Perspectives

Grounds for Expression: Public Space, Participation & Democracy

Date Posted:

January 21, 2026

By:

Richmond Library, Photo: Rebuild

A reflection on the long and enduring relationship between public space and democracy in the year of America’s Semiquincentennial.

For over sixty years, the William Penn Foundation has supported the creation and improvement of parks, playgrounds, open spaces, trails, recreation centers, and libraries because we believe that access to the benefits of high-quality public space is an essential ingredient for healthy and vital communities. Among those benefits are opportunities for social connections and free expression, and positive impacts on mental and physical health.

Over the last two decades the Foundation has directly funded or helped to stimulate over $1 billion in public space improvements in Philadelphia. Highlights include helping to launch the city’s $500 million Rebuild Initiative that is renovating dozens of parks, recreation centers and libraries across the city; providing instrumental early planning and capital support for the new riverfront access parks, a 5-mile multi-use trail, and a renovated Penn’s Landing/I-95 cover park to implement the master plan for the Central Delaware Riverfront; and substantial funding in support of the pathways, boardwalks, and bridges that comprise the Schuylkill Banks trail system, linking the Art Museum to Bartram’s Garden.

We want all Philadelphians to enjoy the benefits of high-quality public spaces – especially those who have been denied opportunities due to past discrimination. We further believe that community-led efforts to organize, develop, build, and steward community spaces and assets can provide communities with opportunities to develop a stronger sense of agency and empowerment.

As part of our new grantmaking objectives launched in 2024, we are continuing our commitment to public space by pledging to support improvements to 100 hundred additional parks in Philadelphia over the next ten years. We are also committed to advocating for increased public support for parks and recreation in the city.

Philadelphia’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence provides both a moment and a reason to pause and more deeply explore the “social connections and free expression” benefits of public space that the Foundation values and supports.

While we believe that high-quality public spaces contribute significantly to the quality of community life in our neighborhoods, we also believe they contribute significantly to improving the quality of our civic life – upholding our democratic ideals by providing the physical places in which people can enact their citizenship through public assembly and public speech, and when necessary, public protest.

Historians trace the establishment of philosophy and the formation of early democratic politics in ancient Greece to the transition of religion and worship from the control of royalty and the nobility to that of a public office. In their introduction to Public Space and Democracy, Marcel Hénaff and Tracy B. Strong point out, “By carrying the mysteries [of religion] into the public marketplace, right into the agora…[philosophy and by extension democracy] is made the subject of public and argumentative debate, in which dialectic discussion finally assumed more importance than supernatural enlightenment”¹ from the oracles. Thus, “truth does not originate in secrecy but in public debate.”²

This critical shift from the mysteries of the temple to the public light of the agora also provided the “…shared knowledge [that] is precisely the fundamental requirement of democracy.”³ What was true for the ancient Greeks remains true today. The establishment and continuation of our modern democratic society is fundamentally dependent on the search for shared knowledge and truth through the vigorous exchange of ideas and diverse viewpoints in an open public debate, accessible to and inclusive of all members of our society.

To explore and stimulate greater interest the relationship between public space and democracy, the Foundation is sponsoring a series of essays that we are calling: Grounds for Expression: Public Space, Participation & Democracy. The essay series will feature a range of viewpoints on the relationship between public space, public participation, civic engagement, and democracy, including historical, legal, social, policy, and design perspectives. To further study and elevate this relationship, in 2026 the Foundation will also make a grant funding opportunity available to support model programming and projects in existing public spaces that encourage and promote public participation, civic engagement, and democracy-building.

As cities like ours navigate urgent questions about equity, declining trust in government and public institutions and diminished interest in civic engagement, voting, and volunteerism, public space has become more vital than ever in the effort to promote re-engagement and renewal of our democratic values. As we prepare to celebrate the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it seems appropriate to reflect on our Constitutionally guaranteed rights -- including our rights to gather in public space to exercise our freedom of speech – and to celebrate the long and enduring relationship between public space and democracy.