Monument Circle is so close to being a truly great public space. I’ve watch friends propose there, been to wonderful rallies like Stop Asian Hate and Black Lives Matter, and have great memories of events like the giant Christmas tree.
However, the extremely off-putting music, the tacky patriotic show, the focus on cars over pedestrians, and the lack of bike parking turn it into a spot that appears to try too hard to appeal to suburban and rural tourists instead of being an innately good public space in and of itself for people who live in the area to gather and spend time in.