Stories from the Commons
Here at Reimagining the Civic Commons, we spend much of our time focused on practitioners and advocates who are planning, funding, building and managing better public places. This week, we focus on the voices of volunteers, on-the-ground staff and neighbors in Detroit and Memphis — people who know the civic commons sites well and can share their valuable firsthand perspective about how the changes made over the past three years are impacting the everyday life of their communities.
Colton Morgan
In Memphis, the Fourth Bluff and riverfront become a source of pride and optimism
When Colton Morgan was growing up in Memphis, he says for the most part, the city’s downtown felt “closed down.” Though his family had roots in the city, downtown Memphis was never a place where he could imagine working or living. “Going to parks along the (Mississippi) river was a big hassle back then,” he says.
Today, Memphis’ downtown is on the upswing, partly because of intentional investments in key public places in the Fourth Bluff district along the city’s riverfront, which have brought new people — neighbors and new visitors alike — to the river. Memphis’ downtown is now a vital, active place where Memphians can meet new people and experience a vibrant public life. “There is more business — hotels, office spaces and more people coming to downtown,” he says. The Fourth Bluff, an area that was once ignored has become a source of pride and optimism.
Colton first experienced the Memphis Civic Commons project as an intern at Cossitt Library — one of Memphis’ Fourth Bluff flagship assets. Since then, in working to raise awareness about the soon to be renovated, historic library, Colton has seen people’s comfort levels with visiting the riverfront change significantly.
“People really do want to access this public space, and that’s why we keep reminding them that this space can’t function without them,” he says, adding that the benefits of an accessible, thriving neighborhood are not just forward-facing in time. The Cossitt Library project and the reactivated riverfront have given the people of Memphis an opportunity to engage with their city’s rich and diverse roots. Many Memphis families like Colton’s have a historical connection to the river and these new public places in the Fourth Bluff help re-examine that history and create room for the retelling of common stories.
Jordan Caldwell Mathews
In Detroit, residents are connecting more deeply with their neighborhood
Jordan Caldwell Mathews has seen his city of Detroit change before his eyes too. With a history of disinvestment, population loss and long-abandoned public spaces, the city is experiencing revitalization through a landscape-driven approach.
Near the Detroit Civic Commons project in the Fitzgerald neighborhood, where Jordan lives and where until recently he served as a parks ambassador, there are more visitors, more local businesses and stronger connections between neighbors than there were even just a year ago. Since the opening of the new Ella Fitzgerald Park last year, and investments in the commercial corridor of Livernois, neighbors have started to take advantage of the newly revitalized spaces, using them as platforms to interact and connect with one another.
“Businesses and restaurants are opening,” he says. “More people are coming out to take advantage of Ella Fitzgerald Park when the weather is nice. There is a sense of neighborhood.”
Jordan sees these changes as positive. “Before civic commons, the neighborhood was quiet and very few people were having a good time.”
Jordan talks of how he was personally impacted by one of the park’s non-profit partners — the Greening of Detroit — an organization that not only gave him his first job but was also responsible for planting Ella Fitzgerald Park. Dedicated to creating a welcoming and healthier urban environment through stewardship of green spaces and tree planting, the Greening of Detroit provides young people with marketable skills and connects them with civic opportunities all over the city.
This civic collaboration and community investment is a step towards healing decades of mistrust between residents and city planners, facilitating easier connections through the neighborhood, greater safety and public places that encourage social interaction.
“The Greening of Detroit improved my life and connected me more deeply with my neighborhood,” says Jordan. In his role as parks ambassador, Jordan explored ways to provide that same connection for everyone — those living near or just visiting Ella Fitzgerald Park.
Victoria Young
A civic innovator finds a spirit of possibility in Memphis Park
Victoria Young, another Memphian harnessing the possibility of public spaces, brought the innovative and elegant community-building event, Dîner En Blanc, to Memphis for the first time last year. With its origins in Paris, Dîner En Blanc is a mass, “chic picnic” held in a public place. Held at the Memphis Civic Commons asset near downtown, Memphis River Park, the inaugural event attracted over a thousand guests and had a waitlist of 10,000 more.
“Before the Memphis Civic Commons came,” says Victoria, “there was no reason to go to the (Mississippi) river. Nobody visited the downtown area until this program came about.”
The event was the kind of public gathering Victoria knew could alter the narrative of downtown and activate what had been an underutilized — and mostly empty — public space far into the future, which is precisely why she chose the location.
“The changes have helped give the space an identity and a spirit of possibility,” she says, “There’s so much potential here that hadn’t been touched before the project.”
She thinks this newly generated sense of community in the city’s downtown demonstrated by events like Dîner En Blanc will have lasting effects as leaders of Memphis Civic Commons demonstrate a commitment to creating a different and inclusive model of working together.
“I think a lot of times plans are put into place and then afterwards, people are asked for input, but here there is a culture of collaboration,” she says. “There’s an inclusive group working together to make this possible. We have a physical space that was previously unused but is now multifunctional.”
And it’s this space that Victoria believes has numerous possibilities. Already, it’s being used for student learning experiences, outdoor yoga and spin classes. There’s even a pop-up seasonal park — the RiverPlay, where kids can roller skate and play basketball and soccer, and where Memphians can gather and get to know one another.
But for Victoria, there are endless opportunities for her hometown.
“I want to continue to be an unofficial ambassador for the downtown area,” she says. “I am a child of Memphis and I will continue to find ways to support the civic commons mission.”
At the center of it all, she recognizes it’s the spirit of collaboration and authentic civic engagement that has made the project successful, values she hopes will always remain at its core.
“A successful reimagining of public space,” she says, “involves people and the community first.”
Two cities, three residents, bringing communities together through the civic commons.
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.
