What is a Public Space?

Have you ever been walking through the cities of Port of Spain or San Fernando and happen to pass by areas with benches and tables? Have you ever wondered what these places are? Or what is their significance? 

Places like these are considered to be public spaces. Public spaces include areas such as parks, streets even sidewalks. We also tend to recognize certain buildings as "public" namely, schools, libraries and shopping malls. However, many places that we consider public are really “privatized” public spaces or “publicized” private spaces. A public space can be defined as all areas that are open and accessible to all members of the public in a society, in principle, though not necessarily in practice (Orum and Neal 2010: p.1). From this definition, three perspectives on public spaces are derived:

1. The Legal-Economic Perspective
2. The Social-Spatial Perspective
3. The Political Perspective 

In his paper, "Seeking common ground: three perspectives on public space", Dr. Zachary Neal of the Institute of Civil Engineers, summarized these three perspectives as follows: 

(a) The legal–economic perspective seeks to answer the most concrete questions about public space (what is it and who pays for it?), thereby laying the definition and institutional groundwork for other inquiries.

(b) The socio-spatial perspective takes the existence of public space for granted and is more concerned with questions of design and application: what does it look like and how is it used?

(c) The political perspective asks about public space’s role in democracy, both abstractly as a site for discursive activities and concretely as a site of exclusion or empowerment.

Look at the picture below, do you see any public spaces? 

View of Harris Promenade, San Fernando and surrounding area.

The photo above was taken from the 8th floor of the San Fernando Teaching Hospital. It shows piece of Harris Promenade, the San Fernando Police Station, and the intersection of Harris Promenade and Independence Avenue.  A First Citizens Bank ATM  can also be seen. Based on the above definition of a public space by Orum and Neal, we can identify public spaces within this area. The roads, pavement and the promenade are all easily accessible to any and everyone and can therefore be classed as public spaces. People can be seen utilizing the pavements and roads and the promenade. We wanted to show a few of the public spaces that can be found in one of Trinidad's cities and give the readers the general idea of what a public space really is. 

Stay Tuned for our next update on public spaces :) 

REFERENCES 

Orum A & Neal Z, eds. (2010). Common Ground? Readings and Reflections on Public Space.  New York: Routledge.