Communities – Page 39 – Knight Foundation

Program Area: Communities

Learn more about the report, “Common Goals, Different Approaches,” by reading this blog and the press release. 

Download the full report

Introduction

In his 2018 book “The Divided City,” the urban scholar Alan Mallach wrote, “America’s once industrial and now postindustrial cities appear to be on a trajectory to a future in which they become more and more polarized places where bustling, glittering enclaves of prosperity are ringed by declining or largely abandoned areas, and where millions are relegated to lives of poverty and hopelessness.” The American city—which seemed bound for devastation in the 1960s and 1970s and revival in the 2000s—is now on a path toward greater socioeconomic division. And for all the talk of wildly rising costs and metastasizing luxury condos in cities like New York and San Francisco, there are far more places, such as Detroit’s Fitzgerald, Akron’s Summit Lake and Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion, that were once stable middleclass neighborhoods but have long been sliding toward disinvestment, neglect and isolation.

The public sector has struggled to halt this slide and connect residents of underresourced neighborhoods to opportunities in thriving areas nearby. It’s an incredibly challenging task, given all the factors at play: economic forces, a history of racial discrimination, poor transit connections, housing inequality, educational shortcomings and a lack of quality public gathering spaces, to name a few. But four foundations have come together to launch an important experiment in breaking down some of these barriers. What would happen, they asked, if a small group of cities received funding to transform a few public spaces each into places where different groups of people could mingle, where investment inequities were rectified, where environmental stewardship and sustainable transit connections were a priority, and where local residents could claim a degree of ownership? If each city were left to its own devices, how would it structure its projects, in terms of leadership, site selection, community engagement, redevelopment strategies and goals? And how would those decisions affect the outcomes?

Reimagining the Civic Commons is an attempt to answer those questions. This three-year national initiative was launched in 2016 with the announcement of a $40 million investment in public spaces in four cities: Detroit; Memphis, Tennessee; Akron, Ohio; and Chicago. The four foundations—the JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation—invested half of the total, with matching funds from local sources. (In a fifth city, Philadelphia, a pilot program that started in 2015 was supported by Knight and the William Penn Foundation.)

Most of the cities are now more than two-thirds of the way through their Civic Commons grant periods, and while much of the work
remains to be done, their projects have taken shape in concrete and meaningful ways. The disparate approaches chosen by the five cities, and the mix of successes and challenges they’ve encountered, show clearly that there’s no simple right or wrong answer to the question of how to create a better civic commons. Instead, they offer different lessons for further efforts, by cities and the partners that support them, to create a richer, fairer, more sustainable and more integrated urban landscape in the future.

Philadelphia: The Pilot: Confronting challenges of geography and community engagement

Ask the leaders of Philadelphia’s Reimagining the Civic Commons initiative what the project’s unifying goal is, and you’ll get as many different answers, from “create these legendary public spaces” (Jamie Gauthier, former executive director for the Fairmount Park Conservancy) to “exploring what public spaces do, not just that they exist” (Patrick J. Morgan, former Philadelphia program director for Knight Foundation) to “it’s less about the projects and more of an idea” (city Commissioner of Parks & Recreation Kathryn Ott Lovell).

Of the five Civic Commons cities, Philadelphia is the outlier. It was the pilot city, and it’s the only one whose grant period is over. Its sites are spread across the city: You would have to travel more than 20 miles to visit them all. And where Memphis is focused on its riverfront and Detroit on one neighborhood, Philly tackled a library, a recreation trail, a park, an old rail line and a new lakeside office building. It’s all over the place, both geographically and conceptually.

Mixed into that complicated assemblage is some great success. Bartram’s Garden is widely hailed across the Civic Commons network as the initiative’s model site; it broke down the perceived barriers between a natural landmark and a neglected neighborhood and made residents feel welcome for the first time. Centennial Commons is bringing investment and programming to a park that lacked both—the park’s inaugural public movie screening, of “Black Panther,” turned out a small but delighted crowd of neighbors—and the Discovery Center is likely to do the same for East Fairmount Park. The Rail Park could be a transformative project that re establishes forgotten connections across the city.

Now that Philadelphia’s Civic Commons grant has expired, the team is applying the lessons of the initiative to other projects in the city—most notably Rebuilding Community Infrastructure (Rebuild), a $500 million citywide neighborhood revitalization program funded largely through a soda tax—and to share them with the Civic Commons cities whose work is ongoing. All of that requires a deep examination of what Philly got right and what it got wrong.

Continue reading about Philadelphia’s Reimagining the Civic Commons efforts…

Detroit: Redefining Assets: A city on the rebound turns mass vacancy to its advantage

On the wall of his office, Maurice Cox has pinned a map of Detroit that’s colored like Christmas. Each property in the city is marked red or green— red for occupied, green for vacant, although you could be forgiven for guessing the inverse, since there are at least as many overwhelmingly green patches as red ones.

Downtown Detroit is a block of near-solid red. You don’t need the map to tell you that: Cox’s window looks out onto a dazzling array of skyscrapers connected by a network of footbridges. Radiating from downtown on the map, however, are streaks of green. And 9 miles northwest of downtown is a perfect square dominated by green.

This square is the heart of the Fitzgerald neighborhood. And it’s where Cox, Detroit’s planning director, is focusing a lot of his energy.

Vacancy and blight have plagued Detroit since its steady decades-long decline—precipitated by suburbanization, white flight, riots and the erosion of auto industry jobs—brought the city to its nadir, culminating in its 2013 bankruptcy. Between 2004 and 2014 alone, Detroit lost 244,000 people, enough to form Michigan’s second-largest city. What makes the Fitzgerald project particularly important for Detroit—and different from the other initiatives in the Civic Commons network—is that it’s redefining vacancy as an asset. Other Civic Commons cities have focused on building new assets or restoring old ones. But Cox and his team are taking something that has always been seen as a negative and trying to turn it into a positive.

The view out Cox’s window frames the city’s most obvious asset: the revitalization of downtown Detroit. It began with investments in Detroit’s riverfront and Campus Martius Park in the early 2000s and rapidly accelerated when Dan Gilbert moved his mortgage company, Quicken Loans, into downtown in 2010, purchased a slew of office buildings nearby and lured other businesses to the downtown core. Now, on a warm summer evening, you can find groups of business travelers in work attire hopping between downtown’s high-end restaurants and bars, and large numbers of locals strolling along the pristine RiverWalk, with sweeping views of Canada across the Detroit River. To the north, in Midtown, hipsters and young professionals patronize breweries, boutiques and museums.

The success of Detroit’s downtown differentiates it from other Civic Commons cities, such as Memphis, which is focusing its efforts on downtown to restore the city’s center and sense of place, and Akron, which is putting resources into downtown and seeking to connect it with areas that have more population and off-hours foot traffic.

The recovery of downtown Detroit is well underway. It serves as a visible reminder of what Detroit writ large could be, and of what it used to be, before the city of 1.85 million was reduced to a 670,000-person shell. The goal now is to help the recovery spread throughout the city. The Civic Commons project in Fitzgerald is, more than anything, an effort to revive a sagging neighborhood and give it attractive public amenities it has long lacked. But it’s also a proof of concept for the rest of the city. If vacancy can become an asset in this quarter square mile, can it also be used to revive Detroit?

Continue reading about Detroit’s Reimagining the Civic Commons efforts…

Memphis: Rewriting the Narrative: Addressing a complicated history through a riverfront revitalization

The kayak race was, by any normal standard, a modest one. The dozen or so participants paddled at a leisurely pace. One had the advantage of a coxswain aboard—a dog in a bright green life vest, perched on the prow—but still trailed the pack. A drone captured footage of the contest for all of 30 seconds before crashing into a pedestrian bridge, breaking in two and plummeting into the river.

But for Carol Coletta, president of the Memphis River Parks Partnership, the mere presence of all these kayaks in the Wolf River Harbor, an offshoot of the Mississippi, was cause for celebration. “Look at these people!” she exclaimed. “This is great!”

The Memphis riverfront’s journey to this moment proceeded about as quickly as the Wolf River Harbor’s languid current. There was a time when the river put Memphis on the map; when the commerce it brought made the city the world’s top market for cotton, hardwood and mules; when the adjacent downtown flourished and grew. Then steamboats and mules were supplanted by railroads and cars. The city’s center of gravity pulled eastward, toward the highways and the suburbs.

Downtown declined slowly, then suddenly, with a gunshot fired at the balcony outside Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in 1968. “After Dr. King’s assassination, downtown Memphis died,” said Robert Montgomery, a member of the Downtown Memphis Commission’s Blue Suede Brigade, which provides security and assists visitors. The exodus of people from downtown was followed by an exodus of business, and blight and crime took their place.

Now, residents tell a consistent story: Sometime in the past 10 to 15 years, something started to change. Downtown began its comeback. But like the decline, it started slowly, almost imperceptibly. That’s why a small milestone like a kayak race seemed so significant.

Still, in the context of the surrounding areas, the downtown Memphis riverfront remains the laggard. “Our part of downtown is pretty sleepy in general,” said Maria Fuhrmann, the city’s grants coordinator and Civic Commons lead. “There’s nodes of activity to the north and south, but this is the missing middle.” As with Detroit’s Civic Commons project, which seeks to build an enlivened connection between two universities, the aim is to bridge those nodes and make the underserved center feel vibrant and valuable. It’s no coincidence that Detroit and Memphis are the two most segregated Civic Commons cities, where well-resourced areas can sandwich such underinvested ones.

Other recipients of Civic Commons grants focused on neighborhoods, buildings and parks that had been largely forgotten in the public consciousness. Memphis set its sights on its most obvious landmark: the riverfront. And Aug. 4, 2018, was its coming-out day.

Continue reading about Memphis’ Reimagining the Civic Commons efforts…

Akron: Think Small: Aiming for bunts, not home runs, in community-driven planning

It seemed like such an everyday scene: Two women and their children walked down a small slope, sat on a pair of bench swings and looked out at Summit Lake. But captured in that tableau was the success of Akron’s Civic Commons strategy.

In a network with grand ambitions to transform the way urban communities interact with public spaces, Akron’s Civic Commons initiative could be summed up with a different sort of motto: Think small.

Not only is Akron the smallest Civic Commons city by far—at 197,000, its population is one-eighth of Philadelphia’s and one-fourteenth of Chicago’s— but it has intentionally shied away from grandiose projects. Where Memphis is seeking to reshape its riverfront, Detroit is transforming acres of vacant land into a major community asset and Chicago is aiming to change the way cities approach the arts, Akron asked Summit Lake residents what they wanted, and they said seating, tables and shade. So that’s what they got. And by restoring access to the lake and fulfilling those simple requests, the city did more to build trust than any monumental construction could have.

“I don’t think we ever went about this saying we were going to change the landscape of Akron,” said Dan Rice, president of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition, which is leading Akron’s Civic Commons project.

Memphis, by contrast, has been tackling “a really giant project,” said Kyle Kutuchief, the Knight Foundation program officer in Akron. “And ours is really a sum of small parts.” There are improvements to a recreation trail. There are new activities in once-deserted downtown squares. And there are some very well-used picnic tables. Akron has tried for too long to hit grand slams, like huge development projects and efforts to fix the economy by luring big companies. Now, Kutuchief said, the city is going for “bunts and singles.”

Continue reading about Akron’s Reimagining the Civic Commons efforts…

Chicago: An Artist’s Vision: Theaster Gates’ art-fueled empire transforms a slice of the South Side

The musicians at the front of the room raised their instruments, paused and then launched into a rambunctious string quartet by the African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

The sound rang through the hall, an old bank lobby not designed for acoustics but very well-suited to the purpose. An ornate ceiling arched overhead, affording a peek at a soaring two-story library housing the personal collection of the legendary African-American publisher John H. Johnson, the late founder of Ebony and Jet magazines. An array of children sat on a rainbow of colorful pillows up front, while the grown-ups filled benches behind them, rapt and silent until they broke into applause.

The musicians, all black, announced their next piece. Like the others in the D-Composed series, it was by a black composer and under five minutes long. They invited the kids to clap and the adults to stomp to the beat as the violins soared and the cello plunked a rhythmic line.

Elsewhere across the Civic Commons network, cities are creating parks, libraries and trails. Chicago is different, in a few obvious and less obvious ways. Most apparent is the focus on the arts. String quartets have yet to feature in the other Civic Commons initiatives; here, they’re center stage— literally at the Stony Island Arts Bank, and figuratively at Chicago’s other sites, which all seek to foster artistic creation. Then there’s the person at the heart of it all, renowned South Side artist Theaster Gates. In the other cities, the projects are the product of extensive partnerships and collaboration, but Chicago’s projects are largely Gates’ brainchild. And where the project sites elsewhere are mostly owned by municipal governments or nonprofits working closely with the city, Gates himself controls most of the properties his team is working on.

Does that allow Gates to move the projects swiftly without waiting for government cooperation? “Absolutely not,” he said with a laugh. He still relies on the city and development partners, and he wishes he had sat down with the mayor at the beginning of the process to get buy-in and participation from these partners at the onset of the Civic Commons initiative.

But his ownership of the projects does allow him to do something different, and something he considers more valuable. “One of the things that neighborhoods need more of is autonomous local voices to determine an agenda that is not necessarily set by a municipal public,” he said. If the city controls a development project, it’s answerable to the will of voters, who are likely to want basic services like grocery stores. If a private developer does, it tries to maximize income, maybe by luring a national chain retailer. “My thinking is, there are other players who should try to determine the fabric,” he said. “And those players have different expertise than national interests.”

In this case, he’s the player. That comes with pitfalls, but also promise: Gates has a vision for the South Side of Chicago, one that Civic Commons is helping him realize more comprehensively than ever, and it’s beginning to transform a once-neglected neighborhood—or at least a small corner of it.

Continue reading about Chicago’s Reimagining the Civic Commons efforts…

Download the full report, “Common Goals, Different Approaches” here

On April 18, 2019, Knight released the report “Common Goals, Different Approaches.” Learn more by reading the blog below and this press release. 

Three years ago, Knight Foundation joined with the Kresge Foundation, JPB Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation to support an experiment. Would it be possible to revitalize and connect disused civic spaces to foster greater civic engagement, promote economic development and enhance environmental sustainability?

The project took root in five, diverse cities: Akron, Ohio; Chicago; Detroit; Memphis, Tennessee; and Philadelphia. Each city invested significant additional public and private resources, and began to build a network of parks, plazas, trails and libraries.

Three years later, each city has made progress. Each city has also made this work their own—authentic to its own people, its own ethos and its own priorities. We asked journalist Aaron Wiener to go out and understand how this effort took on a life of its own in each community. Wiener is a senior editor at Mother Jones and has reported on a number of urban economic development issues. His work was independent. He came back with a vivid portrait of an effort that is both changing community and changed by community, an effort now as disparate as the places where it lives.

In Philadelphia, the effort became the testing ground for a citywide approach to the use of public space. Now, municipal resources are backing a $500 million neighborhood investment program focused on updating, programming and revitalizing key neighborhood assets like parks, libraries and recreation centers.

In Detroit, the project became about inverting one of the city’s core liabilities – mass vacancy – into an asset. The effort is taking vacancy and using it as the canvas on which to build new greenspaces at the center of neighborhood redevelopment that includes new housing opportunities and a revitalized commercial corridor.

Read the full report

In Memphis, Reimagining the Civic Commons is about the reawakening of Memphis’ downtown, and the reclaiming of the river as the center of civic life—for everyone.

In Akron, the project is about taking on civic life small bites at a time. The effort has made incremental changes to different key nodes of city life – a beautiful lake south of downtown in a neglected neighborhood, a park in a transitional neighborhood downtown, and a historic trail that is a regional draw but not yet a vital interface between visitors and residents.

And, in Chicago, the “civic commons” has been an opportunity for innovative artist Theaster Gates to reimagine just exactly what community means. Led by his vision, the project has created unusual new spaces where people, culture and art come together to reclaim a different vision for the city’s South Side.

At Knight Foundation, we believe community change happens when we are able to work with residents and other partners to unleash and accelerate what’s already moving in community. Perhaps the greatest success of the experiment that is Reimagining the Civic Commons isn’t one idea. It’s a set of values about the importance of civic spaces—values that can be interpreted and applied differently in different contexts.

Sam Gill is the vice president for communities and impact at Knight Foundation.

Lynn Ross is the founder and principal of Spirit for Change Consulting, LLC; she is Knight Foundation’s lead consultant for its work supporting RCC.

Read the full report, “Common Goals, Different Approaches” here. 

MIAMI—April 18, 2019—As American communities face increasing levels of social and economic division, a new report showcases how five U.S. cities are reimagining public spaces—parks, trails, plazas, libraries—to bring residents together and revive neglected neighborhoods. 

The report, “Common Goals, Different Approaches,” commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, traces projects in Akron, Ohio; Chicago; Detroit; Memphis, Tennessee; and Philadelphia to revitalize and connect civic assets as a means to influence positive social and economic outcomes.

“The journey to create great public spaces is unique for each city, but the goal is the same: to strengthen community connection, trust and engagement,” said Sam Gill, Knight Foundation vice president for communities and impact. “While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to revitalize and connect civic assets, these case studies show the most successful strategies are those shaped by resident insights and involvement.” 

The efforts are part of Reimagining the Civic Commons (RCC), a three-year, national initiative that formally launched in 2016 with $20 million in support from The JPB Foundation, Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation—and another $20 million in matching funds from local partners. The initiative was piloted in Philadelphia in 2015 with $11 million in support from Knight Foundation and the William Penn Foundation.

With two-thirds of the RCC initiative complete, the report provides a qualitative look at the successes and challenges experienced by the participating cities so far. It offers lessons learned for other communities exploring the potential of public spaces to connect residents of all backgrounds, foster civic engagement, advance environmental sustainability and promote economic development. 

The report details progress made in each of the cities:

  • In Philadelphia, the first city to participate in RCC and conclude its RCC program, five new civic assets were created, including parks, trails and a library, each connected to evolving neighborhoods. RCC broke down perceived barriers between natural landmarks and neighborhoods, and made residents feel welcome for the first time at previously neglected sites. The city is now applying lessons learned from RCC to other projects, including Rebuild, a $500 million citywide neighborhood revitalization program.
  • In Detroit, RCC efforts are redefining vacancy as an asset and changing residents’ perceptions of city government, which is leading the initiative in collaboration with nonprofit and neighborhood partners. The city has garnered new trust from residents by engaging them in the projects’ development and by investing in its planning department, growing from six city planners in 2015 to 36 today, to deliver on residents’ expectations. The results point to a new model for neighborhoods across the city, tackling vacancy and blight. So far, the project, centered in the Fitzgerald neighborhood, has turned empty lots into a neighborhood park, rehabbed houses and reactivated the commercial corridor with new store fronts.
  • In Memphis, partners are leveraging the city’s riverfront to bring vibrancy back to downtown by creating a space welcoming to all. Through grassroots community engagement efforts, the project is overcoming legacy local issues—economic disparity, segregation and concerns that the downtown area is unsafe and unwelcoming—and writing a new neighborhood narrative. 
  • In Akron, the smallest city participating in RCC, project leaders are prototyping with small-scale projects, informed by and in partnership with residents, setting the stage for a large, collective impact in the long-term. Downtown Akron continues to struggle with population loss that began decades ago, with many people only driving in and out for work. RCC is slowly changing this dynamic by investing in isolated neighborhoods and the Ohio & Erie Canalway Towpath Trail that connects them. In addition to reestablishing the 100-acre Summit Lake as an inviting public space, RCC is making Akron a more attractive place to live, work and play for current and potential residents alike. 
  • In Chicago, renowned local artist Theaster Gates, who leads the city’s RCC project and manages most of the properties involved through his nonprofits, is using the arts and culture to turn underutilized assets on the South and West sides of Chicago into vibrant civic places. A cultural district is in the making, aimed at fostering opportunity for residents in historically underserved neighborhoods. The remodeled Stony Island Arts Bank, a former financial building, is at the heart of the master plan, with additional RCC projects underway to transform and connect nearby vacant assets. 

The report follows a series of quantitative assessments shared last week by Reimagining the Civic Commons that track changes in the social impacts of improved public spaces in the participating cities, excluding Philadelphia. The interim data show that investments in public spaces have improved residents’ perceptions of neighborhoods, with many reporting they feel safer and more optimistic about the future of the areas. 

“Reimagining the Civic Commons is an experiment to explore the potential of public spaces to bridge divides and build more resilient communities,” said Lynn Ross, Knight Foundation’s lead consultant for its work supporting RCC. “The experiment is one from which we will never stop learning, and the more outcomes shared, the better. As cities undertake new public space initiatives, it’s invaluable to learn from the good and the bad of efforts gone before, such as those highlighted in Knight’s new report.” 

Knight Foundation believes public spaces have the power to transform communities, and they are a key part of our work to build more informed and engaged communities. Knight has made major investments in this area, both nationally, including through support for Reimagining at the Civic Commons, and at the local level. Earlier this year, we launched the inaugural Knight Public Spaces Fellowship, which supports exemplary leaders who transform the way we think about and use public spaces in the communities where we live. Learn more about Knight’s public spaces work and strategy here. 

Learn more about the report, “Common Goals, Different Approaches,” by reading this blog.

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

Anusha Alikhan, communications director, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2646, [email protected]

Support the Responsible Landlord Engagement Initiative (RLEI) that brings together tenants to engage their landlord to first resolve blight issues in neighborhoods. These groups establish trust and build ongoing relationships in the community.

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Introduction

One of the ways Knight Foundation has supported more informed and engaged communities is through a set of investments focused on public life: the spaces and places where people come together to participate in community. The goal is to connect and engage residents in their communities through more parks and public open spaces, bike and pedestrian lanes to enable people to connect, and programming that draws people together to share a common experience. Through this work, Knight has found that quality public spaces strengthen community bonds, increase civic engagement and create more opportunities for diverse communities to gather together and learn from each other.

To support and spark public life efforts, Knight Foundation made a series of grants seeking to inspire and prepare city leaders to promote public life more effectively in their communities. To build local leadership, programs exposed participants to new possibilities and provided access to national experts. The goal was to catalyze leadership and commitment to public life that would prove durable.

Activities included study tours to leading example cities, such as Copenhagen; a series of public life events and competitions that provided temporary and “pop-up” installations; fellowships for dozens of emerging leaders; a set of research tools that participants could draw on; and a variety of convenings around public art, design and city planning. 

There were nine different grants across four grantees: 8 80 Cities, which seeks to create public spaces great for an 8 year old and an 80-year-old and transform cities; Better Block, which shows community members they have the power to change their neighborhoods and shows city leaders how changes would work through temporary installations; Gehl Institute, which conducted research to expand advocacy for public life; and the League of Creative Interventionists, a network of community leaders using art and culture to reimagine cities through time-limited projects in public spaces. 

These grants were oriented around supporting the cultivation of public spaces and public life in communities to support several goals, including that: 

  • A more robust public life would attract and retain talented residents, who value well-designed public amenities.
  • Public life would enhance interaction in public space and would help people push their communities to better address the needs and wishes of residents. This would be realized through inspirational interventions, including study tours and temporary demonstration projects.
  • Public space activities and outcomes would reach a diversity of people from different economic and racial backgrounds. There was an aspiration that a diversity of residents interacting more with one another would support interaction and the promotion of social capital in ways that would help promote opportunity for everyone. 

To assess the work done by the grantees, Knight Foundation asked Street Level Advisors and Pathline Consulting to review the programs and their impact. Based on a series of interviews, a survey, and research into grantee reporting, this report outlines their findings.

Grantees at a Glance

8 80 Cities, which creates public spaces great for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old to transform cities. It provides leadership development and funding for young civic innovators with unique solutions to improve public spaces, transportation and civic engagement in their cities. 8 80’s activities include study tours to Copenhagen and direct work in cities. Twenty community leaders also are chosen each year to participate as Emerging City Champions. 

Better Block, which shows community members they have the power to change their neighborhoods and shows city leaders how changes would work through temporary installations. It seeks to create opportunities for communities and their existing and emerging leaders to gain exposure to and training from urban planning experts, civic innovators and architects from around the world through global symposiums as well as study tours to show successful examples of initiatives around the world.

Gehl Institute, which conducted research to expand advocacy for public life. Gehl offered trainings and public programs as well as developing tools for the study of public space and public life. As of April 1, 2019, Gehl Institute focuses exclusively on the Public Life Data Protocol, an open data standard.

 League of Creative Interventionists, a network of community leaders using art and culture to reimagine cities through time-limited projects in public spaces. Its fellowship program identifies and catalyzes passionate neighborhood residents to discover their leadership and co-create what they want to see in their communities. The program provides each fellow with an artist stipend, guides, resources and tools to reimagine their neighborhood with powerful acts of culture and also access to a valuable national network of peers and mentors.

Key Findings

Inspiring new activity and leadership

There is clear evidence that the programs succeeded in inspiring community leaders to strengthen public life, and in some cases influenced participants’ career trajectories. Multiple public life programs were expanded or replicated by local leaders, and several new organizations were created.

Attracting investment

Grantee activities led to increased public and private investment in public space and life. Public investments included protected bike lanes and other bicycle infrastructure, as well as funding for parks and green space. One city created a new Office of Public Life. In almost all examples of increased government investment in public space, interviewees cited the study tours as a critical contributing factor. In two cases, grantees worked to ensure that bond funds, each totaling more than $40 million, incorporated public life considerations.

Influencing public policy

Programs led city officials to improve public life decision-making processes. In several examples, temporary interventions inspired local officials to incorporate new processes to reach a broader cross-section of residents, and to reconstitute public committees that had long been dormant. Almost a quarter of surveyed Copenhagen trip participants established a bicycle plan for their cities, 12 percent created a bicycling/pedestrian committee, Macon reconstituted a dormant bike committee and is working on a bike plan and 5 percent now have bicycle safety courses planned.

In addition to these impacts, some critical strategic questions also emerged:

Inspiration vs. escalation

The programs have clearly served to inspire individuals and many said the programs raised their visibility and supported their leadership. However, some participants hoped for more support on logistics, financing and policy processes to help them transform inspiration into concrete outcomes.

The right model and approach

A few interviewees questioned whether the foreign cities visited were the best model for all U.S. communities given differences around issues like comparative racial diversity and economic inequality.

Inclusive and authentic engagement

Several people interviewed wanted to ensure that the projects had diverse participation at all levels, from grantees to those leading community interventions to the public being served. Greater diversity among leadership teams contributed to more inclusive community participation in local programs and events, and lessened concerns that activities might contribute to displacement of current residents.

Holistic approach 

Findings suggested that further coordination across strategies and grantees could be beneficial. Participants sometimes worked with more than one grantee and grantees sometimes partnered on events. But such partnerships were more accidental than intentional. There was a sense that increasing these connections in more intentional ways would benefit participants and the public.

Download the full report here. 

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.

MIAMI—April 8, 2019—Emerging City Champions, a program supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is now accepting applications for its 2019-2020 fellowship, which provides young civic innovators with seed funding, leadership training and practical tools to launch transformative projects to enhance public space, urban mobility or civic engagement in their city. Knight Foundation today announced a $500,000 reinvestment in the program.

The Emerging City Champions fellowship is open to applicants between the ages of 19 and 35 with project ideas that take place in or benefit one of the 26 communities where Knight invests. Past projects have ranged from beehives to jukeboxes, mentorship programs to murals, block parties to storytelling bike tours. 

The deadline to apply is Sunday, May 12, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Successful applicants will be awarded $5,000 for their project, attend an immersive four-day learning experience, and receive ongoing mentorship, networking, and capacity building opportunities. Visit emergingcitychampions.org for more information and to apply.

“Since 2015, this effort has uncovered new talent and new ideas that are already making a difference in cities,” said Sam Gill, Knight Foundation vice president for communities and impact. “We can’t wait for the next set of emerging leaders who are driving the future of informed and engaged communities.

“Emerging City Champions brings together civic leaders who all share a common drive to build equitable and vibrant cities,” said Amanda O’Rourke, executive director, 8 80 Cities. “Each year, we are thrilled to support the diverse, community-driven projects that participants bring to their communities. We look forward to seeing what ideas this year’s competition will bring.”

Launched in 2015 with Knight Foundation support, Emerging City Champions is an incubator for up-and-coming city leaders with bold ideas to build more accessible, inclusive and connected cities. Some applicants may be seeking to scale up an existing neighborhood project, while others may have innovative and untested solutions to improve their local streets or public spaces. The program encourages diverse voices and fresh perspectives toward common urban challenges.

By offering training, resources, connections and seed funding, Emerging City Champions helps participants harness their own ingenuity and collaborative partnerships to create real community change. The training begins with the Emerging City Champions Studio in Toronto, Canada. The Studio is an immersive four-day learning experience where fellowship participants hone their skills as civic leaders with interactive tours of community-led programs and public spaces, presentations by city leaders and program alumni, and hands-on workshops on project planning, community engagement, communication, and tactical urbanism.

Past Emerging City Champions participants have made significant improvements to their communities. Using their skills as musicians, educators, mechanics, artists, or small business owners, they have created neighborhood programs, community events, interactive public art, and vibrant public spaces that have pushed boundaries, changed mindsets, and in some cases inspired long-term investment in the public realm. These program alumni also form the growing Emerging City Champions network, supporting future participants in their community.

Emerging City Champions is led by 8 80 Cities, a nonprofit organization committed to improving the quality of life for people in cities by bringing citizens together to enhance mobility and public space.

Support for 8 80 Cities forms one part of Knight Foundation’s efforts to help cities attract and keep talented people, expand economic opportunity and create a culture of engagement. The foundation believes that successful communities are equitable, inclusive and participatory.

For more information on 8 80 Cities, visit: 880cities.org. To apply to the Emerging City Champions Fellowship, submit your application at emergingcitychampions.org by May 12, 2019.

About 8 80 Cities
8 80 Cities is a nonprofit organization based in Toronto, Canada. We are dedicated to contributing to the transformation of cities into places where people can walk, bike, access public transit and visit vibrant parks and public places. Our approach is to engage people and communities across multiple sectors to inspire the creation of cities that are easily accessible, safe and enjoyable for all. We achieve our mission through grant projects, advocacy work and our innovative services.

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.

Contacts:

Ryan O’Connor, Director of Programs, 8 80 Cities, 416-591-7404, [email protected]

Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, 305-908-2646, [email protected]

Image (top): Charlotte Living Room Project by Varian Shrum, a 2015 Emerging City Champion. Credit: Mert Jones.

To support civic engagement in Knight communities by enabling legal permanent residents to become naturalized citizens.

This is a request for funding for Channon Lemon and Jason Barnett for the travel costs and a small stipend to join a Saint Paul delegation to the country of Sweden.

To support the growth of the Catalyze SV (CSV) project, which brings together community members, civic leaders and developers to advance projects, by growing full-time staff and formalizing a model to create constructive civic engagement.