Urban Public Spaces, Part 1: Definition and Intersectionality/Social Justice

The health of public spaces, as evidenced by COVID-19, helps shape social interactions critical to the health and well-being of communities and cities. An urban public space lens provides a window for a better understanding of gun violence in highly marginalized communities of color. This view facilitates the introduction of numerous concepts that have found saliency in the social science and public health literature because of how a compromised public space has a disproportionate impact on communities of color, particularly youth and young adults. It is argued in this chapter that urban community gun violence cannot be successfully addressed without taking into account how public spaces are damaged because of it.