I would hope not but we've got online public squares as Hussra mentioned where people believe they're communicating with other people who are probably bots. I don't think that's going well. People and companies have this notion of converting obsolete parking lots into public parks but I'm not sure if that's going to work. It's like the more we go online the more we're afraid/skeptical/fearful of those around us IRL, so not sure if going out in public is as desirable as it once was. Public activity is going to take on really interesting shapes in the near future since what was considered fun/fun-ish public activity (window shopping, people watching, etc., like others mention above) is going to be so foreign to those born in maybe 2000 and after whose formative years were spent adding things to cart online instead of browsing stores outside. If digitizing the shopping experience creates more time in our lives by eliminating the need to commute and browse, then we've got to figure out how people are going to use that extra time and repurpose all that extra space. That's maybe where society's values come into more definition - what are you going to devote those spaces to - and I guess we'll learn more about ourselves based on which visions for these spaces defeat others.

So what does the "public square" revolve around? Call of Duty 10?

They’re going to dump $100m into it to make the north end a giant mixed used space.

One of the new buildings at Yorktown is age 55+ apartments. Not exactly walkable to stuff like grocery stores, but a pretty short drive to anything, and walkable to the mall itself and to Target.