Reimagining the Civic Commons supports Cincinnati’s efforts to complete The CROWN, connecting diverse people, building trust, and strengthening community in the Mill Creek Valley.

Reimagining the Civic Commons, a collaboration of national foundations and civic leaders dedicated to revitalizing public spaces, announced a three-year, $550,000 investment in Cincinnati today. This investment is part of ongoing support to complete the CROWN 34-mile urban trail loop.

In Cincinnati, the funding will support a cross-sector team working to advance The CROWN’s Mill Creek Greenway section from Northside to Lower Price Hill. Nationally, this investment is supporting teams of civic leaders across ten cities (including Cincinnati), all working to transform public spaces to counteract harmful trends facing America, from social isolation to economic segregation to climate change. The initiative’s innovative model supports changes in how communities design, manage, and program public spaces like parks, trails, community centers, libraries, and public gardens in ways that deliver critical social, economic, and environmental benefits.

“The CROWN urban trail loop is reconnecting Cincinnati and making it enjoyable to bike between neighborhoods and community assets,” said Wade Johnston, Executive Director of Tri-State Trails. “As this new linear park begins to positively transform our city for generations to come, we must act now to ensure that all residents can benefit and our community thrives together. Participating in the Civic Commons Learning Network is enabling Cincinnati leaders to learn from peer cities and implement best practices in future public space investments.”

Launched in 2016 in five cities and an initial $20 million investment, the initiative expanded to include additional cities in 2020. Participating cities receiving funding from this round of investment include Akron, Ohio; Camden, New Jersey; Cincinnati, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Lexington, Kentucky; Macon, Georgia; Memphis, Tennessee; Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and San José, California. This phase of the initiative, with an investment of nearly $10 million, is funded by The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Kresge Foundation.

“Many U.S. cities are seeking equitable redevelopment models for neighborhoods isolated by highways and railroads,” said Bridget Marquis, director of Reimagining the Civic Commons. “With a focus on connecting disinvested neighborhoods to nature, joy and opportunity, the Mill Creek Greenway effort is certain to become an inspiration for any city looking to restitch neighborhoods harmed by policies of the past.”

Concurrent with the investment announcement, Reimagining the Civic Commons also released reports showing impacts in three of the initiative’s longest-participating cities. Based on data-gathering efforts over eight years, the reports demonstrate that collaborative public space efforts in Akron, Detroit, and Memphis are improving neighborhoods and lives.  

Specifically, the data show:

• In Memphis, weekly yoga classes drew more than 5,000 diverse participants to the city’s revitalized riverfront in 2023, with people coming from 37 different zip codes across the region. Further, two-thirds of visitors to the city’s civic commons sites say they have met someone for the first time while there.
• In Akron’s Summit Lake neighborhood between 2017 and 2023, the percentage of residents who trust local institutions nearly doubled from 29% to 57%. 
• In Detroit’s Fitzgerald neighborhood, 94% of residents say the neighborhood has changed for the better in recent years, compared with just 34% in 2017; 97% feel hopeful about the neighborhood’s future. 

Tri-State Trails has been leading efforts to reconnect Cincinnati’s neighborhoods with The CROWN since 2015. After privately raising $10 million in 2021 to fund the local match for federal and state grants to connect the eastern 24 miles in The CROWN plan, Tri-State Trails has now set its focus on advancing the trail through the Mill Creek Valley. With funding from the Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation, Tri-State Trails facilitated Cincinnati’s cohort, joining the Civic Commons Learning Network in 2022. The collaborative public-private partnership aims to connect the existing Mill Creek Greenway trail in Northside to the Lick Run Greenway in South Fairmount and the Ohio River Trail West in Lower Price Hill.

With transformational infrastructure improvements on the horizon through projects like the Western Hills Viaduct, Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project, and more, completing The CROWN presents an opportunity to reconnect neighborhoods that have been bisected and segregated by I-75 and I-74 to each other, to the Mill Creek, and Cincinnati’s two largest employment hubs, Downtown and Uptown.

“The infrastructure investments planned in Cincinnati’s Mill Creek Valley are a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reconnect Cincinnati’s neighborhoods. We must prioritize making it safe for residents to walk and bike, or we will have missed the mark,” said City of Cincinnati Councilmember Meeka Owens.

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About Reimagining the Civic Commons. Reimagining the Civic Commons is an ambitious national initiative demonstrating that strategic investments in public spaces can connect people of all backgrounds, cultivate trust and create more resilient communities. It is a collaboration of The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, William Penn Foundation, and local partners. Find tools and inspiration for your city at civiccommons.us.