To support the design and programming plan for the “Ain’t I A Woman” Monument in downtown Akron.
Program Area: Community Impact
This grant will support a nine-month plan to clean, program, and restore the Guadalupe River and Los Gatos Creek in cooperation with the GRPC, South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition, and TrashPunx. San Jose Conservation Corps provides specialized cleanup services including working with hazardous waste and managing the interface to homeless residents.
To leverage the American Rescue Plan Act, State of California Coronavirus Relief Funds, and private investments in San Jose downtown by supporting San Jose Downtown Association’s use of anonymized mobility data to inform recovery planning for public spaces and businesses.
On April 8, 2021, Knight Foundation announced $2.2 million in new support for nine Philadelphia projects. Click here to see the press release. Knight’s Ellen Hwang shares more below.
Philadelphia is a city where residents’ pride in their neighborhoods is palpable, reflected in our block-to-block subcultures and hyperlocal histories. In this city, our neighborhood roots are deeply embedded in our collective and individual identities; so when there’s change, it’s personal.
In recent years, the city has steadily grown in population, positioning our economy to do more: more business, more tourism, more housing, more everything. The very landscape of the city is rapidly changing — and in turn, its neighborhoods — begging the question: who benefits from all this change?
Today, to help ensure residents play a key leadership role in their neighborhoods, we’re announcing $2.2 million in new investments in nine community projects, which will help build equitable, engaging, and innovative public spaces anchored in our community’s priorities and interests. Our investments will help residents influence the future of their communities through the planning, development, and activation of their assets: their public spaces.
At Knight Foundation, we believe public spaces are critical to advancing Philadelphia as a thriving and more engaged city. Public spaces bring people together and spur critical dialogue and decision-making about the future of their neighborhood. They are shared assets in our city, but they need to be developed and stewarded with the vision, desire, and leadership of local and long-time residents to be equitable.
Through the pandemic, we’ve seen and reckoned with inequities in neighborhood development caused by historical disenfranchisement and gentrification across Philadelphia’s communities. Across social distancing, virtual learning and working online, we needed the outdoors to stay healthy and connected to our city and to each other. And as many Philadelphians sought refuge in the outdoors a critical challenge surfaced: Philadelphians needed equitable access to quality and safe public spaces. It is essential for daily life.
A recent report from Gehl and Knight explores this concept. The pandemic showed that there are more communities in Philadelphia that need quality and safe access to public spaces, connection to their neighbors, and access to their community resources.
As Philadelphia begins to prepare for the recovery and reopening of our city from the pandemic, we hope these investments will position our community for a better and brighter future. And that will help create a brighter future for all Philadelphians.
Ellen Hwang is Knight Foundation program director for Philadelphia. Find her on Twitter at @ellen_hwang_phl.
Photo (top): students play at on a Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Play Street. Photo by Ken McFarlane.
Nine projects will use Knight support to foster resident engagement and equity in Philadelphia neighborhoods
PHILADELPHIA — April 8, 2021 — The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced a $2.2 million investment in nine Philadelphia projects. Knight Foundation’s new support will bolster local programs that advance equitable community development and digital innovation in city neighborhoods.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic amplified a need for accessible public spaces and strategic digital engagement. In Philadelphia, Knight support will advance work to address these issues while also including residents in the design, programming and development of public spaces.
“A truly thriving Philadelphia is an equitable Philadelphia,” said Ellen Hwang, Knight Foundation program director for Philadelphia. “Accessible public spaces are critical assets and places for our communities. These new investments will help ensure that as neighborhoods develop, there are opportunities for communities to be drivers and decision-makers of the change and to benefit from the opportunities that come from development.”
Knight Foundation’s community investments will build on the organization’s broader efforts to advance Philadelphia public spaces. Knight is investing $1.8 million in the following projects:
- John Bartram Association (Bartram’s Garden) — $687,775
To engage residents of Southwest Philadelphia and Grays Ferry in community-driven programming in preparation for the opening of the Schuylkill River Trail swing bridge, a new civic amenity connecting the two neighborhoods. Knight funding will also be used to support both digital and in-person youth-oriented leadership opportunities in Bartram’s Garden to share resources and foster relationships among community and the land and river.
- Pennsylvania Horticultural Society – $624,244
To partner with neighborhood leaders and organizations to implement “Southwest Tree Tenders,” a community-centered stewardship program to make Southwest Philadelphia’s public spaces more engaging and accessible as residents increase their green spaces and tree canopy along the community’s public right-of-way.
- Mural Arts Philadelphia – $250,000
To establish resident-led programming and engagement for FloatLab, a new state-of-the-art floating dock, classroom, and performance space in Southwest Philadelphia’s Bartrams Garden.
- Philadelphia Parks & Recreation – $250,000
To reimagine the City of Philadelphia’s Playstreets program through digital engagement and a pilot program that tests innovative play and public space interventions.
- Impact Services Corporation – $74,700
- To create a digitally-equipped van that travels and provides mobile programming throughout the community as a way to engage residents and stakeholders around the use and design of public spaces in Kensington
These investments are part of Knight’s efforts to foster Philadelphia public spaces that are driven, led by and accessible to the communities they serve. Knight’s work in the city will advance public spaces that are equitable, accessible, collaborative, resident-led and resident-centered.
Knight’s support for local public space projects comes on the heels of recently-released research from Knight and Gehl, which examines existing work in Philadelphia to build resident-centered spaces. The research affirms that public space projects that prioritize resident input and establish equitable access can help communities build connections and resiliency.
In addition, Knight will invest $317,000 in the following local digital innovation projects as part of its growing work to advance projects that foster digitally-oriented cities:
- Friends of the Rail Park – $145,000
To enable the Philadelphia Rail Park to create and utilize digital engagement tools and a digital archive to increase accessibility, visibility and enhanced community connection.
- City of Philadelphia, Sensing the City- $72,000
To leverage an artificial intelligence data analytics tool to help five Philadelphia City departments understand how residents are receiving and responding to communication efforts around programs, initiatives and messages.
- Smith Memorial Playground – $60,000
To support the launch of new models of virtual programming that enhance in-person engagement and enrich playful learning experiences during COVID-19 and beyond.
- Our Plan (Akira Drake Rodriguez and Ken Steif) – $40,000
To develop a scalable, collaborative planning process and web-based tool in Philadelphia, led by Akira Drake Rodriguez and Ken Steif, for engaging communities around community values, cultural and historic preservation, housing affordability, and future land use within their neighborhoods.
“Throughout the city, there’s an emerging critical mass of projects that are addressing the community’s most pressing needs,” said Lilian Coral, Knight Foundation director for national strategy and technology innovation. “By bringing digital innovation to the forefront we’re ensuring that spaces and projects help residents stay connected to local information, programming and places.”
Knight’s digital innovation investments will advance digital tools that foster civic dialogue, attachment to place, and resident engagement in the design and programming of Philadelphia public spaces. Knight support will help these projects build digital engagement strategies and develop best-in-class user interfaces for their work.
“The pandemic taught us that communities need better access to quality spaces and digital services to be more engaged in community,” said Kelly Jin, Knight Foundation vice president for community and national initiatives. “As we continue to recover from the pandemic, it’s vital that civic assets continue to serve everyone and adapt to the changing needs of residents. These investments will help ensure that Philadelphia is poised for the future.”
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About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit kf.org.
Contact: Roshni Neslage, Communications Officer, Knight Foundation, [email protected], 305-908-2623
Photo (top): a student rows in Southwest Philadelphia’s Bartram’s Garden. Photo courtesy of John Bartram Association (Bartram’s Garden).
To support nonpartisan civic engagement in Knight communities by enabling lawful permanent residents to become U.S. citizens, so they may participate more fully in the civic life of their communities.
In 2015, Knight Foundation awarded a grant to the San Jose Downtown Association (SJDA) to study and implement options to transform the ground floor of the San Pedro Square parking garage into a vibrant retail incubator. Like many parking structures, the San Pedro Square garage interrupted the streetscape’s flow and rendered the east side of the street lifeless. This was during a time when the San Pedro Square Market was itself beginning to bustle. The SJDA wanted to explore two innovations:
- Could small, supported retail spaces with direct street access attract new entrepreneurs and help establish them in San Jose’s downtown?
- Could ground-floor garage parking spaces be converted to micro-retail stores that would be affordable for entrepreneurs and create a vibrant streetscape?
The MOMENT Project was born. It was conceived as four small retail spaces where entrepreneurs could launch a small business. It was created by removing parking spaces on the ground floor of a downtown parking garage and converting them to storefronts. Once opened, MOMENT provided an immediate boost to the vibrancy of San Pedro Square.
Fast forward to 2021. San Jose is moving through one of its greatest disruptions to downtown life since the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. It’s a time when the threats to peoples’ health and livelihoods are real and public spaces have emerged as places to recharge, connect and enjoy food. In the case of San Pedro Square, one might say that outdoor dining for downtown residents has helped keep restaurants and businesses on life support while people who normally worked and attended events nearby stayed away.
During fall of 2020, Knight and Gehl studied MOMENT and six other public space projects in Philadelphia, Detroit and Akron to identify what made them successful and offer recommendations for building resilient and inclusive cities. Knight launched the study because we are an opportunistic social investor; we seek innovative and sustainable opportunities that align with our strategies. As such, Knight is constantly seeking to understand the success and failure of our investments, and honoring both.
MOMENT proved that micro-retail could work in San Jose, which is important as the city revitalizes the SoFA District and Google plans to build a nearby campus. By placing this project adjacent to San Pedro Square and the downtown Farmers’ Market, MOMENT was able to capitalize on the traffic generated by both, while becoming a draw in its own right.
However, MOMENT showed that its success was location dependent and that such a project wouldn’t necessarily work everywhere because micro-retailing needed to compliment the primary use of a commercial area. Site limitations at MOMENT and low sales volumes meant that retailers often operated as sole proprietors without staff, and they often couldn’t keep operating hours to capture foot traffic from the busiest periods at San Pedro Square Market. Early on in the project, downtown residential density was lower, so that retail sales were dependent on whether customers—whose original destination was San Pedro Square—were willing to carry their purchases with them to work, an event, or out to dinner. With increasing residential density, this concern is becoming mitigated as residents who live nearby are now becoming customers turning MOMENT into a primary destination.
During the pandemic, San Pedro Street has been partially closed to traffic. This has improved the viability of nearby restaurants and has improved MOMENT’s visibility and usability. For example, MOMENT businesses have been able to conduct outdoor workshops.
The MOMENT Project illustrated that retrofitting urban spaces for micro-retail would be cost-prohibitive without philanthropic support because converting parts of existing structures into micro-retailing sites is more expensive than building new sites.
But MOMENT also highlights the importance of micro-retailing as a vehicle to establish financial security for entrepreneurs. The collaborative spirit of the project and the commitment from the City of San Jose and SJDA to keep rents low has helped ensure MOMENT’s financial viability. As long as tenants can make short-terms leases work, MOMENT offers a much lower barrier-to-entry than would be faced at a mainstream storefront. This lets entrepreneurs experiment with the retail business model and find a mix that works before expanding.
As the community re-imagines the SoFA District, there’s a lot to be learned from the innovation at MOMENT—and from the six other public space projects across the U.S surveyed in the Knight report—all of which can be read about here. Later in April, the SJDA and Gehl will discuss the MOMENT Project in more detail during a community meeting; you can watch the events feed at sjdowntown.com for updates.
Chris Thompson is Knight Foundation’s program director for San Jose. Follow him on Twitter @Thompson_KF.
Image (top) by the San Jose Downtown Association.
Knight Foundation invests $554,000 in St. Paul to expand economic opportunity and community safety. Jai Winston, Knight’s program director for St. Paul, shares more below.
Like every community across the nation, St. Paul faced complex challenges last year. A deadly and highly transmissible virus shuttered the city and kept residents largely indoors. The killing of George Floyd in nearby Minneapolis challenged St. Paul residents to once again reckon with race and decide how to break down the walls of inequity.
But through adversity there were opportunities for the city to not only persevere, but to thrive. The pandemic motivated the people of St. Paul to make their city more equitable, inclusive and resilient during these uncertain times and beyond. We at Knight Foundation share their commitment to equity and inclusiveness; we have long invested in St. Paul’s efforts to put people first, whether it’s expanding equitable economic opportunities or growing the downtown corridor.
With that in mind, we are continuing to bet on St. Paul’s success by investing $554,000 in two local organizations that are committed to creating more economic opportunities for communities of color, and a third that is charting a new approach to public safety.
Here’s a closer look at our investments:
- Nexus Community Partners ($250,000): The Nexus organization builds more engaged and powerful communities through engagement, ownership and leadership. Knight’s investment will support the Minnesota Philanthropic Collective, currently housed at Nexus, specifically supporting its Minnesota Holistic Black Movement Fund. The Fund will harness the leadership of Minnesota’s Black communities and explore ways of building and sustaining more economic opportunities in communities of color.
- 2043 SBC ($104,000): With Knight’s support, 2043, a data-first public-private-philanthropic partnership approach, led by Jeff Aguy, will expand local economic opportunities by gathering data on St. Paul’s entrepreneurial activity in the city, including on demographics, services provided, revenues and more. This data will be used by local and state government, philanthropic groups and other organizations that seek to expand entrepreneurship in the area. The data exchange platform will also make it easier for startups — especially those led by minorities — to share data, network with each other and with larger potential partners.
- City of St. Paul’s Community-First Public Safety Initiative ($200,000): The City of Saint Paul Community-First Public Safety Initiative brings a data-driven and evidence-based approach to identify and address the root causes of neighborhood safety concerns. Launched in 2020 by Mayor Carter, the initiative prioritizes investments that improve community connectivity, supports and designs public spaces for safety and enhances the capacity of public safety systems. With Knight support and resident input, the City will expand on the Community-First Public Safety framework through ongoing engagement and investment.
Since 2000, Knight has invested more than $40 million in St. Paul projects and initiatives that have boosted economic opportunities, expanded downtown and made public spaces more inclusive and equitable – ultimately enhancing quality of life for St. Paul residents. For example, we supported the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative, a collaborative of foundations that led to the development of the Green Line light rail that has connected communities near the rail with economic opportunities. We have also supported the St Paul Downtown Alliance, which promotes a vibrant economy in downtown St. Paul by attracting new investments, emphasizing safety and recruiting new employers.
Last December, we also announced a $2.2 million investment in seven local arts and culture organizations. This included $1.5 million to relocate the prestigious Playwright’s Center to St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone, a hub of creativity and enterprise located mid-city between downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis.
COVID-19 knocked St. Paul to the ground. But we got up and became stronger and more resilient. As program director for Knight’s St. Paul program, I see this resilience first-hand. And it’s why Knight is doubling down on its commitment to the people of St. Paul as they rebuild, innovate and create equitable communities, where informed and engaged citizens can thrive. When they succeed, democracy succeeds.
I look forward to continuing to elevate our beloved city by creating equitable economic opportunities for all residents and putting St. Paul on the map as a hub for innovative ideas. The future of our city has never been brighter.
Jai Winston is Knight’s program director in St. Paul.
Image (top) by Visit Saint Paul.
On March 24, 2021, Knight Foundation released “Adaptive Public Space: Places for People in the Pandemic and Beyond”, a Knight-commissioned report examining seven public spaces across the U.S. to identify what made them successful and to offer recommendations for developing equitable and inclusive spaces beyond the pandemic. Click here to see the report. Knight’s Lilly Weinberg and Evette Alexander share more below.
A year has passed since COVID-19 transformed our lives, paradoxically accelerating our adoption of virtual spheres while increasing our reliance on outdoor public spaces that have the power to connect and attach us to community.
We’ve witnessed record usage of these public spaces, underlining how important they are to the resilience of communities. COVID-19 provided an unexpected moment of permission — it allowed our cities to innovate and think far beyond the confines of traditional public spaces. And it has been a moment to acknowledge the racial inequities that persist in our cities. Which leaves us with the question: how can we leverage this moment in time, when billions of stimulus and other federal dollars are being released for infrastructure projects, to build more inclusive, equitable public spaces moving forward?
At Knight Foundation, we value the power of public spaces to connect and attach community members. We’ve invested $54 million towards public spaces that are accessible and welcoming to all walks of life, and we see them as central to building informed and engaged communities. That’s why we commissioned Gehl, a global leader in people-centric urban design, to conduct an impact-assessment study of seven flagship public spaces sites operating before and during the pandemic.
The report released today, “Adaptive Public Space: Places for People in the Pandemic and Beyond,” holds insights for urbanists, foundations, community advocates, public officials and private-sector leaders interested in how responsive public spaces can thrive and be a vehicle for communities to address equitable development.
The study leverages a variety of pre-pandemic and mid-pandemic data for seven outdoor public spaces — prime examples of neighborhood parks, city-wide destinations and nature oases — operating across four cities: Akron (Summit Lake Park), Detroit (Ella Fitzgerald Park, Detroit Riverfront), Philadelphia (Centennial Commons, Cherry Street Pier and The Discovery Center) and San Jose (MOMENT). Gehl conducted interviews, surveys and focus groups with residents; analyzed data collected online from visitors; and compiled existing and new observational data on each space.
The findings are illuminating, and point to a more impactful path for inclusive public space investment amid the COVID-19 recovery and beyond:
- Spaces that reflected resident needs, historic character and the arts had more regular visits from residents.
- Community participation and responsive engagement methods allowed space organizers to build trust and enthusiasm with residents of color.
- Prioritizing and embedding resident engagement throughout the entire lifecycle led to community ripple effects like wider local capacity-building and community development beyond the project site.
- Flexible community-led design, inclusive processes and capacity-building helped sites develop sustainable operating models and adapt to changing conditions — including the pandemic.
Findings remind us that the fundamentals matter: public spaces work best when they intentionally cater to the needs, history and issues relevant to residents. And these same community engagement principles enabled them to adapt and thrive amid COVID-19. For example, daily visitorship was up over 300% year over year at Philadelphia’s Cherry Street Pier, which provided spaces for local artists, a market for displaced small businesses and a garden restaurant adapted for pandemic conditions. At the Detroit Riverfront, residents self-organized regular yoga and flamenco classes, helping the space achieve last year’s visitor numbers in half the time.
As cities emerge from the pandemic, these lessons illustrate the power of public spaces as a platform for community development and addressing deeply rooted, systemic inequalities in our communities that COVID-19 only exacerbated. Open public spaces do not always translate into welcoming, safe or accessible spaces for communities of color, and the racial justice movement that played out in many public spaces in 2020 served to highlight these realities. Concerns raised by the Black community about policing is an issue some sites are addressing head on in order for residents — particularly Black men — to feel safe and welcome in these spaces long term.
To address equity, organizers must consider how they might share and shift decision-making power throughout the entire lifecycle of a public space, from initial design through governance, to include residents as partners. Detroit’s Ella Fitzgerald Park used pilots like a pop-up bike repair shop to reach residents typically under-represented at community meetings. Now, Black residents report that the park is special to them, and over half of the neighborhood visits weekly. The benefits of such engagement methods are clear: increased resident usage that helps deepen attachment to their cities.
For city leaders, policymakers, practitioners and funders like ourselves, these findings are a call to action to ensure that barriers to public spaces are reduced for all communities and that all feel a sense of belonging and welcome at every park, pier and civic common. For that to happen, planners and designers need to focus on resident needs for both the design and programming of these spaces.
COVID-19 has sparked a unique opportunity for innovation as communities rapidly repurposed public spaces during the pandemic. We can observe and learn from the ways residents have been self-organizing activities in these spaces during the pandemic — from socially distant hula hooping and flamenco, to neighborhood streets being used as civic commons — and from new ways technology can be leveraged to improve decision-making and engagement.
With the availability of more federal dollars for infrastructure, the leadership of our communities — advocates, city administrators, public and private sector leaders — have a historic opportunity to put the funding to good use by supporting equitable, accessible and engaging spaces that support more resilient cities. Now is the time to invest in community-led and empowering public spaces that can adapt to changing needs of residents during these uncertain times and beyond.
Lilly Weinberg is senior director for community and national initiatives and Evette Alexander is a director of learning and impact at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Image (top) of Detroit Riverfront Valade Park by Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.
Knight-commissioned report examines seven public spaces across the U.S. to identify what made them successful; offers recommendations for developing equitable and inclusive spaces beyond the pandemic.
MIAMI — (Mar. 24, 2021) — Public spaces that emphasized community engagement thrived during COVID-19 and became a vehicle for addressing racial equity issues in the community, according to a new report from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Its key findings are timely and invaluable for local governments that are set to receive federal dollars, and funders from nonprofit and private sectors, as they seek to ensure that public spaces are equitable and inclusive for all residents.
Commissioned by Knight and conducted by Gehl, “Adaptive Public Space: Places for People in the Pandemic and Beyond,” evaluates the success of a number of public spaces currently operating and makes recommendations for improving these spaces in the future. Its insights are crucial for foundations, community advocates, public and private sector leaders and urbanists as they reimagine existing public spaces or build new ones that are engaging, welcoming and accessible to all walks of life, now and beyond the pandemic.
Leveraging a variety of pre-pandemic and mid-pandemic data, the Knight report evaluates seven public spaces operating across four cities: Philadelphia, Detroit, San Jose and Akron. They include neighborhood parks, natural green spaces and citywide destinations like waterfront retail hubs. Each has been in operation for several years, including during the pandemic, allowing Gehl to evaluate the spaces before and during COVID-19. Gehl conducted interviews, surveys and focus groups with residents; analyzed data collected online from visitors; and compiled existing and new observational data on each space.
Key findings include:
- Spaces that reflected resident needs, historic character and the arts had more regular visits from residents. Residents spent more time in public spaces where community engagement was built in from the start, and those who visited more often were more attached to their communities.
- Community participation and responsive engagement is vital for equitable spaces. Prototyping and pilots designed to engage communities of color allowed space organizers to build trust and enthusiasm with Black residents.
- Prioritizing community engagement throughout the lifecycle of a space led to ripple effects in the wider community. Embedding resident engagement from design through governance led to wider local capacity-building and community development beyond the project site.
- Flexible community-led design, inclusive processes and capacity-building helped sites develop sustainable operating models and adapt to changing conditions — including the pandemic. Community engagement enabled projects to pivot programming and provide safe venues for solo and social activity during COVID-19.
The report also offered recommendations for optimizing public space design:
- Create spaces with equity in mind. To address challenges around inclusion and trust among communities of color, planners should conduct outreach and fund community participation efforts from initial design to programming to governance.
- Design spaces with the input of communities that are impacted. To manage residents’ concerns about displacement, public space investments should be integrated into broader community development processes, with buy-in from all parties.
- Become financially sustainable. To create sustainable operating models, planners should create innovative and diversified means of funding, incorporating both foundation dollars and public revenue streams.
“Public spaces played a key role in helping us get through the pandemic by providing access to fresh air, recreation and each other in a safe way,” said Lilly Weinberg, Knight’s senior director for community and national initiatives. “With federal dollars flowing into cities, we must now leverage the momentum to build back responsive, community-led public spaces that can be a vehicle for communities to address equitable development. This report provides valuable insights on how to do that by giving residents a voice — from design to governance — of public spaces to ultimately be a platform to improve their quality of life.”
This latest report complements the findings of another Knight study released last year that examined what connects people to their communities. One of the largest surveys of its kind, “Community Ties: Understanding what attaches people to the place where they live,’’ presented several key findings, including that residents who feel they had easy access to recreational spaces had more positive feelings regarding their communities.
To be connected with Lilly Weinberg to discuss the report or the issue of public spaces more broadly, please contact Tony Franquiz at 202-374-5393 or [email protected].
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About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit kf.org.
Image (top) of Summit Lake Park, Akron by Tim Fitzwater.
Building on its longtime commitment to public spaces, Knight Foundation commissioned Gehl — a global urban planning, design and strategy firm — to conduct an impact assessment of seven public spaces in its portfolio. The findings illustrate the power of public space as a platform for community development: whether by building resident trust, spurring social activity, supporting economic and workforce development, or catalyzing neighborhood change.
This power makes public spaces a key ingredient in the recovery from COVID-19 — a crisis that has raised the stakes for overcoming deeply rooted, systemic challenges in our cities. For policymakers, funders, and practitioners, these findings are a call to action. By elevating public spaces, leaders nationwide can drive more equitable outcomes in the pandemic and beyond.
The Approach
Located in Akron, Detroit, Philadelphia, and San Jose, the seven projects in this study represent $5 million in direct Knight investments. An additional $50 million in co-funding and follow-on investments from other funders including the Reimagining the Civic Commons network went toward these sites, wider area improvements and ongoing space operations. The spaces range widely: neighborhood parks that give residents a go-to gathering spot; nature spaces that re-engage locals with the outdoors; and citywide destinations that offer art studios, beachscapes, and more.
Given the diversity of spaces, this study did not set out to measure the spaces against one another using a common set of metrics. The goal was to understand impacts related to four core themes, and to life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key Findings Include:
- Spaces that reflected resident needs, historic character and the arts had more regular visits from residents.
- Community participation and responsive engagement is vital for equitable spaces.
- Prioritizing community engagement throughout the lifecycle of a space led to ripple effects in the wider community.
- Flexible community-led design, inclusive processes, and capacity-building helped sites develop sustainable operating models and adapt to changing conditions — including the pandemic.
The report also offered recommendations for optimizing public space design:
- Create spaces with equity in mind.
- Design spaces with the input of communities that are impacted.
- Become financially sustainable.
Image (top) of The Discovery Center in Philadelphia by Halkin Mason Photography and Digsau.
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