Giving Compass' Take:

• In this Medium post, Carol Coletta from The Kresge Foundation discusses the complications of investing in community development projects, while still being mindful of equity and displacement.

• Action items in this article point to Civic Commons tools for nonprofits and funders to use in order to make sure that everyone shares in the benefits of public spaces.

• Here's how Philadelphia in particular is building a stronger city through public spaces.

There is a debate raging today in America’s cities. How do we invest in neighborhoods without causing prices to skyrocket and displacing residents? Does new investment inevitably result in “gentrification” or displacement? Is gentrification even relevant in slow-growth cities? Who speaks for communities, especially when communities are always changing? And what do we do about the fact that today there are three times as many high poverty neighborhoods in large U.S. cities than in 1970?

Reimagining the Civic Commons was created to revitalize sleepy civic assets that exist in all our communities  —  libraries, parks, recreation centers, community centers, trails, lakes, rivers and streams, streets and sidewalks, even vacant land. We aim to demonstrate that the right investments in these public places can positively impact the social, economic and environmental circumstances of people in neighborhoods. We have four main goals, and one of them  —  to invest in public places in ways that increase economic value in surrounding neighborhoods  —  has caused us to consider how to capture this value for the benefit of existing residents, those who call these neighborhoods home.

We recognize that great placemaking is not just about what can be seen. It is also about the who, the how and the why. It directly calls the question: Who are we building places for and to what end?

Read the full article about transforming civic assets for everyone by Carol Coletta at The Kresge Foundation, via medium.com.