Public Space

After reading the assigned readings for this unit I have come to realize something that I have never really put much thought into—public space says a lot about American culture and attitudes. It is apparent to me now that “public space” does not necessarily welcome everyone as it seems to. Malls, parks, streets, and restaurants are all designed to draw certain crowds. Sometimes unknowingly, Americans become stereotypical through public spaces. It undermines the thought of equality that America is supposed to stand for. For example, in John Fiske’s Shopping for Pleasure: Malls, Power, and Resistance, it implies that most malls are not open to the public. He suggests that mall and stores owners do not really welcome teenagers or adults with low income who have no intentions of buying products. They see this as a threat to their businesses and fear that these lingerers may drive some of the more wealthy consumers away.
Another example of a similar scenario is in the introduction to this unit entitled Public Space. These pages are a brief overview of the general idea of public space. It points out that the designs of certain businesses and other forms of public spaces are designed to lure consumers in. They design their businesses to be attractive and flashy in order to draw attention and gain consumer business.
In Murphy Davis’s writing, Woodruff Park and the Search for Common Ground, he discusses the layout of Woodruff Park in Atlanta, Georgia. According to Davis this park has a very unwelcoming feeling. After a five million dollar reconstruction the park appears to be pretty to look at, but does not seem very welcoming. The money for the construction was donated by wealthy business owners in order to have a place to gather where homeless people were not welcomed. As it turns out not only did homeless people feel unwelcomed, but the vast majority of Atlanta citizens found it very uninviting as well.
Public space can say a lot about our culture. Though many Americans do not realize it, we are still segregate in many ways. However, people who own and design public spaces have unspoken intentions for their space. Many times only certain social classes are meant to feel welcomed in a particular area.