Activating and Sustaining Stewardship through Programming, Hiring and Maintenance: Lessons from Centennial Commons
When the Parkside Edge, the first phase of an $11 million project called Centennial Commons, opened in Philadelphia on June 13, it signified much more than simply a new neighborhood public space. It represented an important moment in a process to foster engagement and sustained stewardship that started several years ago and will continue well into the future.
The project begins to realize a shared vision by the Fairmount Park Conservancy, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, Centennial Parkside CDC and, most importantly, residents to transform and reactivate West Fairmount Park with new play spaces and amenities for all.
The East Parkside neighborhood is much like many other communities of color in the United States that have faced disinvestment in public places. It has remained isolated from both the economic vitality of Center City and the public investment and attention that other parts of the city receive, deepening the community’s distrust and sense of disempowerment.
With this context, the Fairmount Park Conservancy and the Centennial Parkside CDC started an inclusive process to understand the East Parkside neighborhood’s needs long before any ground was broken on Centennial Commons, with the goal of understanding how an investment on the Parkside Edge could meet some of these desires.
In September 2016, through support from Philadelphia’s Reimagining the Civic Commons demonstration, residents kicked off work on the Viola Alley Connector, a project using creative placemaking to re-envision an underutilized alleyway within the neighborhood. Building upon an identified community need for increased access to healthy food, residents then designed and implemented the Parkside Fresh Food Fest in collaboration with Reading Terminal Market in a vacant lot the following summer.
Built environment interventions, no matter how dynamic they are, have little value unless they bring people together in a way that spurs creative thought and collaborative movements. We have learned many lessons throughout this process and hope that this project can serve as an example of how to use inclusive development principles to activate public spaces.
Lessons learned:
Leveraging a neighborhood’s creative capacity leads to relevant programming. East Parkside is host to an immense amount of creative ability, whether it’s growing food, creating art or producing music. Giving residents an opportunity to participate in the planning and execution of neighborhood programming ensures that it is relevant. The Centennial Commons process has nurtured this through pop-up programming events like the Viola Alley Connector and the Parkside Fresh Food Fest, which allow residents to experiment with different activities that can now be replicated on a larger scale in Centennial Commons and throughout other neighborhood spaces.
Hiring local residents to support maintenance deepens ownership. A park improvement project like Centennial Commons can serve multiple goals including beautification and creative placemaking. If the improvement of a park can also create jobs and nurture forms of wealth building within the local neighborhood, then its impact will multiply throughout the entire community. Through the Centennial Commons project, the Fairmount Park Conservancy and the Philadelphia Water Department contracted with the Centennial Parkside CDC and its Clean and Green Team to ensure that local residents were being paid to clean and maintain the new space. By using a local workforce to keep this space clean, we have seen a sense of ownership develop among residents, creating long-term project sustainability.
The space is not complete when the last bench is installed. To ensure the sustainability of a park improvement project, residents need to be continually engaged in the programming and maintenance of the space. The Centennial Parkside CDC and the Fairmount Park Conservancy will continue to coordinate efforts around community programming and maintenance that involves regular community events and cleanups. This approach facilitates resident-driven programming that reflects local creativity and an opportunity to continually asses the effectiveness of this project as a community centered public space.
Learn more about the Centennial Parkside CDC, the Fairmount Park Conservancy, and the Centennial Commons project to understand how these partnerships are working to create inclusive processes for reimagining East Parkside.
Chris Spahr is the Executive Director of the Centennial Parkside CDC, a non-profit with a mission to preserve, promote and revitalize East Parkside through partnerships with businesses and institutions and programs that engage residents, increase opportunity, and grow a diverse, thriving community.
Reimagining the Civic Commons is a collaboration between The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and local partners.
