Anmerkungen:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments August 2, 2020 erstellt
Beschreibung:
Sidewalks seem like the quintessential public space: a common ground for socialization, recreation, and protest. Yet the sidewalk has increasingly been privatized. Restaurants occupy sidewalks to operate outdoor dining rooms, while homeless people may not be welcomed on the sidewalk at all.This Article chronicles how our most public spaces became private. Regulations tried to bring order to our sidewalks, but did so by turning to the private sector. Governance was allocated to private organizations; physical control was granted to profit making enterprises; and maintenance duties were handed off to adjacent property owners. The result is unequal access to sidewalks, especially for low-income and minority populations, which impoverishes us all. By narrowing their public, sidewalks provide fewer public goods and become less of a democratic agora, where we can meet and walk in each other’s shoes. This Article makes three key contributions. First, it locates the nature of public sidewalks in property theory which has largely ignore them, despite the fact that they are a commons—providing public goods to improve our health and our environment. Second, it is a case study of a broader pattern where public entities—mostly local governments—effectively privatize property by turning to private governance regimes. Finally, this Article proposes principles that would better balance the important public and private interests at stake. These include retaining municipal control of sidewalks for public use, eliminating any profit-making goal of municipal sidewalk management, and earmarking funds obtained from sidewalks for reinvestment sidewalks, particularly in low income neighborhoods