WELCOME SLIDE Civic Commons Studio #1 December 6 8, 2016 Civic - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

WELCOME SLIDE

Welcome to Philadelphia

Civic Commons Studio #1 December 6 – 8, 2016

Civic Commons Philadelphia: Physical Assets

Civic Commons Philadelphia Centennial Commons East Parkside

Centennial Commons East Parkside

Civic Commons Philadelphia Viaduct Rail Park Callowhill /Chinatown

Viaduct Rail Park Callowhill / Chinatown

Viaduct Rail Park Callowhill / Chinatown

Civic Commons Philadelphia Bartram’s Mile Southwest Philadelphia

Bartram’s Mile Southwest Philadelphia

Civic Commons Philadelphia Discovery Center Strawberry Mansion

Discovery Center Strawberry Mansion

Lovett Library and Park Neighborhood: Mount Airy

Civic Commons Philadelphia Lovett Library & Park

• Mt. Airy

Lovett Library & Park

• Mt. Airy

Civic Commons Philadelphia: People Are Critical Assets

Reimagining the Civic Commons Case Study: Bartram’s Garden

• Model of programming that leads to social

and economic integration

• Risk-taking part of organizational culture
• Civic engagement core to the mission
• Cross neighborhood connections

Reimagining the Civic Commons Case Study: Bartram’s Garden

• Data shows good mixing

around overall events and number of different program areas – ex: boating and getting people back to the river

• Opportunities with other

activities (fishing, nature watching) that are solely local or external visitors

Reimagining the Civic Commons Case Study: Bartram’s Garden

Learning from the Commons: Innovation Fund

Innovation Fund goals: Collaboration Integration Learning

Try, fail, share, inspire, but most of all - learn

Learning from the Commons: Neighborhood Exchange Boxes

If a Philadelphia neighborhood could send a gift box to another neighborhood, filled with all of the things that make its community unique, what would go in the box?

Learning from the Commons: Neighborhood Exchange Boxes

• MT. AIRY USA FINDINGS
• Most visitors were local; very diverse
• 53% learned about the event through

word of mouth

• Over 50% had never been to

Bartram’s Garden

• 41% used Lovett Library regularly

prior to its closing BARTRAM’S GARDEN FINDINGS

• Most visitors were local
• Half learned about it through social

media or on our website.

• 63% did not know about or visited

the Viaduct Rail Park LEARNINGS

• Asking how to identify your neighborhood as unique

created opportunity for neighborhood pride – how to measure this joy?

• How do we continue this energy with projects in active

construction?

• How to better cross-collaborate to promote distant assets?
• Experiential Learnings: survey data – hard to measure kids;

creating spectacle brings people in; allow opportunities for people to linger

Learning from the Commons: Viola Alley Connector Project

How can we bring creative placemaking into the neighborhood to employ skills from across civic assets, enliven a community space, generate foot traffic, share community stories and activate underutilized space?

Activity: Takeover of an alley to create a gateway of art, information, and programming

Learning from the Commons: Viola Alley Connector Project

• 500 attendees passed through the alley / adjacent lot
• Findings: Good mix of visitors in and out of neighborhood; most met someone new; word of mouth best

promotion

• Learnings:
• How can we integrate this programming into other local civic assets? Centennial Commons, Letitia
• How do we use prototyping as an engagement tool – this event got more people out asking questions

and engaged, how do we maintain momentum? Experiential learnings: seating @ tabling events; condensed spaces & picnic tables encourage interaction

Learning Themes

• Utilization of assets
• Perception of asset / neighborhood
• Economic integration
• Civic engagement
• Political/public support
• Talent attraction/retention
• Collaboration among Collective partners
• Growth of Collective

Reimagining the Civic Commons: Strategies

Civic Commons Collective

• Learning Exchanges: share knowledge and expertise among partners
• Learning Labs: learn from international experts
• Learning Journeys: travel to other cities for hands-on learning from colleagues
• Innovation Fund: field-leader driven programming and prototyping for

collaborative learning

Reimagining the Civic Commons: Partnership Structure

Civic Commons Steering Committee Civic Commons Collective & Innovation Fund

• Bartram’s Mile: Bartram’s Garden, Schuylkill River Development Corporation
• Centennial Commons: Fairmount Park Conservancy; Philadelphia Parks &

Recreation

• Discovery Center: Audubon PA; Outward Bound
• Lovett Library & Park: Free Library of Philadelphia; Mt. Airy USA
• Reading Terminal Market
• Viaduct Rail Park: Center City District

Neighborhood organizations connected to the assets:

• Centennial Parkside CDC
• Friends of the Rail Park
• Strawberry Mansion CDC

Learning from the Commons: Challenges & Opportunities Challenges Opportunities How do you deepen?

• Collaboration
• Integration
• Learning
• Communication (!)

Deepen the Commons further into the neighborhoods; among the partners How do you broaden?

• Learning
• Organization participation
• Communication

Establish broader network of organizations and learning partners, reach more neighborhoods How do you scale?

• Hyper-local
• City-wide

Scale up - Rebuild as citywide Civic Commons Opportunity

One of Mayor Kenney’s five proposed investments to address the city of Philadelphia’s largest and most crippling problems $300 million in bonds + $200 million from public/private sources = $500 million investment in parks, recreation centers, and libraries over six years

Rebuilding Community Infrastructure

Rebuilding Civic Infrastructure

Learning from the Commons: Questions We Hope To Gain Insight On Learning & Communication

• How do you make time for learning when the demands are so big? How do

you make time to communicate learning across platforms? Capacity & Resources

• How to build dynamic team infrastructure across neighborhoods and
• rganizations? How can we be inclusive without overtaxing?

Scaling up

• How to influence citywide strategy with limited resources and capacity? How

do we make this sustainable long-term?

Questions?

Thank you!

Questions? Please feel free to follow up with us Jennifer Q. Mahar: 215-607-3487 jmahar@myphillypark.org