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Imagine Canal Park Community Launch Party Announced for September 12th, 4-7 PM

[Duluth, MN] – As part of the Imagine Duluth 2035 process, the City has been collaborating with interested residents, the Canal Park Business Association, as well as many others, to consider the future of Canal Park – what the City is calling Imagine Canal Park.  As a local, statewide, and regional destination, Canal Park has grown and changed over the past 30 years. The hope for the Imagine Canal Park process is to create a plan to build upon this great success, preserving what’s worked well, enhancing areas where we see low-hanging fruit, and addressing issues where we can do better.

In June, 2017, it was announced that Duluth had been selected as a 2017 Knight Cities Challenge winner. The Knight Cities Challenge, an initiative of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, seeks ideas that help make cities more vibrant places to live and work, focusing on three drivers of city success: keeping and attracting talent, expanding opportunity, and creating a culture of civic engagement. Duluth’s proposal was one of 33 winners selected from 144 finalists nationwide. The focus of the grant opportunity is on the Imagine Canal Park process – named “Making Canal Park Pop!”. The intent is to increase Duluth's vibrancy by re-purposing space in Canal Park with mega pop-up installations that attract and connect diverse residents from different backgrounds.

The City will be:

• Hosting extensive community engagement processes that canvas residents and neighbors about how they get to Canal Park and what they want to see/do in Canal Park.
• Launching a series of pop-up installments in Canal Park. Different programming will be tested in different seasons. Results and data will be gathered.
• Collecting quantitative measures and qualitative feedback to inform Imagine Duluth’s comprehensive plan update.

The goals are to:

• To increase usage of Canal Park year-round.
• To determine the best activities and programming that help to connect citizens of different backgrounds.
• To create common pedestrian oriented gathering spaces that build social capital and connections between people.

The Imagine Canal Park process will ultimately be incorporated in the Imagine Duluth 2035 planning document.

The Imagine Canal Park Community Launch Party will take place Tuesday, September 12th, from 4-7 p.m. in Canal Park (Public parking lot across Canal Park Drive from Little Angie's). This event is FREE and open to the whole community. We will have Imagine Stations for the public to share their thoughts on Canal Park as well as free food, games, and lots of family-friendly fun! Over the period of September 11-13^th, a team of representatives will be setting up pop-up survey boards and displays in various neighborhoods to collect public input about Canal Park.

Click here to see the Facebook event details. 

The project period commenced in July 2017 and will run through December 2018 with a final public report to be issued. The project team will be collaborating with Zeitgeist Center for Arts & Community, the Duluth Transit Authority, the Canal Park Business Association, Visit Duluth, 8 80 Cities, and many others. Learn more about Imagine Canal Park at http://www.imagineduluth.com/canalpark2/

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy.

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