Privatization of the Public Realm
Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
Robert Frost
As a landscape architect, my special interest has always been in the importance of public spaces as an arena of democracy. Freedom of speech and assembly, social equality and equal access are the qualities of parks, plazas and streets that are important to me. And they are the qualities we are losing, as governments abdicate their responsibilities for management, and leave our public realm to the care of those who have vested interests -- neighbors, corporation, institutions, and large private donors who curry political favor by contributing to the favorite causes of politicians. But there is no free lunch, and these private contributions come with heavy strings. They privatize the parks, physically and psychologically. They create a two-tiered public realm: the manicured spaces, free of “undesirables,” supported by the wealthy, and the neglected ones in neighborhoods where residents have no time or money to devote to their upkeep, and where no corporations are interested in marketing their philanthropic image.
Does anyone care?
