To Rebuild America, Invest in Great Places
Roads and bridges get us somewhere, civic infrastructure is where we want to go.
By Tom Evers, Patrice Frey and Kristine Stratton
When the pandemic sidelined youth sports in North Minneapolis, league coaches and community organizations created a series of outdoor activities and service projects for kids centered at a local park. While indoor gatherings were restricted, the shores of Summit Lake in Akron, Ohio, came to life as adults perused the local farmers’ market, kids went canoeing, and other community members exercised on the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail. In rural Mount Airy, North Carolina, when the community wanted to support restaurants and businesses, the city introduced the Market Street Arts and Entertainment District — a weekend event that closes streets and creates a shared outdoor market to keep Mount Airy’s downtown thriving.
Infrastructure means different things to different people.
While traditional investments — roads, bridges, and railways — are integral to any infrastructure legislation, it’s time to invest in the quality of life for our communities, access to opportunity, and connections to each other through civic infrastructure.
Civic infrastructure means the places that boost our economy, increase our resiliency, support our health and well-being, and strengthen our democracy: parks, trails, Main Streets, town squares, libraries, and recreation centers. These shared public spaces improve physical and mental health, reduce socio-economic disparities, and lower crime rates. Communities with robust civic infrastructure — large or small, urban or rural — experience healthier local economies, greater civic participation, and more vibrant social capital.
This fall, as U.S. taxpayers are being asked to invest deeply in things that strengthen our nation, we, as part of a collaboration of national and local organizations, are calling for a small percentage of federal infrastructure funding to be dedicated to civic infrastructure. This concept, what we call Percent for Place, would provide a reliable stream of funding for our shared public places, building the resilient and equitable communities of the future. More than 100 community-oriented organizations have come together and signed on in support of this idea in a very short amount of time.
Congress and the Biden administration continue to negotiate complex and important, legislation that would revitalize our economy and jump-start our recovery. Between the bipartisan infrastructure deal and the reconciliation bill, trillions of federal funding could flow out, transforming industries and communities alike. We know there is a huge backlog in civic infrastructure: a recent report by the Kinder Institute identified more than $12 billion in needed funding for high-priority projects nationwide. We have an opportunity — an obligation — to fund projects like these. One place to start is the Community Revitalization Fund.
Contained within the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, the $10 billion Community Revitalization Fund may have escaped immediate attention. However, this new program would invest directly in local, community-led civic infrastructure projects in underserved areas, including parks, greenways, community gardens, storefronts for local entrepreneurs, and other essential spaces that foster human connections. In other words, the places that support the healthy, sustainable, and vibrant communities we need.
This funding would complement earlier investments by the Biden-Harris administration in affordable housing and workforce development, providing the connective tissue between the places where people live and work. Our collective experience with place-based investments has taught us that housing alone cannot create community — it must work hand in hand with investments in civic infrastructure to dismantle historic inequities and create economic and social resilience.
Across the country, people instinctively understand that their nearby park, local farmers' market, or vibrant Main Street define what community means to them. Civic infrastructure is the foundation of a vibrant community.
Passing the Community Revitalization Fund is the first step of many toward our vision of reconnecting with our neighbors through the shared spaces within our cities and towns — where relaxing parks, active Main Streets, and welcoming public libraries are the norm. After all, roads and bridges help you get somewhere, but it’s the civic infrastructure that ensures there’s a welcoming community for all when you get there.
Tom Evers is the Executive Director of the Minneapolis Parks Foundation; Patrice Frey is President and CEO of Main Street America and Kristine Stratton is President and CEO of the National Recreation and Park Association.
Want to show your support for this idea? Encourage your organization to sign on to this letter calling for investments in the civic infrastructure that sustains community.
