The End of Public Space?

This article was very interesting because its topic was one that could be arhues different ways and be debated. The main ides and argument of this article is the struglle over public space. Another question that was posed was whether or not everyone should have the right to a public space. The Berkeley city council and Reagan Bush era students had an idea of building dorms on People's Park. In 1989, homelessness was also a questioned posed. The rights that homeless people had to the city and the park was also questioned. The People's Park was supposed to be a public place but Berkeley's city and city council believed that they should have restrictions or use the space for something else because they believed that with the homeless and others there it was a poor representation of the community. They told the public they only wanted to beautify the patk without removing the homeless, but ultimately volleyball riots occured and they did exavtly the opposite.
This article actually kept my attention because I was curious of what the outcome and solution to th eproblem turned out to be. A quote that drew my attention was, "what right did the homeless have to the city? And in the city, what right did they have to the park" (118). This quote is significant because I feel its the main focus of the article and Berekely city council. I believe that homeless people are entitled t othe same rights as any other individual. I also believe thay have all the right to the park because it is a public space where anyone is welcomed to visit. It seems as if shelters and other places arent available for them, so they have no other choice but to go to People's Park. Another quote that interested me was, "the university would lease a portion of the land to the city of Berkeley for a trial basis. The city dtermined that its portions of the park would be dedicated to uder-control; but it also began exploring ways to remove the homeless people who camped there. To aid in this effort, the chancellor pledged $1 million a year for 10 years to the city to help defray the costs of aid to the homeless and other services"(120). I think that if the homeless people arent bothering others or causing a problem, why remove them? Instead of spending money to get rid of them, they should just spend that money to ensure that they have their basic essentials to survive. Homeless should not be treated any differntly than anyone else.