Profile: Advocates for Privately Owned Public Spaces (APOPS)

The Advocates for Privately Owned Public Spaces or APOPS, is an initiative launched by Jerold S. Kayden and was assisted by the Municipal Art Society. It’s website, at apops.mas.org, is both a catalog and a news update site for the 525 plus POPS (Privately Owned Public Spaces) that are spread through-out NYC.  Here’s their overview of what a POPS is…

PRIVATELY OWNED PUBLIC SPACE [noun phrase] [slang POPS]
1. a plaza, arcade, or other outdoor or indoor space provided for public use by a private office or residential building owner in return for a zoning concession
2. a type of public space characterized by the combination of private ownership and zoning-specified public use
3. one of 525 or so plazas, urban plazas, residential plazas, public plazas, elevated plazas, arcades, through block arcades, through block gallerias, through block connections, covered pedestrian spaces, sidewalk widenings, open air concourses, or other privately owned public spaces specifically defined by New York City’s Zoning Resolution and accompanying legal instruments
4. Law’s oxymoronic invention