fewer somewhere else.
I that that Civic Square will become another bumtown.
1. Okay, we don't have enough parks. But we'd need a Seattle Commons x 2 to see the spreading of bums at a level you're talking about. Since we don't have that kind of space anymore (or ever will), it's inevitable that any pocket park or square built in the future will be filled with bums since the new spaces will be miniscule in comparison to what we need.
2. Bums don't care about middle class or not--especially in downtown. In fact, they're attracted to crowds because they have an opportunity to scrounge some change. Someone begged to eat my sandwich during lunch peak at the park by Pike Place. We're dealing with agressive bums here with nothing to lose. Not just parks are being run over by the homeless; but the central library is getting taken over too. I wouldn't mind them if the place didn't REEK.
We need more parks; but let's build more urban reststops too. Let these people clean themselves up with free showers, shaves, and laundry at least.
As for Civic square, it'll never see the crowds depicted in that picture unless it had the magnetism of, say, Pacific Place. The retail corridor needs something new and exciting to happen southward. This Civic Square project doesn't do it for me.