Quasi-Public Privatized Spaces

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how public space should be democratically organized to support communal usage from people in all walks of life and how today access to true public space has become a scarcity. It evaluates how people are more commonly flocking to quasi-public privatized spaces such as Universal's City Walk, which is representative of a typical sequestered quasi-public space. It looks at how it is surrounded by high fences, set high upon a hill, how visitors are required to follow strict guidelines and how their activity is monitored. It analyzes how the development of quasi-privatized spaces such as City Walk are more representative of a demoralizing and hierarchical society, where certain groups feel more privileged than others. It shows how by creating walled cities and gated communities, Americans are shutting themselves off and creating exclusive mini-communities, that have nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with exclusion.

From the Paper:

"The creation of such quasi-public spaces are actually much more representative of the increasing paranoia that exists throughout the nation in urban cities like LA. Universal's City Park was created for the purpose of expression of the ideas and desires of a small group of people, not representative of the community as a whole, inclusive in reality of vagabonds and the elite alike. Steven Flusty, in his work "Building Paranoia" also describes the Park as a "Jittery Space."
He describes this as "space that cannot be utilized unobserved due to active monitoring by roving patrols and/or remote technologies feeding to security stations." People entering City Walk are subject to constant monitoring, whether on the walkways, in the shops or by the fountains. "

More papers on Quasi-Public Privatized Spaces:

• Argumentative Essay # 27732 : "City Walk"
• Analytical Essay # 23430 : "Public/Private Education"

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