Anti-Eviction Mapping Project Takes on Public Space - Loss of the Commons

Upon a backdrop of San Francisco's commons, including streets, parks, rec centers, POPOS (privately owned public space), public schools, and libraries, the AEMP has detailed 21 stories across the city exhibiting the increased privatization, policing, and reduction of the commons: http://www.antievictionmappingproject.net/publicspace.html. From the "Dropbox Dude" incident at Mission Playground to the takeover of public bus stops and parking meters by private tech companies, and from the increased policing of the 16th Street BART plaza to the condoization of Daggett Street, this map offers multiple examples of gentrification's impacts on public space. Not only are residents being forced out of their homes through evictions and unpayable rent increases, but they are further being squeezed out of common spaces across the city.

Like many cities across the country, San Francisco is undergoing a dramatic transformation driven by private interests. The logic of privatization has crept into city planning strategies and accelerated the erosion of public space. From parks and plazas to streets and sidewalks, the transition from public to private management and ownership envelops us, threatening our freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and freedom of recreation in natural spaces.

Public spaces have long been a refuge for those without stable homes. They have also long served as places to organize and build community. As the city reaches a heightened stage of neoliberalization, and as the public sector increasingly partners with private interests, we are witness to an era in which public spaces corrode at an alarming rate. The 21 stories on this map do not detail every example of this phenomenon across the city, but they do illuminate a number of mechanisms at play in expropriating the commons from the public vis-a-vis the collaboration of private and public sectors.