When we think about what a city is, various thoughts, images and reflections appear in our mind! We know that cities are made up of streets, neighborhoods, houses, buildings, businesses, industries and people. The population of a city asks little, or almost never, about the spaces that make up the city, public spaces and private spaces. What are they? Can you answer?
Every city is divided between public and private spaces. Public spaces are places administered by the government and belong to the population, are examples of public spaces: squares, streets, parks, avenues, beaches that exist in coastal cities etc.
Private spaces belong to someone, such as people or companies, are examples of private spaces: houses, commercial stores, private schools, shopping centers. Generally, private or private spaces are maintained by the owners, they take care and maintain them for their preservation.
Public spaces are the responsibility of the government; city halls, for example, take care of the squares, maintaining the benches and gardens.
But who helps to preserve and take care of public spaces? The population is responsible for keeping public spaces preserved. However, many people contribute to the destruction of these spaces, many monuments are graffiti and destroyed by these people.
We know that acts of destruction and deterioration of public spaces is a crime and the offender can be arrested. In this way, as citizens, we have the role of ensuring that public spaces are preserved, awareness of this preservation must be part of the population's routine and life.
We saw the difference between public and private spaces before, but we only talked about who belongs to these spaces, now we will talk about the use of these spaces by the population; we will see that some private spaces are used as public spaces. But how? This will be simple to understand!
The supermarket in which we shop is a private space, that is, it is private property, it has an owner. However, it is used as a public space, as any citizen who wants to make their purchases can go to the premises in order to purchase or not some merchandise.
But can people go to supermarkets at any time?
No, all private spaces that are commercial establishments (supermarkets, shopping malls, butchers) and retail establishments services (banks, beauty salon) have opening hours, so people can use these spaces respecting their schedules.
There are also public spaces that have opening hours, such as schools, museums, libraries, parks, public institutions services to the community (banks, health posts), citizens can only use these spaces during operation. Unlike the streets, squares, which are public spaces, but do not have opening hours.
Leandro Carvalho
Master in History
