This week, we discuss 'public space'--what is it, really? Is it simply the absence of private property? Or is it something else? We watched Michael Kimmelman from The New York Times discussing the politics of public space--take note, for instance, of the way the rules and regulations over acceptable practices in Zucotti Park have changed after Occupy Wall Street. And as Mitchell suggests that we are at the 'end of public space', we have also asked whether 'public space' can be a static thing, or if public space is an ideal, a prospect that is constantly being renegotiated. After all that theorization, we've asked too what value public spaces serve. Kimmelman, not a geographer, but a design critic, reminds us too of the way public spaces can work and the way they can fail--how transit, density, and walkable spaces all together contribute to making desirable, accessible public space.

Below, I've scooped up this photo-rich case study of reclaiming and making public space in the heart of car country, Nashville, Tennessee.

A case study in making public space: