My idea is to encourage cross-cultural engagement between park visitors and neighborhood residents through participatory activities at the Rail Park. The “Neighborhood Learning Lab” will build on community assets by inviting community members to teach skills to their neighbors, decentralizing traditional barriers to learning and communication such as language, age, background, and socioeconomic status. We will invite diverse applicants to put their skills on display and provide supplies, outreach, and stipends to those who want to lead workshops.

Through spring and summer, the Rail Park will host a series of these workshops which could take many forms — a Mahjong tournament one weekend, a salsa dancing class another, even a spoken word poetry slam. Through the Learning Lab, we will highlight the diversity of cultures and talents that make this community unique. In this new kind of public space, we will encourage people to experiment, step outside their comfort zone, and share experiences with someone they don’t yet know.