Discovery Trip – Civic Commons Conference
In August, our executive director Stephanie Phillips traveled along with other Philadelphia and regional Parks and non-profit representatives to the Pacific Northwest to meet with groups from across the nation for the Reimagining the Civic Commons conference. This trip allowed RNP to explore and assess the Civic Common’s four goals of civic engagement, socioeconomic mixing, environmental sustainability and value creation and how they might play into the landscape of the future riverfront park in Bridesburg.
Excursions and on-site visits during the conference reiterated the importance of an in-depth community engagement process to ensure that the public space being created is what the public wants, and reinforced the lesson that public spaces connect people not only to the outdoors, but to each other.