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The privatization of public space in U.S. cities strongly limits the expression of political demands by excluded groups. The disappearing of public space particularly affects marginalized urban areas hosting ethnic and racial minorities and undocumented migrants. These processes are central to the contemporary urban transformations of the San Diego Mexican neighborhood (California). Authorities have set up mechanisms of public audiences between barrio residents, the city redevelopment department and real estate agencies, as well as a Project Area Committee, in order to tackle the revitalization programs in the neighborhood. These mechanisms have institutionalized the debates, not in order to co-opt leaders or to develop participatory discourse, but to control the definition of public space and of who is part of it.