Community Resilience Through the Civic Commons, Part 1
Approaches to public space for more engaged, connected and sustainable cities
Cities that participate in Reimagining the Civic Commons approach their work through four distinct outcomes, two of which are environmental sustainability and civic engagement. We define sustainability as increasing people’s access to nature and creating environmentally-friendly places, easily reached by walking, biking or transit, while civic engagement is all about building a sense of community that brings people of all backgrounds back into public life — as stewards and advocates — to shape their city’s future.
We believe strategic investment in and innovative management of public space can connect people to nature and to one another, so that our shared civic commons can be a platform for collaboration and civic action so vital today for tackling complex challenges like climate change. By holding public spaces to the paired ambitions of environmental sustainability and civic engagement, they can foster true community resilience.
Here are practices from four civic commons cities across the country building resilience, improving sustainability and connecting people through public space.
Akron: Supporting downtown with a better street and a neighborhood through growing food
Akron, Ohio — one of the original Reimagining the Civic Commons demonstration cities — has been focusing on climate-friendly improvements to the city’s downtown and on creating more food security for residents in the neighborhood of Summit Lake.
In the city’s downtown core, environmental sustainability is part of attracting and retaining residents and businesses in the community. Partnering with the County of Summit, the City of Akron and the Downtown Akron Partnership, Akron Civic Commons collaborated on the first phase of the Main Street Project, which created a vibrant corridor designed to encourage more people downtown, while also addressing environmental sustainability. Extensive landscaping and greenery now provides ample space for pedestrians to walk; protected cycle tracks connect downtown to the nearby Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath trail, promoting recreation and alternative transportation options. Strategic lanes and parking for buses and delivery vehicles, designed in partnership with Akron’s mass transit agency Metro RTA, maximize the street’s efficient use.
Also incorporated into this phase of the project are energy-efficient LEDs in streetlights and traffic signal lights designed and timed to ensure smoother travel times for all modes of travel. The new streetlights and traffic signals are modern enough to ensure future upgrades, such as smart lighting systems for smart cars, will be possible. Other improvements to the street currently in construction address stormwater, including using permeable pavers that allow stormwater to be absorbed directly back into the ground.
A couple of miles and just a 15-minute bike ride away, in the neighborhood of Summit Lake, longtime food security and sustainability non-profit Let’s Grow Akron is providing nature programming and extensive community gardening support using the recently-renovated pump house on the shores of the lake. In fact, Let’s Grow Akron was one of the first partners, many years ago, to recognize the value of the space around the former rubber industry pump house along the shore of Summit Lake, activating it through community gardens, classes, and celebrations.
Now that the pump house has been converted into the Summit Lake Nature Center, Summit Metro Parks (which manages the nature center) worked with Let’s Grow Akron to reimagine the gardening space next door as a food source for the community. The area now includes 19 raised garden beds, all of which provide different levels of accessibility for differing needs, and enough space for future plans, including composting, a shipping container garden shed, and a greenhouse.
Lisa Nunn, director of Let’s Grow Akron, is excited for the opportunities this renewed space provides the community. “Partnerships with local government agencies like Summit Metro Parks are valuable because they bring resources to organizations like mine to help implement our vision. Whether through the community gardens at the Summit Lake Nature Center, at cooking or canning classes, or any number of other greenspaces in which Let’s Grow Akron works, we are excited to alleviate hunger by teaching people to grow, prepare and preserve their own food, all while working alongside them to beautify neighborhoods.”
Lexington: A nature-filled living room for city residents
Lexington’s planned Town Branch Park will transform nine acres of asphalt parking into a signature park in the heart of downtown. Envisioned as the anchor of the city’s Town Branch Commons trail system, the park will be both a green oasis, community living room and active destination that welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to experience the unique character and spirit of Lexington.
Since the beginning, creating an inclusive space has been the heart of the design process for the park. Knowing that a successful park feels welcoming to all, the Town Branch Park Board convened a diverse group of community leaders to ensure that inclusion and access would be integral to the design, programming and operations of the park. In 2019, during the master planning effort for the park, the group conducted an extensive community outreach process, engaging over 2,000 residents in order to identify community-led priorities and goals for the project. These important guidelines continue to permeate all aspects of the planning and design process.
Because the park’s schematic design process has unfolded entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing community inclusion in the evolving park design has been a multi-pronged effort. To encourage resident engagement in a challenging time, a focus on providing fun and meaningful ways to participate has included a personal story-telling approach, asking the community “what will your ideal day be like at Town Branch Park?” An online survey asked questions about who people wanted to join them on a trip to the park, what they wanted to do while there and how they wanted the park to feel. Those who finished the survey received a custom post-card stitching together their responses into a brief story of their ideal day at the park.
A virtual community meeting and a series of ten stakeholder meetings held over Zoom provided a socially-distanced version of the traditional public outreach materials — a presentation, Q+A and live-polling to understand the collective opinions of everyone in the virtual room. Two pop-up events captured the opinions of those who might not have otherwise heard of the project, intercepting passersby at two nearby destinations with information about the project and the opportunity to write feedback on a postcard to the team.
By including diverse community voices in the design process in fun and meaningful ways, the Lexington Civic Commons team and partners are working to create a park made up of distinctive experiences united by a cohesive character — a place where each individual finds something to spark their passion and interest, while also discovering connection with others and the community.
Chicago: A green sanctuary for artists and neighbors
In the heart of the Greater Grand Crossing community, Kenwood Gardens — a project aimed at reactivating 13 vacant city lots in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on the city’s South Side and transforming them into an outdoor oasis for artists and community members — is coming to life. At the core of this project is a strong focus on sustainability and sanctuary. The grounds and the gardens, which are currently being planted, will be home to native and regionally appropriate plant life, creating a refuge for local wildlife and visitors alike. After completion, Kenwood Gardens will serve as a hub for live performances, yoga, outdoor meeting and dining space and artist residencies.
The lush outdoor space is being transformed by the Rebuild Foundation with the help of Homan Grown, a local social enterprise and plant nursery located in Chicago’s West North Lawndale neighborhood on the city’s West Side. Homan Grown’s mission is to provide employment and training in advanced horticultural, design, and construction skills to residents, while acting as an educational resource for Chicago’s students and non-profits is closely aligned with Rebuild Foundation’s goal of strengthening the identity of the neighborhood while creating a new model for public engagement.
Philadelphia: More trees for better health
Twelve years ago, Philadelphia set out on a mission to increase the tree canopy in every neighborhood. And while pockets of the city have seen an increase in trees, there’s still work to do: the city’s overall tree canopy decreased by 6 percent between 2008 and 2018 for a number of reasons, including trees removed by individuals and those removed for real estate development.
Enter Tree Philly, a program that has distributed more than 25,000 free trees to Philadelphians since 2012. A program of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the non-profit organization Fairmount Park Conservancy, Tree Philly has made equitable access to trees and environmental justice driving priorities in its work.
That’s because trees save lives. An April 2020 study in the medical journal The Lancet found that an improved tree canopy in Philadelphia could save hundreds of city residents per year from premature death.
Lee Scottlorde, Tree Philly program coordinator, says that the benefits of trees to public health have never been more apparent. “At the beginning of the pandemic, when we were navigating our levels of comfortability with being in public spaces, my family had the privilege of tree gazing on our street to boost our mood, sitting in the shade to avoid the summer heat, and to use trees as entry point for environmental discussions with my children,” they said.
That’s why amid the pandemic, TreePhilly did whatever it took to continue bringing free trees to Philadelphians. The team continued to work with community organizations across the city to distribute trees via contactless pick-ups and direct drop-offs at residents’ homes. This past spring, Tree Philly gave away about 700 free trees.
During the summer, TreePhilly’s Marisa Wilson also directly reached out to residents in neighborhoods of highest vulnerability to extreme heat to remind them to water their trees during dry spells. The calls not only helped ensure best practices for taking care of young trees, but also worked to build trust between residents and the city’s tree institutions and give an outlet for shared joy and connection during a time of great isolation and hardship.
And the work continues: the City of Philadelphia just launched the Philly Tree Plan. This 10-year plan is centering the experiences and needs of residents by incorporating input from 25 community meetings, 6,500+ survey responses in seven languages, and 20 hired Neighborhood Ambassadors. The plan will create a 10-year strategy to grow, protect, and care for Philadelphia’s tree canopy, and set forth new ways of working with all residents to combat climate change. In addition, the plan will provide recommendations to the City of Philadelphia and its partners on how to best coordinate and strengthen their work on tree planting and maintenance, and what role policy can play to support a more tree-friendly culture across the city.
“Having access to trees and green spaces should not be a privilege of certain zip codes,” says Scottlorde. “Access to nature should be an essential and supported feature in every community regardless of income or race.”
This is the first part of a two-part series. Look for three more examples of building community resilience through public space in the coming weeks.
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.
