The Knight Foundation-commissioned report also reveals while most residents feel these amenities are important, a national gap in access to these areas exists along racial and economic lines.
BRADENTON, Fla. – A new landmark study commissioned by Knight Foundation and conducted by the Urban Institute finds that many residents of the Greater Bradenton area choose to live in the area because of its quality of life and enjoy easy access to recreational areas. Nationally, the report found that racial and economic disparities in accessing these areas may exist in urban communities such as Greater Bradenton.
Most Bradenton metro area residents report that recreational areas are “easy to access” (94%) and 35% choose to live in the area for quality of life.
However, nationally, this study found that while recreational areas ultimately could create more attachment between residents and their community, low-income residents and residents of color often feel that these amenities are less accessible to them than higher-income, white residents.
“This study shows that Bradenton has made great strides in providing access to critical amenities to the community and deepening community attachment,” said Lilly Weinberg, Knight’s senior director of community and national initiatives. “Improving access to recreational areas such as the riverfront through a variety of investment strategies that focus on engagement is an important step in making sure everyone in the community can access community amenities equally — especially during the COVID-19 where outside areas are of the utmost importance.”
Conducted prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns, Community Ties leverages a survey of over 11,000 Americans residing in metro areas across the country — including Bradenton — to create one of the richest datasets on what drives attachment to place.
Those with access to quality of life amenities such as arts, recreational areas and safe places to live, work and play reported a deeper attachment to their community, compared with those who did not.
The Bradenton data reveals how attached local residents are to the Bradenton metro area and where gaps in access exist across urban amenities. It offers points of consideration for community leaders such as boosting time in the city, focusing on quality of life and paying attention to issues of equity, to strengthen residents’ ties to their communities.
As cities plan for a post-COVID-19 world and reckon with racial justice, the report provides knowledge for public officials and other community leaders to help make cities more resilient, urban public spaces more equitable, and think anew about how to build places where people want to live, work, play and stay.
To see how your city compares in different areas with other Knight communities and the national averages, go to our interactive website.
For interviews, please contact Alexa Lamanna at [email protected] or 202-320-2766.
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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.
About Urban Institute
The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people’s lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.
The Knight Foundation-commissioned report also reveals while most residents feel these amenities are important, a national gap in access to these areas exists along racial and economic lines.
BOULDER, Colo. – A new landmark study commissioned by Knight Foundation and conducted by the Urban Institute finds that most Boulder residents report they have easy access to key community urban amenities such as recreational areas, but national data may suggest a gap in access exists along racial and economic lines in urban communities such as Greater Boulder.
Most Boulder residents feel that they have easier access to recreational areas (97%). However, the report shows that only 14% of residents feel they have access to affordable housing, far below the national average of 50%.
Nationally, this study finds that while recreational areas ultimately could create more attachment between residents and their community, low-income residents and residents of color often feel that these amenities are less accessible to them than higher-income, white residents.
“This study highlights both the successes of Boulder’s investments in their community and opportunities for continued growth,” said Lilly Weinberg, Knight’s senior director of community and national initiatives. “Boulder is seeking to build a more diverse pipeline of leadership, and this report points to a few areas where the community can invest in and grow, such as affordable housing access, which may influence who has the means to move into the community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, generating equitable housing options is paramount to providing a safe place for all families in the community.”
Conducted prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns, Community Ties leverages a survey of over 11,000 Americans residing in metro areas across the country — including Boulder — to create one of the richest datasets on what drives attachment to place.
Those with access to quality of life amenities such as arts, recreational areas and safe places to live, work and play reported a deeper attachment to their community, compared with those who did not.
The Boulder data reveals how attached local residents are to the Boulder metro area and where gaps in access exist across urban amenities. It offers points of consideration for community leaders, including boosting time in the city, focusing on quality of life and paying attention to issues of equity, to strengthen residents’ ties to their communities.
As cities plan for a post-COVID-19 world and reckon with racial justice, the report provides knowledge for public officials and other community leaders to help make cities more resilient, urban public spaces more equitable, and think anew about how to build places where people want to live, work, play and stay.
To see how your city compares in different areas with other Knight communities and the national averages, go to our interactive website.
For interviews, please contact Alexa Lamanna at [email protected] or 202-320-2766.
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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.
About Urban Institute
The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people’s lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.
The Knight Foundation-commissioned report also reveals while most residents feel these amenities are important, a national gap in access to these areas exists along racial and economic lines.
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – A new groundbreaking study commissioned by Knight Foundation and conducted by the Urban Institute finds that most residents of Greater Milledgeville experience easy access to recreational areas, but national data from the study suggests a racial and economic gap in access to these areas could exist in urban communities such as Greater Milledgeville.
Only 31% of Greater Milledgeville residents feel they have easy access to job opportunities — far below the national average of 63%.
A majority of Milledgeville residents, 82%, feel they have easy access to recreational areas, just below the national average of 85%.
Nationally, the study found that while recreational areas ultimately could create more attachment between residents and their community, low-income residents and residents of color often feel that these amenities are less accessible to them than higher-income, white residents.
“This study shows us that there is an opportunity to continue to invest in building connections between local campuses and local residents that allow for individuals to attach to their community,” said Lilly Weinberg, Knight’s senior director of community and national initiatives. “By focusing on that connection, Milledgeville has the opportunity to build an even more vibrant community with attractive job prospects.”
Conducted prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns, Community Ties leverages a survey of over 11,000 Americans residing in metro areas across the country — including Milledgeville — to create one of the richest datasets on what drives attachment to place.
Those with access to quality of life amenities such as arts, recreational areas and safe places to live, work and play reported a deeper attachment to their community, compared with those who did not.
The Milledgeville data reveals how attached local residents are to the Milledgeville metro area and where gaps in access exist across urban amenities. It offers points of consideration for such leaders such as boosting time in the city, focusing on quality of life and paying attention to issues of equity, to strengthen residents’ ties to their communities.
As cities plan for a post-COVID-19 world and reckon with racial justice, the report provides knowledge for public officials and other community leaders to help make cities more resilient, urban public spaces more equitable, and think anew about how to build places where people want to live, work, play and stay.
To see how your city compares in different areas with other Knight communities and the national averages, go to our interactive website.
For interviews, please contact Alexa Lamanna at [email protected] or 202-320-2766.
# # #
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.
About Urban Institute
The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people’s lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.
The Knight Foundation-commissioned report also reveals while most residents feel these amenities are important, a national gap in access to these areas exists along racial and economic lines.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. – A new groundbreaking study commissioned by Knight Foundation and conducted by the Urban Institute finds that while residents of the Grand Forks metro area report easy access to urban amenities such as educational institutions and recreational areas, national data may suggest that racial and economic disparities exist in accessing these amenities in urban communities such as Greater Grand Forks.
Many Greater Grand Forks residents say their social networks lack diversity across racial (43%), and language barriers (21%) — both below the national averages of 64% and 38%.
Most Grand Forks metro area residents rated K-12 schools (93%) local colleges and universities (94%) and recreational areas (91%) as the most easy to access.
Nationally, this study found that while recreational areas ultimately could create more attachment between residents and their community, low-income residents and residents of color often feel that these amenities are less accessible to them than higher-income, white residents.
“This study shows that there is an opportunity to connect the diverse student populations at local colleges and universities with the larger community in Grand Forks,” said Lilly Weinberg, Knight’s senior director of community and national initiatives. “Through further investment in the corridor between the University of North Dakota and downtown, and developing relationships between the university, residents and local businesses, it’s possible to build even deeper, broader connections across communities that are so critical to tying people to their communities and boosting their quality of life.”
Conducted prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns, Community Ties leverages a survey of over 11,000 Americans residing in metro areas across the country — including Grand Forks — to create one of the richest datasets on what drives attachment to place.
Those with access to quality of life amenities such as arts, recreational areas and safe places to live, work and play reported a deeper attachment to their community, compared with those who did not.
The Grand Forks data reveals how attached local residents are to the Grand Forks metro area and where gaps in access exist across urban amenities. It offers points of consideration for such leaders such as boosting time in the city, focusing on quality of life and paying attention to issues of equity, to strengthen residents’ ties to their communities.
As cities plan for a post-COVID-19 world and reckon with racial justice, the report provides knowledge for public officials and other community leaders to help make cities more resilient, urban public spaces more equitable, and think anew about how to build places where people want to live, work, play and stay.
To see how your city compares in different areas with other Knight communities and the national averages, go to our interactive website.
For interviews, please contact Alexa Lamanna at [email protected] or 202-320-2766.
###
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.
About Urban Institute
The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people’s lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.
The Knight Foundation-commissioned report also reveals while most residents feel these amenities are important, a national gap in access to these areas exists along racial and economic lines.
TALLAHASSEE, FL – A new groundbreaking study commissioned by the Knight Foundation and conducted by the Urban Institute shows that most Greater Tallahassee residents report easy access to recreational areas and local higher education institutions. Nationally, the report found that racial and economic disparities in accessing these amenities may exist in urban communities such as Greater Tallahassee.
A large majority of Tallahassee residents report easy access to recreational areas (90%) and local colleges and universities (85%).
Nationally, this study found that while recreational areas ultimately could create more attachment between residents and their community, low-income residents and residents of color often feel that these amenities are less accessible to them than higher-income, white residents.
“This study shows us that Tallahassee has been successful in connecting residents with important amenities that matter most to them,” said Lilly Weinberg, Knight’s senior director of community and national initiatives. “But as Tallahassee builds on this momentum, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 where outside spaces are more critical now than ever, it’s important to emphasize equity, so that every resident of the community is able to enjoy what Tallahassee has to offer.”
Conducted prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns, Community Ties leverages a survey of over 11,000 Americans residing in metro areas across the country — including Tallahassee — to create one of the richest datasets on what drives attachment to place.
Those with access to quality of life amenities such as arts, recreational areas and safe places to live, work and play reported a deeper attachment to their community, compared with those who did not.
The Tallahassee data reveals how attached local residents are to the metro area and where gaps in access exist across urban amenities. It offers points of consideration for such leaders such as boosting time in the city, focusing on quality of life and paying attention to issues of equity, to strengthen residents’ ties to their communities.
As cities plan for a post-COVID-19 world and reckon with racial justice, the report provides knowledge for public officials and other community leaders to help make cities more resilient, urban public spaces more equitable, and think anew about how to build places where people want to live, work, play and stay.
To see how your city compares in different areas with other Knight communities and the national averages, go to our interactive website.
# # #
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.
About Urban Institute
The nonprofit Urban Institute is a leading research organization dedicated to developing evidence-based insights that improve people’s lives and strengthen communities. For 50 years, Urban has been the trusted source for rigorous analysis of complex social and economic issues; strategic advice to policymakers, philanthropists and practitioners; and new, promising ideas that expand opportunities for all. Our work inspires effective decisions that advance fairness and enhance the well-being of people and places.
Successful cities will find new ways to design spaces everyone can access, Knight Public Spaces Fellows say
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended basic assumptions that have long anchored just about every facet of society, from home and family to work and politics. It’s also brought into question the balance between private and public space, and the very definition of just what “public” is.
Last year, Knight Foundation inaugurated the Knight Foundation Public Spaces Fellowship. The seven fellows come from diverse backgrounds and have different professional engagements with public space, but each has in common a longstanding professional commitment to the creation and improvement of public space.
As COVID-19 tears through communities across the U.S. and around the world, it has highlighted the critical role of public space as an essential parameter of public health, and it has brought into sharp relief the systemic inequity of access to public space. In their own ways, each of the seven fellows has been tackling this inequity, calling for and making public space accessible in fairer ways.
“We know public space is an essential part of mental health, public health and economic stability, so this one thing — public space — would make the disparities of equity during this pandemic less stark,” says Chelina Odbert, executive director of Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI). “This is not the time for a 10- or 20-year plan,” she adds. “We need to treat this with urgency.”
To make new parks, cities spend years, sometimes decades, building consensus, allocating budgets, procuring teams, making designs, and administering construction. Now, faced with an immediate public health need and urgent demand for outdoor space that allows for safe physical distancing, that project delivery pipeline has become unacceptably slow.
“If public spaces go through the traditional track, they won’t rise to this occasion,” warns Odbert. “We need new financing strategies, new physical forms of public space, new design and decision-making processes, which will take political will, strong leadership, optimism and a belief in the possible instead of a commitment to the status quo.”
Konkuey Design Initiative recently released a toolkit for adapted public space that facilitates safe, touch-free outdoor play. Illustration by Konkuey Design Initiative.
As the commissioner of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, Kathryn Ott Lovell is doing just that. Invoking the department’s history as part of the city’s Department of Welfare, she has retooled her approach to deliver immediate relief with recreation and public space. “For 57 years,” she explains, “the department has had a Playstreets program, closing off streets and delivering meals to community members.” Along with the meals comes a duffel bag filled with recreational items — hula hoops, bubbles and jump ropes. “When we were thinking about how best to address the COVID-19 crisis, we thought, ‘let’s put all our eggs in the Playstreets basket this summer.’”
Because of the neighborhood-based nature of the program, the approach limits transportation between home and park, and it keeps density low, making it an ideal shared experience in a time of physical distancing. Design consultants, including KDI, have contributed modular and adaptable play equipment. “If kids can’t come to us,” Ott Lovell says, “then it’s our moral responsibility to get to the kids.”
Oakland-based landscape architect Walter Hood shares this sense of urgency and willingness to innovate. Recognizing that arts- and performance-based groups face immense challenges as a result of the pandemic, he reached out to the City of Oakland on behalf of a local nonprofit dance organization. He proposed converting a neighborhood street into one of Oakland’s Slow Streets, transforming it into a venue for dance rehearsal and performance, and, in so doing, creating a novel type of public space.
In his personal life, as a resident of Oakland, he also took it upon himself to plant a series of trees on the sidewalk alongside his studio. This action had the effect of creating a sense of space. “People stop along the sidewalk now,” he says, referring to the sense of place and shade the trees now provide. An example of what he has defined as “hybrid landscapes,” the plantings are neither public (as a matter of contract and project delivery) nor entirely private (in the sense of being restricted to him). Instead, they provide shaded area to be shared by his community.
One of the consistent themes that has emerged about public space in the context of COVID-19 is a sense that public space need not be permanently fixed to a particular locality. Rather than something drawn in ink onto a static city map, it can move and evolve over time, like Philadelphia’s Playstreets or Oakland’s Slow Streets. This is an approach to public space-making also taken by Erin Salazar, the executive director of Local Color, an arts organization in San Jose, California. The group, which commissions artists to produce work in the public domain, is launching a new program that will provide funding for local artists to paint local storefront windows. This will not only provide artists with much-needed work, but it will also create an outdoor self-guided arts walk, drawing residents to local business and into a shared experience on the sidewalks.
“This pandemic has made everyone afraid of so many things, and, unfortunately, a fear of each other is one of those things,” says Salazar. “This project will bring the community outdoors, and people will be able to see human beings making art and appreciating art.”
More than the designation of a place as public, this sense of shared experience — of people in a place together — has come to so clearly define “public space” through this pandemic. Take New York City’s High Line, for example. Because it is technically coded as a building, and because its narrow dimensions made physical distancing effectively impossible, it was forced to temporarily close during the height of the pandemic. Robert Hammond, the High Line’s executive director, was able to stroll part of the landscape during the closure. “Without people,” he says, “it felt so melancholy. It was missing the key ingredient.” Now, as the High Line reopens for timed and ticketed visits, it has begun to reestablish the essential element — people sharing public space — that has made it such a landmark.
The High Line, 2020. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of the High Line.
This simple act of seeing other people, of sharing space with others, is a fundamental part of the human experience. By limiting that physical connectedness, COVID-19 has reinforced — loudly so — the importance of that social experience. For Anuj Gupta, the former general manager of Reading Terminal Market, a public market in Philadelphia, public space will be a much-needed and necessary tonic to months of physical distancing. “This pandemic has been a trauma to the community at large, and public space is a way to heal it,” he says. “Human beings are inherently social, and we are retreating further and further into our silos,” he cautions, citing the move toward digital communication that the pandemic has accelerated. “Public spaces are one of the few spaces that still offer the opportunity to engage in social behavior.”
For those who have ready access to it, public space, like other forms of infrastructure and public services, can seem something of a given. The pandemic, though, has brought newfound scrutiny to public space, highlighting its value in public health and laying bare inequities of access. “One thing about this moment is that we’re starting to see just how important it is to use and have public space,” says Eric Klinenberg, NYU’s Helen Gould Shepard Professor of Social Science and the author of Palaces for the People.
“I got really interested in how public spaces are morphing and transforming during this COVID crisis,” says Klinenberg. “A number of libraries, for example, have effectively unfolded, moving services outdoors, and moving librarians to other spaces, finding new ways for people to access the library even though the building itself was closed.”
As municipalities and communities set out to create and update public space to meet new demand and emerging public health parameters, Klinenberg urges a long-term view. “One of the challenges of the moment is trying to balance the short-term needs with long-term planning considerations,” he explains. “One concern I have is that cities and states will make exceedingly short-term decisions about building for distance because COVID is on our minds. By the time such projects are completed, we’ll have made our communities more isolating and atomizing,” warns Klinenberg.
As Ott Lovell considers how to deliver public space in Philadelphia, she, too, recognizes the relative time horizons. “We are dealing with a pandemic, and I’m hopeful that it’s a snapshot in time — that we are not going to have to fundamentally change how we design public space in the future.”
For her, as for all the fellows, public space is one of the last venues for diverse, spontaneous shared experience, which makes protecting it imperative to civic engagement and the democratic experience.
“Everything we interact with is about how we want to interact with it. We don’t have to go to a bar to date, we don’t have to go to a grocery store to buy food, and we are handed Facebook feeds and Netflix queues,” she says. “Public space gives us this unique opportunity to interact with people we didn’t pre-select or choose, so a time like this shows us how critical it is that public spaces are truly public.”
You can learn more about the Knight Public Spaces Fellows by watching these recent episodes of “Coast To Coast,” where Knight program director Lilly Weinberg interviewed several of the fellows:
AKRON, Ohio – Sept. 22, 2020 – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced today four investments of nearly $8 million to expand Akron’s public spacesas part of a continued commitment to make the city a more vibrant and more equitable place to live, work and play.
The four projects will revitalize and improve public spaces and public life in Akron’s downtown corridor and surrounding neighborhoods. Knight’s investments will help elevate these public spaces to premier destinations that boost the quality of life for Akronites, bring people from different backgrounds together, and deepen their shared connection to their community. The COVID-19 pandemic underscores that it has never been more important for everyone to have access to such spaces.
The projects are:
$4 millionto reinvigorate Summit Lake Park. Residents have led planning for the transformation of the historic north shore to create a destination park for area residents and Towpath Trail users. Knight’s funding will bolster Summit Lake’s role as a key gathering spot by adding a trail around the lake, a pavilion, and better access to the lake for boating, kayaking and canoeing. These improvements will give residents a conveniently located public space south of Downtown Akron that will rank among the best in the region.
$2 million to redesign and rebuild Lock 3 Park. Located in central downtown Akron and home to many of the region’s biggest festivals, Lock 3 has new plans to upgrade its performance space and design to become an everyday park welcoming residents and Akronites who work downtown. The improvements will focus on the central portion of the park, adding shade and seating, enhancing the area as a performance space and connecting to Main Street. The remodeled space will build on downtown’s strength as a great place to live that’s also a thriving job hub with opportunities to enjoy outdoor entertainment all year long.
$1.35 million to support Downtown Akron Partnership. The DAP — a coalition of property owners, business leaders and public officials that oversees the downtown district — will use Knight’s funding to advance their mission of building a vibrant downtown. The group’s efforts include helping to keep downtown clean and safe, and providing special events for the community. Part of the grant will fund world-renowned firm Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, one of the country’s most prominent urban planning, programming and park redevelopment firms, to provide consulting support during the project’s first year.
$637,500 to restore the historic John S. Knight House. This investment will transform the former home of John S. Knight, founder of Knight Foundation, into the new headquarters for the Summit County Land Bank. Located at 400 South Portage Path in West Akron, the site is one block from the Perkins Mansion and John Brown House. Though the agency serves the entire county, the work of the land bank aligns with Knight’s focus on revitalizing downtown and inner ring neighborhoods.
Since 2015, Knight has invested in great public spaces in Akron to make it an engaging place where people want to live and where people feel connected to their community and to each other. The investments have aimed to attract more residents to Akron’s downtown and surrounding neighborhoods and turn Akron into a more resilient, inclusive city.
“Access to quality public spaces is a competitive advantage to living and working in Akron,” said Kyle Kutuchief, program director for Knight’s Akron program. “The nearly $8 million in support from Knight for these seminal projects will elevate Akron’s ambition for great public spaces and ensure that more residents in Akron will be able to access these spaces and be proud of them.”
The development of the Knight-supported new projects will continue to be guided by the input of residents because all Akronites deserve world-class public spaces that are within reach and provide safe places where they can connect and find community. In the case of Summit Lake and Lock 3, both projects will be regionally significant achievements.
“Now more than ever, as we have seen with COVID-19, people continue to seek public places that build community,” Kutuchief said. “These investments expand Knight’s commitment to work with city and neighborhood leaders to make public spaces equitable and durable for Akronites now and in a post-pandemic world.”
The announcements came on the 70th anniversary of the founding of Knight Foundation in Akron by the late John S. “Jack” Knight, editor and publisher of Knight Newspapers, and his brother and business partner James L. “Jim” Knight. The Akron Beacon Journal, which Jack inherited from his father Charles Landon Knight, was the first Knight newspaper.
For interviews, please contact Raul Garcia at [email protected]or (305) 908-2694.
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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.
On September 22, 2020, Knight Foundation announced nearly $8M to support the expansion of public spaces in Akron. Click here to see the press release. Knight’s Kyle Kutuchief shares more below.
As Greater Akron navigates COVID-19, outdoor public spaces have taken on a new importance in daily life. All of us need more fresh air. Parks, trails and public spaces restore physical and mental health, make the city a more desirable place to live, build community and allow people to exercise their First Amendment rights. However, access to them is not equal, especially in Akron’score. We know we must do better to make them more inclusive.
Today, Knight Foundation is proud to announce nearly $8 million in new grants to advance key projects in Akron to make the city a better and more equitable place to live. We seek to reimagine and expand projects underway at Summit Lake, Lock 3, Downtown Akron and our founder John S. Knight’s former home in West Akron. As Knight marks 70 years as a foundation founded in Akron, these investments build on a legacy of commitment to building Akron’s future.
Since 2016, Knight has supported Reimagining the Civic Commons, a national initiative to demonstrate how strategic investments in Akron’s civic assets can advance engagement, equity, environmental sustainability and economic development. The Akron Civic Commons team worked alongside neighborhood residents and community leaders in Downtown Akron, Ohio and Erie Canal Park and Summit Lake to co-create and implement improvements to public spaces along the Towpath Trail. Much of the work to date has been about building trust with residents and establishing new ways of working between community partners.
At Summit Lake, the Summit Lake Community Council, the City of Akron, Akron Civic Commons and neighborhood residents have created an impressive vision to develop 35 acres on the lake’s north shore. Some of the planned amenities include: a trail around the lake, a pavilion, a boardwalk, a place to rent kayaks and canoes. The new park seeks to become a destination public space for nearby residents from the Summit Lake and Kenmore neighborhoods, Towpath Trail users and the community at large. The City of Akron has committed $3 million to the $10 million project. Knight will commit $4 million to completing the fundraising campaign for the new park, which is on track to break ground in 2021.
Lock 3 is our city’s central park. It has been very successful as a special events venue that attracts crowds year-round. But people who live or work downtown know that it is not a place that invites everyday use such as eating your lunch, meeting up with friends, walking your dog or just relaxing. A team led by Olin Architects, the City of Akron, the Ohio and Erie Canalway Coalition and GPD Group have developed a beautiful plan to redesign Lock 3 by adding trees, walking paths and places to sit. These amenities will complement a new amphitheater and stage that can accommodate a crowd of up to 4,500. Phase one of the project is expected to cost about $8 million. If $6 million can be raised in commitments by 2024, Knight will provide the remaining $2 million to move the transformative project forward.
Left: Present day Lock 3 (Photo by Tim Fitzwater); Right: Rendering of future Lock 3 (image by OLIN Architecture)
We all agree that downtown Akron must be a clean, safe and vibrant place where everyone feels invited and welcomed. Downtown Akron Partnership has been leading the way to achieve that, from their ambassadors on the streets, to their support for small businesses and planning partnership with Mayor Dan Horrigan and business leaders to execute the Vision Plan for Downtown. As Main Street reopens, the city needs an intermediary organization to coordinate stakeholders and ensure people choose the city center as a place to live, locate their businesses, shop, dine and have fun.
Knight has committed $1.35 million to support the Downtown Akron Partnership’s important mission. Part of the grant will fund Biederman Redevelopment Ventures to provide consulting support. Its founder Dan Biederman is the president of the 34th Street Partnership and Bryant Park Corporation in New York. We believe Akron will benefit from a team that advises some of the most successful public spaces in the country.
Finally, John S. Knight, a lifelong Akron resident, and his brother James L. Knight, began their newspaper company with the Akron Beacon-Journal. Between 1921 to 1929, “Jack” called a house at 400 South Portage Path home. To say it had fallen into disrepair would understate its distressed condition. The Summit County Land Bank has acquired the property and, with a $637,500 investment from Knight, will restore the home and make it their new headquarters.
The John S. Knight House will become another restored historic structure within a block of the Perkins Manson and John Brown House. The land bank’s work is critical to the revitalization of Summit County, especially Downtown Akron and its inner ring neighborhoods. This is an opportunity to restore a place of significance to the legacy of Jack Knight and to support an organization whose work advances Knight’s Akron strategy.
Through these major investments, we are focused on improving public places for all Akronites to enjoy and advancing organizations run by some of our community’s finest leaders. Knight and our community partners understand that relationships are built at the speed of trust, and we collectively put residents first because they are the heart and soul of our community. We believe our support for Akron today continues our long tradition of strengthening this great city and making it a place where everyone feels welcomed and included.
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A new Knight Foundation report finds that chronic non-voters’ news diet may help shape whether or not they vote on Nov. 3.
In 2016, with the presidency and both houses of Congress in play, close to 100 million eligible voters chose to sit out the election, making nonvoters a larger constituency than either the Democratic or Republican voter bases. This fall, will nonvoters continue to sit out what could be the most consequential presidential election in recent memory? The answer may lie on whether their consumption of media could translate into their willingness to cast a ballot.
A new Knight Foundation report, “The 100 Million Project: How media habits relate to voter participation,” released today holds answers to this critical question. The report draws from the original 100 Million Projectsurvey of over 12,000 nonvoters and a companion survey of over 1,000 active voters. This report explores the media habits of 4,000 nationally representative non-voters, and 1,000 voters that were part of the original 100 Million project. It explores how their media consumption habits may impact their attitudes toward politics, elections and voting in the 2020 race.
The report reveals major divisions within the eligible but non-voting population based on their media diet. These factors—which include age, preferred news sources, partisanship, social media reliance and more—may help determine who will cast a ballot in November and who will occupy the White House.
Here’s our key findings:
Chronic nonvoters who are more attentive to news may change their voting behavior this year. The 33% of nonvoters who say they’re attentive to the news are also more likely to say they’ll vote in the fall.
Conservative news consumers are more fired up to vote in 2020. Nonvoters who turn to right-leaning news outlets are more likely to say they’ll vote this year than those who rely on left-leaning outlets or centrist media. Sixty percent of conservative news-watchers say so, versus 53% of liberal news-watchers.
People who rely on social media for news are less likely to vote. People who say they get their news mostly from social media are consistently less likely to vote and more skeptical about the efficacy of voting. Those who rely chiefly on social media are also among the least likely to be registered to vote—just 71% versus 84% of newspaper readers.
Young nonvoters are more likely to passively “bump into” news, rather than seeking it out. Among voters ages 25 to 29, just 46% say they actively seek out news, with most saying they typically “bump into” news, primarily on social media.
People are more engaged with national news than local news. Both nonvoters and voters say they feel more knowledgeable about national affairs than about what’s happening in their local community. Seventy-one percent of these “nationally knowledgeable” nonvoters say they have enough info to vote in the fall, but they are less likely to be civically engaged in their local communities.
Exercising the basic civic act of voting is a core function of our democracy. That’s why Knight launched this survey—to find out about the correlation between media consumption and voter turnout, and what implications might be for cultivating an informed and participative citizenry. The findings offer reasons for cautious optimism for turnout in 2020: Not every nonvoter is entirely disenchanted with political participation, and among those who are most sanguine, news plays a big role in their lives.
On the other hand, a warning: As younger adults find their place in our democratic society, this report finds that the media they consume—driven largely by social media and their informal networks—is playing a lead role in shaping their political knowledge. It’s not yet clear whether these young nonvoters’ news diets will spur them to greater electoral participation, or encourage them to remain on the sidelines in 2020 and beyond.
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Evetter Alexander is director of learning and impact at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. To be connected with Evette for interview, please contact Tony Franquiz at [email protected] or 202-374-5393.
The media environment during an election year has the potential to guide citizens toward informed participation in the democratic process. It can also turn people off from voting altogether. It can enlighten or mislead the electorate—sometimes doing both at once.
In February 2020, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation released the 100 Million Project, a landmark study that surveyed 12,000 chronic non-voters nationally and in ten swing states in order to explore the underlying challenges of electoral participation. Americans who don’t vote in elections—approaching 100 million and comprising roughly 43% of eligible voters as of the last presidential election in 2016—differ from active voters along a wide range of attitudes and behaviors related to voting, elections and politics.
This new report was commissioned to explore the relationship between the self-reported media habits of these non-voters and their attitudes toward voting, the 2020 election and other forms of civic engagement. Findings are drawn from the nationally representative samples of 4,002 persistent non-voters ages 25 and older and 1,002 active registered voters from the original 100 Million Project survey.
This study reveals new insights into the media habits of American non-voters, and uncovers how their information diets might impact their democratic participation. This new analysis is instructive for those seeking to foster a more informed and engaged citizenry.
Non-voters who are attentive to the news—the 33% who identify news rather than entertainment as the primary media they consume—are more likely to say they’ll vote in the 2020 presidential election.
Non-voters who turn to partisan-leaning news outlets, particularly conservative ones, are more likely than those who rely on centrist media outlets to say they’ll cast a ballot in November.
Social media and word of mouth via friends and family—two sources of news for many non-voters— are consistently tied to lower likelihood of voting in the future, more skeptical views about the efficacy of voting and lower community engagement overall.
Fewer than half (46%) of younger non-voters—ages 25–29—say they actively seek out news, with a majority saying that instead they typically “bump into” news as they go about their day. In contrast, voters in the same age group are nearly 20 percentage points more likely to say they seek out their news, placing them close to on par with voters of other age groups.
Non-voters and voters are both more likely to feel more knowledgeable about national affairs than about what’s happening in their local communities. The “nationally knowledgeable” members of both groups are more likely to say they’ll vote in the fall, while being less likely, by some measures, to be civically engaged in their local communities.
This report details the relationships between non-voters’ news engagement and their likelihood of voting, views about the process, feelings about the impact of voting and other community engagement traits. It also explores the news media diets of several key demographic groups of non-voters, highlighting central findings for these groups in the body of the report (detailed tables are available in the Appendix).
The findings offer reasons for optimism—not every non-voter is entirely disenchanted with political participation, and among those who are most sanguine, news plays a big role in their lifestyles. On the other hand, a warning: As younger adults and the generations that follow them find their place in a democratic society, the media they consume—driven by social media and their informal networks—is clearly playing a lead role in shaping their political knowledge. It is not yet clear whether or how these media diets will equip Americans on the sidelines to participate in this most critical civic duty.
