[the unknown city, our secret spaces]

I have secret spaces, don’t you?

When most people, me included, think of public space, they think of a city’s parks, plazas, playgrounds, and riverfronts, but there is another layer of public space that surrounds us and defines us as people who inhabit places and derive identity from them. These are our secret spaces.

We have secret spaces shared with a few select friends, private secret places, and, the coolest of all, secret illegal spaces. Illegal spaces are those that are never found or explored by the general public and very seldom explored by anyone. In abandoned houses, under the streets, on top of the radio towers, on top of the suspension bridge; all are places where the public is not allowed. But some people can make these spaces their own.

Urban explorers do it for the adrenaline rush. Taggers do it to mark their territory. Some people call these spaces their home.

I guess technically, illegal spaces are the exact opposite of public. But that’s what makes inhabiting them, if only for a brief moment, so enticing.

check out a map of San Fransisco’s Secret Public Spaces!

I suggest skipping to the 2:00 mark for this video:

Urban Explorers: Quests for Myth, Mystery and Meaning from Bradley L. Garrett on Vimeo.