One of the earliest examples of public spaces are commons. For example, no fees or paid tickets are required for entry. Non-government-owned malls are examples of 'private space' with the appearance of being 'public space'.

A public space is a social space such as a town square that is generally open and accessible. Public space has also become something of a touchstone for critical theory in relation to philosophy, (urban) geography, visual art, cultural studies, social studies and urban design. The term 'public space' is also often misconstrued to mean other things such as 'gathering place', which is an element of the larger concept of social space.

Most streets, including the pavement, are considered public space, as are town squares or parks. Government buildings which are open to the public, such as public libraries are public space. Although not considered public space, privately owned buildings or property visible from sidewalks and public thoroughfares may affect the public visual landscape, for example, by outdoor advertising.

Brent Staples (b. 1951 in Chester, Pennsylvania) is an author and editorial writer for the New York Times. His books include An American Love Story and Parallel Time: Growing up In Black and White, which won the Anisfield Wolf Book Award. Specializing in politics and cultural issues, Staples often writes on controversies and issues, including race and the state of the American school system. In 2008 he was appointed to the newspaper's editorial board.

He is a graduate of Widener University (B.A.) and the University of Chicago (Ph.D). His essay "How Hip Hop Lost Its Way and Betrayed Its Fans" was included in Read, Reason, and Write book, edited by Dorothy U. Seyler. His memoir Parallel Time was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.^{[citation needed]}

Before Staples was born, his parents moved from rural Virginia to Chester, Pennsylvania as part of the Great Migration of blacks to industrial cities in the North and Midwest. Chester was then a prosperous small city with a huge shipbuilding industry. The oldest son of nine children, Staples was born in 1951. He can easily remember his family's comfortable existence in Chester during the city's last period of prosperity. His family had no money for tuition, his grades were average, and he had taken only a few high-level academic courses in high school, so expected to go straight to work. He was admitted to Widener University, where he graduated in 1973. Deeply engaged in scholarship, Staples moved to Chicago, where he earned a Master's degree in Psychology in 1976, and in 1982 received a PhD in the same field, both from the University of Chicago.^{[citation needed]}