The Vistria Group’s Post

WHITE SOX MUST STAY IN BRIDGEPORT! Absolutely agree with this article here. The potential relocation of the Chicago White Sox's stadium isn't just about sports; it's a pivotal moment for addressing the issues of urban disinvestment and neglect that upon communities on the South Side for decades. Rather than abandoning Bridgeport, the White Sox have an opportunity to catalyze positive change by reinvesting in the community and leveraging public-private partnerships for sustainable revitalization. The potential benefits are immense, from job creation to enhanced cultural vibrancy, and from improved infrastructure to environmental stewardship. 35th street and certain parking lots along the train tracks can be reimagined with bars, restaurants, shops and much more, creating a destination. Instead, investing in the existing Bridgeport location presents a unique opportunity for transformative change. The idea of repurposing the stadium as a multipurpose facility, complemented by year-round programming and community engagement, is not just visionary but essential for fostering economic growth and social cohesion. Furthermore, the potential for innovative urban design, as mentioned, decking over the Dan Ryan Expressway to create green space, exemplifies the kind of forward-thinking approach needed to revitalize urban areas sustainably while bridging the divide of communities. Ultimately, keeping the White Sox in Bridgeport isn't just about preserving a sports venue; it's about revitalizing an entire community and setting a precedent for inclusive urban development for generations to come. The loss of the White Sox in Bridgeport is a loss for the entire south side as a whole! Let's seize this opportunity to create a more equitable and vibrant South Side.

"Want to fight gun violence? Social Justice is a walk in the park." Read this insightful op-ed from our President and CEO, Brooke Pardue. https://hubs.ly/Q0234jZ20 In the piece, Brooke covers: 🌳 The benefits of greenspace 💰 Louisville's historic disinvestment in our public parks system 🗺️ Our roadmap, along with commitments from Mayor Greenberg and Louisville Metro council, to provide quality parks accessible for all "So, we spent three years working with national experts on 'Parks For All,' a 15-year strategy to drive equitable investment in our public park system, ensuring parks in all neighborhoods will see some degree of improvement, but substantial funding will flow first to neighborhoods that need them most." Read more about our Parks For All plan: https://lnkd.in/gKN_ziQv

Democracy is a lot bigger than any 🗳 single election, and it's bigger than our ⚖ political system. As we experience extreme levels of toxic polarization, division, and loneliness in this country, each of us needs to orient our work (and life) in a way that 🤝 strengthens democratic norms, processes, and cultures in our local communities. I'm thrilled to see Trust for Public Land's 🔬 latest research and thinking on the pivotal role that 🏞 parks play in fostering democracy, justice, and social cohesion published in 📑 the Stanford Social Innovation Review last week. In the article, my co-authors and I highlight powerful case studies that demonstrate how parks serve as vital spaces for community engagement, activism, and the cultivation of democratic values through activities like community organizing, land stewardship, and creative placemaking. Each of us has a part to play in making our democracy work. And I promise you don't have to look much farther than your local park to get involved and take action. 💚 🌳 👊

Parks are where we walk and jog, children enjoy playgrounds, and people meet for social gatherings. They are also a starting point for building community power and strengthening democracy.   The Trust for Public Land developed a framework for enabling local communities to decide how to renovate their green spaces and found that organizing communities to redesign their parks galvanized residents to connect on other issues of shared concern. What started as a parks project became an exercise in community power building and democratic enrichment: “Communities build relationships with their environment and with each other, coalesce around a place-based identity grounded in their shared passion, and ultimately consolidate and exercise community power to transform residents’ lives for the better.” 🌳In SSIR’s new summer issue, Geneva Vest, Cary Simmons, and Howard Frumkin share more about the framework and ways to nurture civic engagement and a thriving democracy through our parks and green spaces ➡ https://lnkd.in/e8bgMN3X #socialinfrastructure #parks #democracy

In the “what-can-we-learn-from-others” category, today we visit City of Akron, Ohio, and this article on how public spaces are critical to building community and trust. We see this issue time and again in City of Detroit. Projects such as I-375 in Downtown Detroit are great example. We can’t fix the past, but we can learn from the past to inform our current actions and help heal the wounds. The Downtown Detroit Partnership has long advocated building community across our city and region. Our leadership in planning inclusive spaces is helping drive social equity and drive economic growth not just in the urban core but across neighborhoods. We must engage in authentic, thoughtful, collaborative planning or we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over. As attributed to Albert Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” #DowntownDet, #WMIH, #UrbanInnovation https://lnkd.in/gch2mnsi

Recently discovered the work by the Prevention Institute on the need for park equity, and appreciate their poignant outline of park benefits and strategies to promote park equity. Recommend visiting their work (https://lnkd.in/gbTTYQGE) on goals and actions to support this work. *Below is my imperfect attempt at the takeaways due to word count limits.* - Fund community-based organizations that work in and with park-poor communities to undertake organizing and other power-building strategies to change the structural policies and systems that created park inequities... - Increase local, state, and federal funding allocations for green space and recreation services, prioritizing areas of high need.   - Advocate for formal recognition by relevant government agencies of the existence of park inequities and impacts on specific populations...   - Enact local, state, and federal policies that prioritize budget allocations to reverse inequities in the distribution of park space.   - Secure commitments from sponsors of state and local conservation finance measures (e.g., bonds, assessments, etc.) to include line item funding to ameliorate park and recreation inequities...   - Ensure community input in selecting, designing, and improving parks and green spaces...   - As part of park development efforts, examine the potential for displacement of long term residents, especially renters, and proactively incorporate anti-displacement strategies...   - Conduct comprehensive park needs assessments... to document park inequities and evaluate the efficacy of potential sites and strategies to alleviate them.   - Acquire small and non-traditional parcels in park-poor areas—such as vacant lots, alleyways, public utility right of ways, and unnecessarily wide streets...   - Ensure that parks are safe and welcoming places for people to socialize and be physically active. Pay special attention to the needs of low-income individuals and families, people of color, non-English speakers, older adults, people with disabilities, and women... - Collaborate across sectors... to maximize the reach and effectiveness of park advocacy and planning efforts. Develop partnerships... to expand free and low-cost recreational options. https://lnkd.in/gbTTYQGE

It can be done.

📢 Attention Rondo Community‼️ 📢 Yesterday, the Star Tribune published an article by Our Street Minneapolis discussing i94 and the #RONDO neighborhood. Just two days prior, Asian Media Access released an article about the new Sears development, which includes a RONDO mall on the first floor. Surprisingly, none of us from the Rondo community have been consulted about these developments. This land is originally Rondo descendant land, as it was initially an army base where Quonset Huts for black families resided before the Sears development. This land belongs to the Rondo Community Covenant! It’s concerning to see organizations trying to leverage and capitalize on our families’ lineage and history without involving US in the conversation. Now more than ever, it’s crucial for us to show up and control the narrative. We can’t afford to sit back and watch others use our history for their own benefits. Moreover, the developers and consultants behind this project, such as Kimley-Horn , Seritage, and S9, along with Cedarleaf Dahl, have a history of gentrifying neighborhoods. They are just money-hungry organizations that are not working for the best interests of communities. If they want our voice, we need to ask ourselves, what are we getting in return? Let’s come together, raise our voices, and demand our rightful place in these discussions. Our history, our community, our future – let’s ensure WE are respected and honored. #RondoCommunity #ControlTheNarrative #ProtectOurHistory

Here's a nice Axios piece on ParkScore--and on the role of parks and greenspace in connecting people with each other, combatting loneliness, promoting civic engagement, growing social capital, strengthening communities, and enabling democracy. Trust for Public Land https://lnkd.in/gJqKCT-S

Increasing park equity is a central part of what we do everyday here at Texas Children in Nature Network. "Neighborhood residents, city planners, parks departments, health professionals, and funders all have important roles to play in establishing park equity and building equitable green spaces in their communities. It’s critical that those closest to the problem with lived experience of the inequities at hand are the same people shaping solutions. This means building power, not just parks." https://lnkd.in/gRsFiDfe