We must live in very different places. I patronise the public spaces everywhere I go, and what you describe is highly atypical.

Unless of course you treat public spaces like Americans treat buses. If it becomes a miserable experience only the destitute would use, those who can will avoid it, and those who can't will perpetuate it.

But where I live everyone uses public spaces. The wealthy don't retreat to private backyards.

Our public parks went downhill. People park cars on the grass, do donuts in the grass, race through the park. People drink alcohol and smoke marijuana in the park, leave their trash all over, play obnoxiously loud music...