Queer Publics: Planning for POPS in Queer Communities

This paper aims to understand the role of Privately owned publicly accessible spaces (POPS) in the context of the historically queer neighbourhood of the Village in Toronto. Maintaining the framework of socially produced spaces, this paper examines the development and redevelopment of the public realm in the Village to determine how queer communities experience space in the city and the role of the built form in facilitating inclusive and safe spaces for queer expression. To do this, I engage with the privatization of urban infrastructure and its role in influencing planning-related institutions and policy. I examine the relationship queer communities have with informal spaces such as bars in comparison to public and publicly accessible space. Importantly, not all queer people experience space in the same ways, and queer inclusive planning accounts for intersectionality and the safety and inclusivity of all users of space.