A total of 15 park organizations—led by the High Line Network—partnered with researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Urban Institute to explore the potential of public space to bring benefits to our cities and towns. They did so with a commitment to equity in their work, delving into history, experimenting with ways to share power, and building systems to center community in their values and actions. This work resulted in the Community First Toolkit, a process and tools codifying a path to embed equity in public spaces for park practitioners.

Excitement was in the air as I entered a room. The occasion was the High Line Network Symposium, held in Detroit last Fall. Over 250 people attended, representing 47 projects converting roads, rails, rivers, and buildings, long languishing in their communities, into vibrant public spaces.

With loneliness on the rise in Toronto and cities worldwide, a new Bentway report shows that well-designed and programmed outdoor places must be part of the cure.

Spaces like Detroit’s Joe Louis Greenway are part of a growing urban trend: cities reclaiming previously industrial or abandoned land and transforming it into recreational areas.