“As a matter of principle, there seems to be good reason to expand the public forum well beyond streets and parks. In the modern era, other places have increasingly come to occupy the role of traditional public forums. The mass media, including the Internet, have become far more important than streets and parks as arenas in which expressive activity occurs.
Nonetheless, the Supreme Court has been wary of expanding the public forum doctrine beyond streets and parks. Perhaps the Court’s wariness stems from a belief that once the historical touchstone is abandoned, lines will be extremely hard to draw, and judges will be besieged with requests for rights of access to private and public property. Thus the Court has rejected the seemingly convincing argument that many other places should be seen as public forums. In particular, it has been urged that airports, more than streets and parks, are crucial to reaching a heterogeneous public; airports are places where diverse people congregate and where it is important to have access if you want to speak to large numbers of people.”
-Cass Sunstein, “Republic.com”
On December 15th, 2007, Harvey Loves Harvey hosted a Christmas party in the ATM vestibule of a bank in Brooklyn. Gifts were given, eggnog was sipped, and the conversation turned to the appropriate uses of public spaces, and what might be public or private.