Building Community Infrastructure that Fosters Belonging & Connection
October 6, 2023 Boston Chamber of Commerce
The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and Arup convened a panel, “Shaping a Better World Together: A Discussion on Building Community Infrastructure,” as part of the Fierce Urgency of Now (FUN) Festival 2023. Each year, the festival, organized by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s young professional platform, City Awake, brings together more than 1,000 diverse, young professionals of color and allies for 30+ transformative events. The panel was focused on what types of spaces and infrastructure communities of color need, how they can be built and supported, and what challenges exist in creating more of them.
The theme for this panel was born out of a recent visit one of the panelists, Michaelson Joseph from Arup, made to the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill. The home of the Boston abolitionist movement, this house became the center of civic engagement. It was a space where residents could foster connections to one another, a space where the abolitionists could envision what they wanted to do and planned their raids in. It was a safe and resilient space. As Michaelson said, “we need to imagine a world before we can build it.”
The panelists shared that today, these kinds of spaces to foster connection include places like: a literary gathering space/bookstore in Dorchester called Words as Worlds, a co-working/living space for women of color to learn technical skills, G{Code} House, and a business incubation space, the Roxbury Innovation Lab.
From community infrastructure success stories to Boston’s biggest needs, and what involving community looks like, the panel covered a myriad of topics. Here are the key takeaways:
It is critical to invite the community into the process
Bridgette Wallace, founder of G{Code} House, knows the power of spaces to keep young people engaged in a community. An urban planner and community advocate, Bridgette has been working most recently to tackle the STEM gender gap through the founding of G{Code} House. Knowing the high skepticism residents can have (from her experience with the Roxbury Innovation Center) when things happen in a community and folks don’t feel like they are a part of them, she involves the community in re-designs of the buildings when she creates community spaces. She also invites the community to the meetings.
Wendell Joseph, a transit planning engineer at Toole, adds that while “infrastructure is straightforward, community is not. It can be a product and a process.” Just as the African Meeting House was a product of its time, work needs to respond to its context and be imagined and built dynamically. Communities need to be intentional about creating space and allow residents to “lend a hand in shaping collective futures.”
Somala Diby of DVM Consulting and project manager at affordable housing developer TLee Development defines the success of community spaces as “beautiful places that people feel connected to build from processes that engage people.” Somala leads the Alliance Housing Initiative and often works to balance community imagination and constraints—from financial to typography—on development projects.
While involving community used to look like talking with people in the library or on the street and inviting them to in-person meetings in Senior buildings in town, post-COVID, technologies like apps that tell people what is happening in the community are more commonplace and can pose a challenge to keeping citizens engaged directly in the planning processes.
Non-commercial community spaces are so important
As Boston is pushed to its limit to accommodate residents, there are narrowing roadways and less greenspace. “In inner city neighborhoods,” Bridgette says, “the density can be overwhelming.” She says that “the addition of affordable houses should be “balanced with focus on the whole person, including their mental health, the ability to engage with parks, etc.” Franklin Park is one example she cites of a community fighting the tide to keep the space a park. She also cites a lack of places to work, hang out or even access Wi-Fi, like coffee shops, as a challenge in parts of Boston’s inner city.
Somala adds that more flexible community spaces where residents don’t have to spend money are needed. There is a “shrinking of insurgent spaces” and organic use of community space has often been replaced by space being programmed. There needs to be a balance, Somala points out, between “leaving spaces alone, and not neglecting them.”
Wendell adds that in order for the community to take advantage of space, it often comes with a registration/permit requirement. There is a hoop to jump through, whether it is the registration process itself, or a transaction required to use the space. This, he says, “gets in the way of community” which has an insurgent nature and needs an outlet.
Designers Need to Humanize the End User
Urban planning, by definition, was planning to solve societal ills. Wendell points out that this started with slum clearance and happened “top down and didn’t involve communities.” Realistically though, design is a function of community. As such, there needs to be an element of humility and flexibility in the design process, Wendell says. Somala adds that often “engineers and architects don’t have a pulse on the community” and need to humanize the end-users who are going to be living in or using the space.
Place is an emotion. For communities of color there is history tied to places and as Bridgette says, “he who writes history controls the future.” As we design communities, let’s invite the members in, humanize them in the design processes and ensure that they have spaces to convene, be, and foster connection.
ABOUT THE EVENT HOST
Arup is a global collective of designers, engineering and sustainability consultants, advisors, and experts dedicated to sustainable development, and to using imagination, technology and rigour to shape a better world.
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