Privately owned public spaces
By: J. David Chapman/November 29, 2018
My colleagues from Coventry University, in the United Kingdom, and I are researching what are called privately owned public spaces, or POPS.
Urban theorists such as Lewis Mumford (1938), Jane Jacobs (1969), and Doreen Massey (1995) have all written about the importance of the public realm in defining cities and community culture. In these seminal texts, the authors suggest that cities make the biggest impact on community and culture in the public sector rather than private sphere.
There is no doubt the public sphere is important; however, there is another option available to municipalities as they navigate today’s budget issues in building critical public infrastructure. Maintaining and securing open-air squares, gardens, and parks has become a burden for many cities. The option available to communities is the privately owned public spaces.
The goal of POPS is to achieve balance between public benefit and private interest, creating amenities that are intended to be owned by private entities, but purposed to be used by the public. Oklahoma’s Department of Tourism and Recreation has taken the first step in this privatization discussion by allowing a private company to manage operations at the Red Rock Canyon State Park, near Hinton. Under the operations agreement, the state of Oklahoma retains ownership; however, Rick Theil’s company will sell merchandise and make improvements to the park.
State-owned and -managed parks have lacked the needed amenities to attract a sufficient number of visitors and have become a financial burden to the state. Gradually, the state has been turning over operations of parks to nearby cities and Native American tribes. While they can hardly afford to manage the parks, these cities and tribes fear closing the parks and recreation areas would have a detrimental impact on their local economy. As private companies prove to governments and tribes that they can adequately manage these valuable resources, maybe the state will join the national/international bandwagon of selling publicly owned properties to private companies with the caveat that they remain open, available, and accessible to private citizens for recreation and enjoyment.
While the transfer of these government assets to private ownership is not without risk and controversy, it may be the only way forward to sustain the operations and maintain stewardship of these beautiful natural assets.
J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).