Fitzgerald neighborhood to receive $4M grant through ‘Reimagining the Civic Commons’

A couple months ago, we reported on efforts underway in the Fitzgerald neighborhood to improve land use, quality of life, and property value. The neighborhood is receiving a $4 million grant under the Reimagining the Civic Commons program, and the city says it has matching funds invested, totaling $8 million.

Four national foundations—The JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation—are investing a total of $20 million in four different cities (Akron, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, and Philadelphia) around the country. The program aims to revitalize and connect public spaces such as parks, libraries, trails, and community centers, thus creating experiences and spaces where people of all backgrounds can exchange ideas and address common problems, while making cities more environmentally sustainable in the process.

The University of Detroit Mercy and Marygrove College serve as anchors for this neighborhood and program.

The plan will create a greenway through the Fitzgerald neighborhood, revitalize old, vacant commercial structures on Livernois, and increase civic engagement in the neighborhood. An extensive plan can be found here.

To provide tools and grow the resources needed to reknit communities across the country, Reimagining the Civic Commons will support a national Civic Commons Learning Network to coordinate a learning agenda, impact assessment, and storytelling across the five demonstration cities. It will host cross-city learning opportunities and generate a series of toolkits to act as how-to resources for civic asset and city leaders in demonstration cities and beyond.

• Fitzgerald Revitalization Project Aims to Improve Housing, Land Use [Curbed Detroit]
• Reimagining the Civic Commons