Fiske and Davis are Right

Both Fiske and Davis obviously disagree with how "public space" is being used. Based on the arguments presented in each of their articles, I agree with both of them.

Fiske points out that malls are only for people that have the money to spend and are willing to spend it. There is another part of this that he did not mention though. It is people who look like they don't have the money to spend who are also harassed by mall authorities. This is particularly true of many teenagers who actually spend a good deal of money at the mall but are expected not to. This also works in the opposite way for adults. Many adults go window shopping and never actually buy anything but they are accepted because they are expected to have money. Fiske also mentioned how many senior citizens use malls to go for walks during colder months. This is perfectly accepted but when teenagers use a mall for essentially the same purpose they are unceremoniously thrown out.

I also agree with Davis that it is ridiculous for the government in Los Angeles to be displacing all these people. This is a common thread in history where the very rich, powerful minority is doing anything it can to stay in power even at the expense of so many others. I do think that Los Angeles should be doing what it can to make areas inhospitable for homeless people and also work to stop the drug trafficking, but there are other things that must coincide with this. The police are actually not following the laws by arresting street vendors. Many of those people have nothing to do with the drug trafficking and by taking away there business you are just creating more "homeless vagrants". I think that some money should be spent to make areas inhospitable for the homeless but that more money needs to be spent to make those people no longer homeless. With all these rich companies there is obviously an excess of money, so they need to stop being greedy and shell some out to help other people. Help them learn and get back on their feet. You not only help these people but you also would be helping yourself. By doing all of this public service they would put a much better face on their company, most likely causing them to have more customers.

So obviously I agree with Fiske and Davis, that public space is not too public and that this needs to be fixed.