Lessons from Akron: A conversation on a new way of working with Dan Rice
In March, people working on Reimagining the Civic Commons demonstration projects met in Memphis for Civic Commons Studio #5 . As part of this studio, we interviewed the demonstration project leaders about what they’ve learned over the past three years — and where they go from here. This Q&A between urban planner and founder of Spirit for Change Consulting Lynn Ross, and the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition and the convener of Akron Civic Commons Dan Rice is the fourth in a series from these studio interviews.
Setting the context. The Akron Civic Commons project focuses on three distinct neighborhoods in the city (Civic Gateway in downtown, Park East and Summit Lake) and the spine that connects them — the historic Ohio & Erie Canal and Towpath Trail. Each neighborhood has a different history and unique challenges, but by revitalizing and connecting these three key places, Akron Civic Commons hopes to instill a collaborative, cross-sector and inclusive approach to the planning, building and operation of vibrant public spaces. By testing ideas through creative prototyping — and by being unafraid of big dreams — these projects offer a new model for civic engagement and the co-creation of the civic commons by, with and for residents.
Lynn Ross [LR]: Akron is the city with the smallest population participating in Reimagining the Civic Commons. Can you share what that has meant to Akron — the challenges, but also the opportunities of being a smaller city doing this work?
Dan Rice [DR]: I appreciate starting out with this question, because sometimes when you are the smallest city at the table, it is assumed that some of the issues may not seem like they really apply to us. But what we’ve seen with civic commons is that regardless of population or geographic size, we’re all basically working at the neighborhood scale. What it really gets down to is that you have to be able to develop relationships at the local level, at the neighborhood level.
One of the key things that we’ve learned, and I think one of the advantages of being smaller, is that we have the ability to get right to decision makers quickly. Oftentimes, quite honestly, the decision makers are right at the table with us. And if you don’t see them at the table, you see them at church on Sunday, or you see them at the grocery store. So, there are plenty of opportunities to interact with decision makers in our day-to-day life in Akron.
I also think our size is an element of our ability to develop really close working relationships. Our team really does operate as a family. There are a lot of close relationships and partnerships forming. I truly think that one of the other advantages that we have from a size standpoint is that we’re able to have a variety of organizations at the table. Whether it’s nonprofit organizations, government agencies, or neighborhood residents — when everybody walks in that room together, when we have a monthly team meeting, everybody’s at the same level regardless of title. James Hardy may be the chief of staff for the Mayor of Akron, but when he sits at the table with local resident Grace Hudson, they’re on an equal level. We really worked hard to create that type of an environment for the civic commons work.
LR: You have expanded your circles of influence and your team has grown significantly since the start of this process. Talk more about how you did that, why you did that, what some of the challenges have been, not only in building a team, but also sustaining a growing team over time.
DR: On the upside, as we continue to grow our team, we get more voices coming to the table, which I think is a great strength. It makes the project that much stronger. It’s not only the fact that our team has gotten larger, but that a lot of our partners like the City of Akron, Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority and Summit Metro Parks bring multiple players to the table. I don’t see this as a bad thing at all, because what that means is now we’re actually starting to imbed our Akron Civic Commons process into our partner organizations. But I think we were very intentional early on to make sure that all voices are recognized, heard, and valued, and the only way we can do that is invite people to the table.
We’re really working hard at that, and new partners come to the table all the time. One of our recent new partners is the Akron Zoo, which is a great asset adjacent to the Park East area, and they have been very helpful looking at natural resource programming around Summit Lake.
Early on, we discussed how each of our team members has a superpower; the idea that everyone comes to the table with some special skill set. For instance, Nick Moskos of Summit Metro Parks has a wonderful eye for design. And that’s something we need when we talk about aspirations for creating great public spaces. It is just really cool to have all those folks with different skills in the same room. I feel lucky and blessed to be sitting at the table and learning from all of our partners.
But I’ll be perfectly honest with you, we do have some challenges. Some partners who have actually been at the table since the very beginning, unfortunately, we have not seen the same amount of growth. This can be attributed to the fact that some of our partner organizations have experienced leadership changes or they have not fully embraced our Akron Civic Commons process.
LR: You’ve often talked about the fact that you’re working across multiple neighborhoods and you’ve had different experiences in those neighborhoods. We’ve heard a lot about the great work at Summit Lake and how you’ve overcome stigma there. But talk a little bit about what’s going on (or not) in Park East.
DR: Wow, that’s a loaded question! Park East is a fascinating Akron Civic Commons space. I’m really glad that we were able to include it in our project. It’s right in between downtown and Summit Lake. So it’s that space “in between” that you really have to activate, and to make connections.
But to address what we didn’t know when we started this journey four years ago — this project is akin to peeling back the layers of an onion. Just when you peel back one layer, you’ve got another layer. And having partners with you on that journey is extremely helpful. What we’ve discovered is there is decades of resentment by the residents in Park East. It was a large urban renewal project, and they feel like they were recruited in the 1980s to live there on behalf of the City of Akron, but then the City didn’t maintain the adjacent public space, like tennis courts, fountains along the Ohio & Erie Canal, gazebos, and walking paths. If you go there today, a lot of that infrastructure looks dilapidated due to the lack of disinvestment. Through the Akron Civic Commons, we’ve begun to activate a lot of the gazebos, tennis courts and public spaces through our resident-led work. So we’re really starting to bring that back together.
Within Park East you have a fully subsidized housing, partially subsidized housing and you have independent homeownership. But what we learned in Park East is that even though you have this variety of housing and people of different income backgrounds that are connected by the Ohio & Erie Canal and Towpath Trail, they don’t talk with each other. Ironically enough, the canal and the Towpath divide them. You have privacy fences, despite the fact that the housing developments were not designed to have them initially.
Our first meetings between neighbors and partners from the Park East neighborhood were challenging. We recruited representatives from each of the neighborhoods to form a steering committee, and shared the Akron Civic Commons process to develop relations and work together. Well, that was an idea that maybe lasted for about 10 seconds because when they all got in the room together, they literally wouldn’t sit next to each other. We quickly experienced how the Park East neighborhood residents were divided physically, emotionally and psychologically by the Ohio & Erie Canal and Towpath Trail. However, we learned that including food at our meetings and just sitting down and sharing experiences brought them together. They actually sit next to each other now! And they are really co-creating and co-designing together. It’s really very rewarding.
Doing this work, we’ve uncovered so many painful experiences. For instance, the name of Park East’s community park was Canal Park. But under a previous administration, when the City built a baseball stadium downtown, they basically took the name of the neighborhood park away to name the baseball stadium Canal Park in downtown Akron. And nobody knows where Park East as a name even came from. This is something we didn’t know until we started this project. And so just this past year we’ve decided that we are going to initiate a community conversation to help us figure out what we can call this space. To the City’s credit, they have given us permission to have that conversation.
The other disadvantage that we had in Park East is that we didn’t get a chance to prototype there during the initial months of Akron Civic Commons. But I would have to say, that even though we were kind of behind the curve at first, I think we picked up speed there now.
LR: Now I want to talk a bit about this idea of changing the way we do business. No matter which team member I talk to, everyone talks about how Civic Commons has helped them change the way they do business, not just on public space, but has actually been infused into their organization and is really permeating throughout the way the city works, the way other nonprofit partners work. Can you talk from your experience about how Civic Commons has informed the larger portfolio of work that you’re engaged in?
It has been transformational.
The previous mayoral administration in Akron was in office for 28 years, and they had a very top down way of doing business. The current administration started in 2016 and has been the exact opposite. They’ve been incredibly welcoming. They really are interested in what the neighborhood residents think and how we can make Akron a great place. Yet shifting the public sector culture has been a little bit of a challenge, because when you have a culture of 28 years doing business one way, and now all of a sudden it shifts, that can be a conflict. But to the administration’s credit, they said, “This a ship that we’re on. We’re going this direction and we want everybody to hopefully support this.”
When we first started Akron Civic Commons, the City of Akron was there in name only. But now we are locked arm and arm, and their involvement is really the reason why the project’s been so successful. When the city created the Office of Integrated Development, under the leadership of James Hardy, we began to see change within the administration. The City has launched the Great Streets Program to support vibrant, walkable neighborhood business districts with strong public life, and Akron Parks Challenge to support neighborhood park improvements. We have momentum.
Summit Metro Parks is another great example. Summit Metro Parks is an amazing county metropolitan park agency, one of the best in the state of Ohio. They actually wanted to plant a flag in the urban core, the center of our city, and to do so, are transforming an abandoned tire factory pump house directly adjacent to the lake into a full nature and visitor center. There, Summit Metro Parks will better invite park visitors to Summit Lake, while deepening their relationships with community members. They’ve taken a huge risk and changed the way they do business. They’ve committed 110 percent to Akron Civic Commons — their design staff, their frontline staff, their interpretive staff. And to me that’s just amazing.
And there is the shift to prioritizing public space in Park East by Alpha Phi Alpha Homes.
Each of the partners has been on a journey. Our organization, Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, has worked for 30 years on developing the Ohio & Erie Canal and Towpath Trail and also on developing relationships. This project goes deeper than that. It’s really about a family — deepening those relationships, spending time with people, seeking understanding while listening. I’m just humbled and honored to be able to be a small part of this process. Seeing the transformational change has really been an amazing part of Reimagining the Civic Commons.
LR: At our last Civic Commons Studio, Liz Ogbu talked a bit about how you must hold space for yourself in this work. The work we’re doing is hard. It is challenging. It’s rewarding, but it takes a lot out of you as an individual. How are you holding space for yourself in this work?
DR: Wow. This is a work in progress for me. It’s personal and due to the relationship aspect of our work, it is very challenging for me to separate the work and hold space for myself. I love my work and feel blessed and fortunate to be a part of this process. One of the most rewarding aspects of our work is developing authentic relationships with neighborhood residents and earning their trust as we work together to reverse the decades of neglect and lack of equity in our parks, trails and public spaces.
Grace Hudson, Eric Nelson, Shirley Finney, Sandy Saulsberry, I mean these are real people, residents of Summit Lake who have been part of an incredible journey with our Akron Civic Commons team, and they’re great stewards of the public spaces. The fact is they have taken a risk and welcomed us into their neighborhood and families. I feel an incredible obligation and responsibility to not disappoint them. Because, here I am, this middle-aged, white privileged male, coming in and saying all these great things about Reimagining the Civic Commons, yet, despite the decades of broken promises and “things being done to and not with”, our neighborhood residents are locking arms with us and showing us the true nature of servant leadership. Failure’s not an option.
So, I don’t probably do a very good job of separating it. And I really feel blessed that my family has been able to be part of this journey with me. And I hope and pray that we are better people because we are part of it.
LR: It’s that heart, Dan. I think we all have it for this work, but we also have to take care of ourselves in this work. Because there’s more to be done. Speaking of which, what is next? You have so many accomplishments in this work, but I know there’s a plan out there for Summit Lake and the Loop Trail, it sounds like there’s a lot more to do in Park East, and your team is always thinking bigger. What’s next for Akron Civic Commons?
DR: Well, I’m glad you asked that because we’ve just gotten started.
We’ve got meetings coming up in Summit Lake and for the Summit Lake Loop Trail. The Summit Lake Vision Plan, in which residents have come up with a vision plan for Summit Lake that includes boating, fishing, a fountain in the lake and a shipping container for concessions, like the Memphis’ Fourth Cup. We have a fitness trail coming into Park East, and Mural Arts Philly has come in to layer on great public art in that space, and we’re working to develop a playground in partnership with KaBoom. And then the great work in Downtown — we’re working on a design plan for Lock 3 — with Olin Studios under the leadership of James Hardy and Tish Jernigan with the City of Akron, Howard Parr with the Akron Civic Theatre, and Suzie Graham at Downtown Akron Partnership.
Now is time to bring in other parties, including our corporate partners, local business and the State of Ohio. We believe has a role in this.
The work has truly just begun. We just have to stick to it. And I believe we will.
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.
