Cairo’s Vanishing Free Spaces

Cairo’s Vanishing Free Spaces

There was a time when public space in Cairo meant more than just physical access. It meant watching kids fly kites on the corniche, sharing tea in a quiet garden in Zamalek, or catching a breeze on a bench at the International Park in Nasr City.  Today, those same benches are often fenced off, paved over, or priced out. In a city of 23 million, where can the public still be public? From the once-lively Nile Corniche now broken up by cafés with c…