Agreed, but the author is not highlighting the lack of public spaces in general, but specifically a lack of public spaces where there isn’t an expectation to spend money.

In my experience, the expectation to spend is greater at indoor spaces than outdoor, so with this distinction, I agree with the author. If taken as originally written, I would think the number of outdoor public spaces far outweigh the number of libraries in any community, but YMMV.

I would imagine the author is referring to indoor public spaces, to which I wholeheartedly agree.