As legacy infrastructure is increasingly reimagined as civic space, a critical question emerges: who truly benefits from these new parks and greenways? Without intentional planning, infrastructure-reuse projects can accelerate “green gentrification,” displacing the very residents they aim to serve. But with deliberate community-preservation strategies like workforce development, these projects can instead become engines of inclusive economic growth—connecting residents to job training programs, leveraging public investment to secure local hiring commitments, and channeling new economic opportunities directly into communities.
This panel will share key insights from the High Line Network’s latest publication, Inspiration from the Field: Strategies and Tactics for Workforce Development, which documents 12 different workforce development programs. Panelists represent projects including 11th Street Bridge Park (Washington, D.C.), India Basin Waterfront Park (San Francisco), Trinity Park Conservancy (Dallas), The Riverline (Buffalo), and Grand River Corridor (Grand Rapids)—each testing scalable, replicable workforce models in high-demand fields like construction, hospitality, and more.