Nourishing community during a time of growth
A conversation with Tonnetta Graham, Strawberry Mansion CDC
Tonnetta Graham is the President of the Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation, an organization that promotes the sustainable revitalization of the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood in Philadelphia and is a partner in the Reimagining the Civic Commons work in the city.
Q: Reimagining the Civic Commons promotes socioeconomic mixing, bringing people of different economic and racial backgrounds together in public places. How are you helping new and longtime neighbors in Strawberry Mansion become connected to one another? And why is it important to do so?
A: One of the major complaints we hear from residents in neighborhoods that have been gentrified is that it doesn’t seem like a neighborhood anymore. People don’t know each other. As a community development corporation (CDC), we work to create opportunities for neighbors to see each other, say hello, wish each other good morning — so that we maintain that sense of neighborhood that people in Strawberry Mansion love.
We’re helping residents become connected to each other through maintaining an active presence in the community. We are going beyond informational meetings and developing opportunities for neighbors to engage in fun, creative, cultural activities where they can share their experiences. In making these connections, we find that younger residents are more social media savvy, and need the CDC to have an active social media presence, while our senior residents still need flyers and printed notices. Our communication plan needs to cover all demographics in the community, and we need to communicate regularly. My goal is to have as many residents as possible informed about zoning changes, development projects, activities, events, volunteer opportunities and other happenings in the neighborhood.
Q: Why is the civic commons — strategic investments in public space — integral to your work in community development?
A: Community development done right means that everyone’s perspective is valued. To be heard and valued, you need space for different people to express their perspectives. Particularly when you have a neighborhood like ours, with new residents living beside longtime residents, differing perspectives need to be acknowledged. Newer residents need to understand the longtime culture and its norms and seasoned residents need to be flexible. This is especially important for our public places. Guiding public interactions to ensure that all voices and perspectives are valued is important. The civic commons spaces are where you’ll see people expressing their culture, engaging with one another, and having a good time. Supporting these investments stabilizes our neighborhood and positions it for further growth.
Q: Your neighborhood is adjacent to the Discovery Center, a Reimagining the Civic Commons project in Philadelphia that recently reopened the East Park Reservoir, and a place you explored as a child. In what ways is the Discovery Center engaging Strawberry Mansion neighbors?
A: The Discovery Center is located in what we’ve always called “the reservoir,” and its opening gives our residents the chance to re-engage a space we used in the past. Strawberry Mansion residents used the reservoir for recreation, exercise, or for just taking a walk to decompress. When it was fenced off (editors note — the reservoir and surrounding area was closed to the public by the City of Philadelphia in 1970), it was a loss to the neighborhood, because it had been well-used.
In addition to access, the opening of the Discovery Center in September has allowed our neighborhood to explore ways to address some of our community’s needs through collaborating with the two organizations that are reinvigorating that space, Philadelphia Outward Bound and Audubon Pennsylvania. These two organizations have increased our residents’ access to programming focused on environmental education and leadership development. The leadership work is especially important to 18- to 24-year-olds in our community, who face challenges and distractions on their pathway to success. It’s also important to us to have residents that are educated about the environment, so that we can actively participate in caring for it. The Discovery Center and these organizations will help us do that, in an amazing space that’s really lovely and inviting.
Q: What are the benefits of new development in Strawberry Mansion, particularly for longtime residents? What are the challenges of that development? And how is your CDC addressing those challenges?
A: We have an opportunity through development to strengthen our neighborhood in ways that will help longtime residents. For example, one of the benefits of new investment is that we’re going to be able to revitalize our commercial corridors in Strawberry Mansion — we’ll have new businesses and services for residents in places where many businesses left years ago. New investment can also help us strengthen and improve existing assets, like schools, the transit system and green spaces. Development means we have the opportunity to beautify and improve our community. Yet development also means change. One big challenge we face is the fear of gentrification and displacement. That kind of fear can be immobilizing.
That’s why our work as a CDC is important. We work to connect residents to the resources they need to manage the change happening around them. You can’t lie to people and say “Your taxes aren’t going to go up.” You can acknowledge change and give people access to resources. Yes, their taxes may go up, but we can connect residents to opportunities and educate and empower them to become financially prepared to address those gradually rising tax bills. We can also try to help our renters become homeowners, so they can remain in the neighborhood as well. As a CDC, it’s our job to address the fear of being displaced with tools, like affordable housing, that allow people to stay here, and stay engaged.
The good news is that there are a many tools that we as CDCs and other neighborhood organizations are using to reduce the impact of that development and help homeowners stay in their homes.
One is comprehensive neighborhood planning, which brings residents together to identify where and how development should happen and maps our existing cultural assets. Our neighborhood has a lot of vacant land, empty houses and even abandoned buildings. Neighborhood planning has been critical for us to identify the places where we want residential development, both houses and apartments, where we should put commercial development and even some places that are best for industrial development. We use this plan to attract community-conscious developers, businesses and funders who can help us create the developments we want and need.
Another tool that we use to keep longtime residents in their homes is the “Healthy Rowhouse Manual.” This resource is part of the city’s focus on historic preservation, which helps our residents maintain their homes. As with most of Philly, Strawberry Mansion’s housing stock is pretty old. We use the manual to organize home repair workshops and connect people to energy conservation programs to help them stabilize their homes. In addition, we heavily promote homeowner assistance initiatives that help residents get current on their taxes or pay their utility bills. Because so many of our longtime residents own their homes, keeping them in place is as much about preserving our neighborhood’s culture as it is about reducing displacement.
Q: What most excites you about the future of Strawberry Mansion?
A: What excites me most about the future of Mansion is that residents like myself who remember the robust commercial corridors, various cultural amenities and the beautiful blocks of rowhouses will bear witness to their resurgence and continue to remain ‘Mansion Strong!’
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. The initiative’s pilot in Philadelphia was supported by Knight Foundation and William Penn Foundation.
