A Sense of Belonging
How the public realm can support diverse and inclusive neighborhoods
It takes intention to connect people to the public realm in meaningful and inclusive ways. Today, in reports from four Reimagining the Civic Commons cities (Detroit, Chicago, Akron and Memphis), we learn about making those connections to encourage people from all backgrounds to feel a sense of belonging in public space. That sense of belonging is supported by revitalizing the built environment in ways that work for current users and change old perceptions to welcome others into shared space. These teams have found success in creating a sense of belonging through local hiring, through art and through strengthening the physical pathways for connection.
A public-realm-first approach to equitable neighborhood redevelopment
In Detroit, the civic commons is at the heart of a comprehensive neighborhood reinvestment initiative centered in Fitzgerald, a residential and commercial neighborhood located about 9 miles northwest of downtown. Even before the pandemic, Fitzgerald had suffered a dramatic economic decline over decades, with high unemployment and a high proportion of vacant homes, vacant lots and abandoned commercial buildings. The Detroit team — which includes members from across the public and non-profit sectors — has spent the past five years taking a coordinated approach to transforming vacancy into community assets, including the creation of a neighborhood park and a greenway, and supporting a robust commercial corridor with a new community-oriented storefront space alongside locally-owned businesses. This work is supported by people-first streetscape improvements, alongside public and private investments in housing stabilization and rehabilitation.
The focus has always been on developing all assets in an equitable and inclusive manner, engaging local residents in the work and ensuring that benefits accrue to nearby neighbors.
For example, during the development of Ella Fitzgerald Park, the Detroit team worked with local non-profit The Greening of Detroit, an urban forestry-focused organization that gives local Detroiters workforce training and jobs in landscaping. By hiring nearby residents for jobs to clear and maintain vacant lots in preparation for the park, the project has both reinforced ongoing engagement with the neighborhood and given the area an economic boost. For two summers, a crew of eight residents worked to care for vacant properties in the neighborhood and cleared all of the residential alleys.
The team has since expanded the scope of their workforce strategy, developing a transitional work program that uses this neighborhood-based landscape work to get to scale, with a focus on returning citizens who face multiple barriers to employment. Instead of hiring for full-time seasonal crews, program participants spend four days working on maintenance in the neighborhood, and a day a week in training, receiving wraparound and educational support, or job coaching with the goal of placing them in a full-time position over the course of several months in the program, whether this position in the landscaping field or beyond. Program partner the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) estimates that this transitional program could impact over 100 participants over the next three years, using neighborhood-based work as a stepping stone and resume builder in service of their careers.
Creative redevelopment of the nearby commercial corridor on McNichols Road (also known as Six Mile) has also been key. The McNichols corridor was nearly vacant of businesses and most buildings were boarded up when the collaboration started in 2016. There was no natural space for the everyday activity of neighbors meeting neighbors, and the important local organizing for change that neighborhood leaders do. The team realized one answer was HomeBase — an abandoned retail space reimagined as a community meeting hub and a place to interact with local government and civic organizations. As more organizations and businesses have opened on McNichols, the city is also in the process of upgrading the streetscape to better support storefront businesses by including all modes of travel: improved sidewalks, safer pedestrian crossings, a separated cycle track, lighting, newly-planted trees and street furnishings.
Along with workforce development, the team found a variety of different ways to engage and compensate residents directly for their contributions, from training and paying residents to conduct surveys within their own neighborhood, to a successful microgrant program that supported resident-driven programming and assets throughout Fitzgerald.
Prioritizing a high-quality public realm is showing promising results in the Fitzgerald neighborhood. Public perceptions of Fitzgerald have improved as new storefronts open and vibrant public life increases throughout the neighborhood. The cross-silo approach in Fitzgerald has been so successful, it is serving as a model for equitable redevelopment in nine other neighborhoods across the city.
Sharing the present history of people who make a difference
In February, Chicago-based artist Brandon Breaux and Rebuild Foundation celebrated Black History Month by partnering on Brandon’s “28 Days of Greatness” project, a campaign created by Breaux that featured 28 digital portraits of Black, often underrecognized, creatives — one for each day of the month.
Rather than focus photos on figures of the past, the campaign’s digital portraits honored and uplifted Black individuals making present history in their communities. The portraits featured individuals who embody Black excellence — including Norman Teague, Cleo Wade, Roy Kinsey, Amanda Williams, Deray and Eric Williams.
To gain a wider audience, Breaux and Rebuild Foundation unveiled a portrait of an unsung Black hero across their social media platforms each day, while physical manifestations of the portraits were posted outside Rebuild Foundation’s Stony Island Arts Bank. This made the portraits and campaign available to Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood residents as well as those visiting the neighborhood and the Arts Bank.
“The impact of my daily meditation series last year and the desire to experiment and develop my portraiture publicly gave me the idea of doing 28 Days of Greatness,” said Breaux. “The main goal is to emphasize the importance of letting people know they’re loved. Many of us have just gone through almost a year or more apart and it’s still important that we lift one another up through sharing our love and beautiful gifts with the people in our lives at this moment.”
Taking every opportunity to create a more welcoming public realm
Historically, banners have been used in Akron’s commercial districts to create a sense of place, unity, and promote commercial activity. They are often a part of a sponsorship or branding campaign, with a dollar amount attributed to them. But last year, a collaborative effort led by Downtown Akron Partnership (DAP) shifted its ambition for its banner program to focus on creating a sense of welcome, for all, in public spaces downtown.
In Akron, you’ll now find a dozen stunning portraits blended with expressions of Akron’s character — and combined with abstracted street and topographic maps — on banners, bus shelters, and in the outdoor art gallery at Lock 3, an outdoor park and event venue in the heart of downtown Akron. The art installation featuring the faces of residents is a celebration of downtown as a place for all people.
Designed by local artists Alexandria Couch and Micah Kraus, the We Are installation replaces the commercial aspect of a banner program with a celebration of the people of Akron, inviting the viewer to find themselves welcome downtown.
Starting with the initial decision to use the banners as public art rather than more traditional civic advertisement, the project helped reimagine the role street furniture and infrastructure play in placemaking and inclusive economic development in Akron. What started as a plan to hire one artist to create artwork for pole banners on Main Street grew to include two artists of different ages, races, styles and backgrounds collaborating to create a portfolio of work that would appear on banners, bus shelters and an outdoor art gallery.
While the artwork was being designed, METRO RTA decided to incorporate it into bus shelters on downtown’s Main Street as part of the “Art in Transit” initiative. Bringing the banner artwork to eye level meant the art became engaging across different physical spaces. The artwork even spurred Summit Education Initiative to develop questions geared toward children, based on SEI’s list of “16 for Success” skills that benefit students entering kindergarten, that are now incorporated on the bus stop installations. The questions are a playful way to engage young Akronites, and appear in English, Spanish and Nepali.
“A year ago we sat around a table at the DAP office and dreamed up an amazing project that just kept growing and growing into a real show piece in downtown Akron,” said artist Kraus. “It is gratifying and deeply meaningful to have this art so connected to my city.”
Connecting more neighborhoods to a transformed riverfront
Surrounding downtown Memphis is a crescent of perpetually disinvested neighborhoods and persistent poverty. This is the location of seven of the 11 poorest zip codes in Tennessee, including the poorest zip code in the entire state. Forty percent of children in poverty in Memphis reside in one of these neighborhoods.
Community leaders understand that the success of the wider region cannot come if people living in these neighborhoods continue on in a state of concentrated poverty, cut off from the rest of the city around them. This poverty isolates residents and deprives thousands of Memphians from reaching their full potential.
The opportunity created by the proximity of a transformed riverfront along the Mississippi to these neighborhoods could not be ignored by the Memphis civic commons team, led by the Memphis River Parks Partnership. The team knows that a transformed riverfront can change the narrative and perception of nearby neighborhoods, drive equitable reinvestment and build social capital for people who need it. More importantly, by connecting more neighborhoods to the city’s greatest natural asset, they can connect more residents to one another.
In an effort to reconnect people living nearby to the transforming riverfront, Memphis River Parks Partnership is looking beyond its riverfront park borders to the streets nearby. The roads that connect the mighty Mississippi to some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods might be the key to connecting more people to the river and creating a more inclusive, seamless public realm.
In partnership with Downtown Memphis Commission, the Partnership is focusing on investments in the Vance Avenue corridor — the street that directly connects the South City neighborhood to the riverfront. With construction started on a reimagined Tom Lee Park at the river taking place just as $250 million mixed-income housing redevelopment in the South City neighborhood moves into its third phase, the time is ripe for increasing accessibility between South City and the riverfront.
The initial work is already underway with community engagement followed by street art, beautification and wayfinding signage. As construction on Tom Lee Park continues, partners anticipate additional sources of funding for larger, more permanent improvements that draw the transformative power of the river further into Memphis neighborhoods.
Reimagining the Civic Commons is a collaboration of The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, William Penn Foundation, and local partners.
