Whose Space is it Anyway

Cities, like people need to breathe. Cities, like people need space to be fallow. Some societies allow these to their cities.
Some people believe in maximizing returns from an urban place – which means building up every square metre, inhabit it with people and generate more taxes. Others believe in optimizing returns from urban space – which means giving the city dwellers space to love and grow with the place they stay in and hence draw better people and better industries thus generating greater tax revenues.
Some people believe that a piece of open space in an urban area is a hallowed place that allows the people to loosen up and take time outs. Hence there are a lot of these spaces spread out over a large area. The spaces are hospitable and they have facilities which make it an attractive breather for people in between their urban madness. In turn, people who use it are expected to keep it that way. It sure beats taking a breather at Phoenix Mills.

Some societies are also very particular about not letting these public spaces be used for private purposes – even if earns a lot of money by way of rentals or taxes. Because by definition, a public space is meant for everybody and not a select few.

Some civil societies go to great lengths to maintain the sanctity of these public spaces. Maybe it’s a matter of affluence. When you are busy trying to figure out where you are going to be sleeping tonight, sunlight shimmering off a pond in a park may not exactly catch your fancy. But somehow, I believe that’s not the case. You don’t have to particularly well-off to carry your empty bag of Lays chips back with you. I think it finally boils down to this – some people believe a public space belongs to everybody; some believe it belongs to nobody. What do you think we believe?