#public space

Eventually I had to ask them to please go somewhere else to play. We have several football fields in the area, one is three houses away, and even more open areas where they can play so I used my adult voice and asked them nicely but firmly to please not play right next to our house. They obliged and we parted on good terms.

Then I came home a few hours later and my housemate told me they came back. She asked them to please leave and they did, only to come back, kick the ball into our garden, she gave it back, and then they kicked into the garden again while she had a shower so they proceeding to break part of our fence apart to get to it. She yelled at them to get the hell out but gave them their ball back and they quickly left.

Not long after I came home they were back, repeatedly kick the ball into our wall and hedge though nothing suggested they were doing it out of spite because we could hear their conversations clearly. I ignored them until my dog started barking at them and they mockingly barked back which only riled her up further.

And guys, I finally found the magic sentence that made them stay away for good. I told them that if their ball got kicked into our garden again they’d have to go get their parents to get it back because I’d like a word with them.

They haven’t played next to our house since but I can hear them play on the designated football field a few houses away which I’m actually happy about. I didn’t want them to stop playing, I just wanted them to stop putting my pets’ health and peace of mind at risk.

A city sidewalk. A local library. A park bench. These everyday places shape how we experience community. Public space, though, isn’t always as public as it seems.

In the first episode of JSTOR Daily’s new podcast series, Perspectives on Public Space, host Sara Ivry talks with anthropologist Setha Low about the meaning and value of the spaces we share and how they’re being reshaped by privatization, policing, and architecture designed to exclude.

albuquerque main library. george pearl, 1975. may 2026

International Conference Centre, Kyoto - Sachio Otani

"Healing Mountain," Junshan Island, Dongting Lake, China,