This spring Franklin Park — a place of celebration, exploration, and play — reemerged with an expanded purpose.

The park nurtured our health and well-being, providing a spacious place to stretch our legs, mix with our community at a safe distance, or spend a quiet moment at a time when so many other shared spaces are off-limits. Its grounds also served as a venue and meeting place, where thousands of citizens gathered to voice their support for Black lives, justice, and change. Community, health, and activism are engrained in the park’s past, but they are brought to the forefront again in this moment by those who continue to shape and reinvent the park’s identity. Whether as a place to spread out or a space to come together and be heard, we are witnessing the park stretch and reach to do more. We support your passion, we respect your voices, and we share your ambition. 

As we move forward, we want to acknowledge a small, but meaningful change: the Franklin Park Master Plan will now be called the Franklin Park Action Plan. As we all look for tangible ways to take steps forward, we see this project as just that – a way to take action. We hope the new name will serve to remind us all that this process will make a difference – by and for the communities the park serves.   

While our time together has had to be delayed as we adapt our methods in response to the global pandemic, our team’s listening and exploration has continued. We have read your favorite memories and dreams in over 6,000 survey responses, worked to better understand the park’s history and its challenges, and uncovered what makes it special to so many. We want to share what we’ve learned and hear from you through an upcoming series of virtual engagement opportunities. We look forward to reconnecting soon and to carrying this plan forward to action with your participation.