Public and private space boundaries are contested social constructions rather than fixed.

Evidence

This definition is admittedly crude. The line between public and private space, like the line between strangers and personally-known others, is a fluid one. Is a bar public if access is restricted to certain categories of age or sex or race? Is a park public if police systematically clear it of sleeping men? Is the sidewalk in front of a home public if the elderly resident of the house continually chases away the neighborhood children who try to play there? — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 120

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the public/private line as a power contest site, echoing the reader’s ADDENDUM theme of contested dress-class signaling and the ‘power and powerlessness in struggles over territory’ LeFebvre framing.
• SEED: The three questions (bar exclusions, police clearing parks of sleepers, elderly resident chasing children) are vivid litmus tests for who actually controls ‘public’ space — usable as an essay scaffold on the myth of universally accessible public space.