Cities can make parks feel safe and accommodating for housed and unhoused residents alike. A new toolkit shows what that looks like.

These past six months have been more challenging to downtowns than any I remember – and I’ve been working on, investing in and living in downtowns for almost half a century.  We are being asked to reconsider everything we believe about downtowns – why they are important, and how they work.

As coronavirus restrictions ease around the world, many consider a walk around their neighborhood for some fresh air to be a welcome break from confinement. However, socioeconomic status could greatly affect the landscapes people find on these strolls, particularly in how much green they are likely to see.

As summer comes to a close, while there are few positive things to say about 2020, one thing is certain: this is the year that so many of us around the world developed a newfound appreciation for being outdoors.

During a global pandemic when millions of people rarely leave their homes, our public parks, plazas, trails, greenways, and even sidewalks have become critical havens. In cities large and small, these public spaces are sustaining people in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few months ago. The importance of a robust, connected, and nature-rich public realm — a true civic commons — is clearer than ever.

“Every week in America, people like Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd have their lives stolen because their visibility in public space goes against the ways we’ve come to understand who should have access to ‘outside,’” - anthropologist and urban planner Destiny Thomas

The Harold Simmons Park Equitable Development Toolkit merges from the Trinity Park Conservancy’s mission to transform the Trinity River to become the heart of Dallas, fostering community development that brings the city together. Implicit in the Conservancy’s mission is a commitment to equity and equitable development.

Earlier this month, Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit that operates and manages the High Line in collaboration with New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, brought together leaders of 60 infrastructure reuse projects from the U.S. and Canada for a symposium titled “Economic Impact and Beyond.” Its goal was to examine if new public spaces, being created out of underutilized infrastructure, were incorporating equity considerations into their plans and explore strategies to ensure that benefits from such projects reach all communities.

The 11^th Street Bridge Park in Washington, D.C.—a planned repurposing of the retired 11^th Street Bridge across the Anacostia River between the East of the River neighborhoods and Capitol Hill into a vibrant city park—will connect communities and create new shared experiences across and along the Anacostia River. This innovative public-private partnership in the nation’s capital is re-connecting neighborhoods to the river’s banks and to each other.

Learn the 7 step process 11th Street Bridge Park took to create the their Equitable Development Plan & tips to create an inclusive-community driven plan of your own.