This October, Brightmoor resident Marlin Franklin went camping in a unique spot– right in his own Detroit neighborhood at
Eliza Howell Park.
Accompanying him were his son and two grandchildren, and this was their first camping trip.
Franklin, who is the digital manager for Brilliant Detroit and a Boy Scout leader, is emblematic of the neighborhood involvement which is transforming Eliza Howell Park.
“Experiencing Eliza Howell Park in this way was very refreshing. It was a really cool experience.” Franklin says.
Franklin liked the wilderness feel, both fun and exciting, but was glad in the chilly morning to head to a local grocery store for coffee.
Once a neglected site, Eliza Howell is an anchor project of
Sidewalk Detroit, a nonprofit which helps community members envision their spaces and connect through public art. Sidewalk’s intense work with neighbors and its partnership with the city have spurred infrastructure improvements and programming and breathed new life into this 250-acre city park along northwest Detroit’s Rouge River.
Franklin’s urban camping tale is a far cry from how residents encountered the park a few years ago.
Sophie Stockum, now of Athens, Ohio, recalls the state of Eliza Howell when they first moved to Detroit in 2014. Although walking their dogs on nature trails in the middle of the city felt “magical,” Sophie recounts, “I really didn’t go into the main part of the park because I was always told it was dangerous. There was no infrastructure, and the road was destroyed and regularly flooded. That part of the park didn’t exist in my imagination.”
Investing in relationships
Sidewalk’s relationship with Eliza Howell Park traces back to 2015, when executive director Ryan Myers-Johnson, then a Brightmoor resident, initiated informal conversations with neighbors.
Augusta Morrison, Sidewalk Detroit’s program director, recalls what was learned: “What we saw in Brightmoor is what we’re seeing with public art and space-making across the city. Neighbors are like, ‘Let’s get the foundational things [in the park] done first and then we can move into more beautiful additions.’”
Two years later, Stockum and Myers-Johnson built on those early conversations and convened a more formal 10-person Community Leadership Team to create a concept plan for the park.
“We met monthly,” says Stockum, “in the park when we could. We walked through a process of figuring out what people wanted in that space, how they used it and would like to use it."
Sidewalk Detroit did some broader outreach, such as a few larger events to get more feedback. "But those ten folks served as representatives to dig into the deeper conversations around park usage,” says Stockum.
The Community Leadership Team reflected Sidewalk Detroit’s approach to community engagement, which begins with deep investment in relationships with neighbors and local organizations.
Stockum recalls, “Around 20 people applied, and we thought about which area of the neighborhood they came from, whether we could get a broad array of people with unique perspectives. We did one-on-one interviews. We wanted as diverse a group as possible to talk about the different interests that would serve them in the community.”
A
planning grant from Kresge Foundation provided stipends for participants of the Community Leadership Team, an important aspect of the model in an under-resourced area where neighbors are often asked to contribute time without financial compensation.
Foundational needs and beautiful additions
Since 2017, guided by community involvement and Sidewalk Detroit’s partnership with the city, Eliza Howell Park has seen steady growth in infrastructure improvement and public programming.
The city has invested heavily in the park, notably with a
2023 project to improve drainage and restructure the 1.3-mile paved loop through the park which in the past was nearly impassable in places. Detroit’s
2022 Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan earmarks significant resources for Eliza Howell, acknowledging its attraction to all Detroiters as a regional park.
Regarding infrastructure improvements, Nicky Marcot, Eliza Howell Park strategist for Sidewalk Detroit, says, “Ultimately all decisions go to the city, but the relationship is back-and-forth. The city will soon begin a master planning process. Sidewalk has been hired as a contractor for community engagement. They come to us as the voice of the community, and we go to them with proposed improvements.”
As the city tends to the park’s foundational needs, beautiful additions and creative programming draw more visitors.
The entrance to the park is now adorned with the striking ‘stickwork’ sculpture, co-created with hundreds of Detroiters when Sidewalk Detroit hosted eco-artist
Patrick Dougherty in 2021. Earlier this year, Detroit artist
Halima Afi Cassells enlisted volunteers to partake in a Rouge River clean-up and create art from rescued materials to draw attention to waterway health.
Regular workshops and events also attract hundreds of participants throughout the year.
Envisioning the future
Eliza Howell Park looks poised to continue to benefit from the partnership between community members and the city.
Sidewalk Detroit convened a new advisory committee in September 2024, drawing on the voices of 12 community members, including Marlin Franklin, to further shape infrastructure and programming in the park.
Youth involvement is an early priority of the advisory committee, which asked what Eliza Howell offers to residents ages 15-21. In response, a trail-keeping event was held in conjunction with Detroit Community School, a charter school on Burt Road, in November, and a trail maintenance program for young people is in the planning stages.
In addition, neighborhood representatives met with the city in November to recommend physical improvements for an area slated to be a sledding hill.
Nicky Marcot looks forward to what the future holds for Eliza Howell. “My dream is of a park that is utilized frequently by families who feel comfortable and connected to their community and the natural world. We have come a long way and will continue the work.”
Resilient Neighborhoods is a reporting and engagement series examining how Detroit residents and community development organizations work together to strengthen local neighborhoods. It's made possible with funding from The Kresge Foundation.