Equitable development is the primary focus of Building Bridges Across the River, the nonprofit organization behind the 11th Street Bridge Park project in Washington, D.C. The nonprofit has attracted the attention of major funders to support the implementation of the park’s equitable development plan.
Building Bridges Across the River, the District Department of Transportation, and OMA+OLIN updated community members on the project’s progress and introduced some minor changes to the park’s design.
Leon Waddy grew up in the District’s Shaw neighborhood in the ’80s and ’90s, but he doesn’t recognize much of it these days. African American residents used to make up 90 percent of the neighborhood. Today, they’re less than 50 percent.
Washington D.C.’s Wards 6 and 8 are right next to each other, but the two could not be more different.
The 11th Street Bridge Park will physically connect both sides of the Anacostia River. It’s a 1,200-foot-long, pedestrian-only expanse that will let people stroll between Capitol Hill and Anacostia.
It goes without saying that building bridges connects things, both literally and figuratively.
Cities are finding new ways to invest in social infrastructure, helping to bridge gaps among diverse socioeconomic groups and foster a greater sense of community.
As development continues to transform the District, more eyes are turning east of the Anacostia River, a longtime bastion of affordable housing in the city which also contains some of its most-neglected and overlooked communities.
When Robert Hammond first conceived of turning a disused elevated railway on Manhattan’s West Side into a high-design “linear park,” he thought it would attract maybe 300,000 visitors a year.
