Role of the Public

In Silver Spring a great deal of discussion is going on about how a proposed civic/community center should be built, run, and serve the public. One writer indicates that the talk isn't just academic:

The battle that is forming around the funding of the Silver Spring town center, is not a battle about money, it is a battle about the role of public space and the growing private commercialization that is supplanting it. It is about who shapes the cultural and civic life of a town: residents or public-private investors.