"It is common for developers to argue that they are creating new public spaces where none existed before."

As Jeff reminded us last week, if the River View development comes to fruition, not only will it result in a prime piece of downtown "public space" being transferred to private interests, but the long-promised "public plaza" component of River View will have been much reduced, and lack a view of the river itself.

River View? Not from this development.

Why is it that the project's supporters, from Develop New Albany on down, never address the privatization-of-public-space angle of this proposal?

Public spaces in Britain's cities fall into private hands; Projects such as London's new outdoor space, Granary Square at King's Cross, favour business over community, say critics, by Jeevan Vasagar (guardian.co.uk)

 ... Politicians of all stripes acknowledge the importance of making people feel part of a functioning community. Boris Johnson has spoken of putting "the village back into the city".

At a public meeting last year, the mayor of London said: "It's not a concept that I find people readily grasp but what I want is an atmosphere of trust and neighbourliness and a village atmosphere in parts of our city."

But villages always included commonly owned public land, Heath said. "In the archetypal feudal village there was always that space of common land where everyone had the right to graze their pigs and behave in a sensible way. There wasn't the sense this was the feudal landlord's land. This was common land."