Public Space: Public Good

What does it look like to invest in public space and the surrounding neighborhood? As the Friends of the Rail Park(FRP) embark on the beginning stages of their Community First Plan, they are looking to other parks and partners that challenge the status quo of what benefits parks provide to their communities. While the environmental, social, and health-related benefits of parks are often communicated to residents, many cities are starting to think innovatively around how to leverage the public and private investment generated by major public space projects in service of neighborhood preservation and community driven development.

FRP’s Executive Director, Rebeccca Cordes Chan, will be joined by Scott Kratz of Washington D.C.’s 11th Street Bridge Park  - an exceptional model harnessing the opportunity created by this scale of project’s investment to develop foundational policies and programs to benefit current residents and neighbors. As cities become denser, infrastructure reuse projects such as the Rail Park and 11th Street Bridge Park are becoming more common. Kira Strong, the Senior Program Director of the High Line Network, connects these infrastructure reuse projects and the people building them to provide best practices and a community to rely on. The High Line Network’s Community First Toolkit is an incredible primer for public space projects of all kinds, helping to ensure parks across the nation have the resources to embed equity and inclusive development principles into public space. 

Together these three will discuss their experiences, the challenges and opportunities ahead for the Rail Park in creating their equitable development plan, what could that look like here in Philadelphia, and how Philadelphians can get involved.