Talk:Carrboro Public Space

Private property rights as essential to the success of a democracy
'Freedom of expression, freedom to congregate, and private property rights'' are essential to the success of a democracy. Places to practice these freedoms are prerequisite necessities.'''

Freedom of expression is essential to democracy because without it an individual would not be able to submit his/her idea for consideration to the body politic.

Freedom to congregate is essential to democracy because without it a group of people who hold a similar idea would not be able to stand in unison to establish that idea.

I am left wondering how private property rights are essential to democracy? What function does private property rights serve in assuring that a government be by the people (a democracy)? I don't see any.

What I see is that private property rights is: 1) an idea that at one time an individual expressed to 2) then have a group of people, who held a similar idea, affirm the idea succesfully. This idea has been established, through a democratic process (for some; if we don't forget the displacement of indigenous people all over the world past and present), to the degree of being enshrined into law.

--Sammy talk  05:40, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

what is "public" space?
What is public space? Who does it exist for? Is it space owned by the government, a real estate company, a landlord, benevolently doled out for us to use? Or is it space that is socially owned and controlled by the rest of us, on our own terms, in our own image? Lately these questions about public space have come to the surface. Weaver St. Market has banned “dancing” on its lawn, despite our protests. The Parks and Recreation Department has threatened legal action to keep our monthly really really free markets from happening unpermitted on the Carrboro Town “Commons.” For those alienated by a city center which specifically caters to the White and middle-class, in a small town that otherwise spans across diverse boundaries of race and class, the issue of public space is one of daily confrontation. We think that a different concept of public space is possible, on without Carr Mill landlords and Town Hall bureaucrats telling us how, when, and where we can gather. We imagine public buildings occupied rent-free, and greenspaces open to all without the need of permits, fees, or fines. As always, this is only the beginning.

love, Your friendly neighborhood anarchists