Insights for Adapting Public Spaces in a Post-Pandemic World
A New Report from the Urban Institute
By Mark Treskon, Gillian Gaynair, and Joseph Schilling
This year has upended people’s lives across the globe, in ways none of us could have predicted. From online school to delays in routine health care, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of many systems we took for granted and the need to improve them.
Our public spaces and civic assets constitute one such system, and the pandemic has highlighted their central and necessary roles in society. Initial responses to COVID-19 included promoting social distancing by closing libraries and limiting access to outdoor recreational facilities like ball fields and dog parks. But loss of access to shared spaces to meet, eat, and play has put a spotlight on the essential nature of outdoor and indoor civic assets.
As the pandemic surges on and protests in the wake of George Floyd’s killing continue, parks, plazas, and other outdoor spaces have proven to be essential in meeting people’s social, emotional, and physical needs. People hungry for a break from home confinement have flocked to public spaces to exercise, boost their moods, and connect with friends and family in a relatively safer, socially distanced setting. With schools closed and unemployment rates growing, libraries — many of which are starting to reopen — are now one of the few outlets available for public internet access and job search assistance (in addition to their virtual programming). At the same time, nationwide protests for racial justice have highlighted the exclusionary spaces in our cities — such as Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, and its memorials to the Confederacy — and the urgency to transform them into inclusive and vital shared civic spaces.
So how do we revamp civic assets in ways that yield more equitable and resilient communities? This is a question that has informed Reimagining the Civic Commons, a collaborative initiative between national and local philanthropic organizations, government officials, local civic leaders, and residents aiming to revitalize public-space assets that have the power and potential to foster engagement, equity, environmental sustainability, and economic development. A new report by the Urban Institute, Civic Assets for More Equitable Cities, examines the policy and practice dimensions of this new approach as implemented in the demonstration cities of Akron, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, and Philadelphia.
Our report offers insights and core lessons relevant to future efforts to reimagine civic spaces in cities across the country. In it, we identify several key takeaways, including the following:
- By focusing on a collection of civic assets — rather than a single public space — and on achieving key social, economic, and environmental outcomes, cities can fundamentally shift how they revitalize shared public places. This approach leads to cross-silo, collaborative leadership, more strategic operations, and greater innovation.
- Achieving a shared vision for reimagining assets systemically and inclusively requires collaborative leadership from various sectors, departments, and disciplines, as well as local residents.
- Prototyping and co-creating the design, programming, and revitalization of public spaces — with everyone from frontline staff to neighborhood residents — builds support and stewardship of the assets and informs permanent investments.
- Continuous learning and reflection, aided by systematically tracking outcomes, helps build more flexible and vital civic assets that lead to equitable social change.
What has this looked like on the ground? In Memphis, stakeholders brought together a diverse group of city and regional organizations, residents, and leaders to design a network of assets and programming along the Mississippi River.
This work included overcoming the divisive history of the region’s assets: Today’s Fourth Bluff Park (previously Confederate Park) had been home to a statue of Jefferson Davis and other Confederate monuments; the statue was removed in 2017, and subsequent programming and redesign has reclaimed the park as an inclusive space. Memphis’s River Garden (formerly Jefferson Davis Park) has leveraged high-quality design and programming and transformed its maintenance staff into “rangers” who greet every visitor, helping create a welcoming public park experience. The parks along the Mississippi have also hosted everything from weekly yoga to a recent Mask Up, Memphis! event, offering masks, sanitizer, school supplies, and snow cones to visitors.
In Akron, a range of community leaders engaged with community residents, including those living in Summit Lake, one of the city’s most disinvested neighborhoods. This consistent engagement helped slowly build trust between residents and the city, as well as a shared vision for a linked network of civic assets. As Dan Rice, president and chief executive officer of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, put it, “We learned from our neighborhood residents that relationships and projects move at the speed of trust.” Eighteen months into the effort, perceptions of Summit Lake are increasingly positive, with more than 90 percent of site visitors saying the neighborhood had changed for the better and will continue improving.
Flexible funding from philanthropic partners led to the co-creation of several popular public spaces in Akron. These initial “wins” helped build support from the local government. Informed by the Akron Civic Commons approach, the city has now created the Office of Integrated Development, which centers the civic commons ethos of public life and public space in equitable community development.
Reimagining the Civic Commons has not only catalyzed community change by shifting people’s perceptions of, and relationship with, public places. It has also caused shifts in policies and procedures. Urban’s report recommends several strategies for cultivating similar local systems change so that an outcomes-oriented approach to civic-asset investment becomes the norm and its impact on communities is long-lasting:
- Focus not just on placemaking but “placekeeping,” the long-term management of public spaces, to support local workforce development and wealth building to sustain civic commons investments.
- Revamp community and economic development funding to include financing for civic asset revitalization and programming as infrastructure for equitable cities.
- Advocate for policy change at all levels to support investment in public spaces. Elevate understanding of the social and economic benefits of revitalized public spaces to build support for sustainable resources.
- Measure outcomes that matter. Collect and share data and stories with policymakers, so they have evidence of the social, environmental, and economic returns on investment in civic assets.
- Institutionalize the reimagining of civic commons through annual budgets, program requirements, regulations, and ordinances, so the approach extends beyond one or two mayoral administrations.
Finally, the work of Reimagining the Civic Commons shows how important it will be for state and local governments and philanthropic organizations to continue supporting civic commons. During these times of economic distress, funding for these resources is profoundly strained but crucial for building stronger and more inclusive cities.
For more information and to download the Civic Assets for More Equitable Cities report, visit civicommons.us.
Urban Institute’s Mark Treskon is a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, Gillian Gaynair is the senior writer in the communications department, and Joseph Schilling is a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center and Research to Action Lab.
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.
