ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 City officials, community leaders and a representative from the Bezos Earth Fund on Saturday unveiled renderings for a renovation of Franklin Park, a 1.1-acre neighborhood space west of 14th Street between Chew and Turner streets, according to The Allentown Parknership.<\/p>\n
The plan calls for two playgrounds, a pavilion with restrooms, community garden beds, a full-size basketball court, a splash pad, exercise equipment, seating and game tables, a bike station, an open lawn and more than 40 trees, the Parknership said.<\/p>\n
The project is funded by a $4 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund\u2019s Greening America\u2019s Cities initiative to the Parknership, the city\u2019s official charitable partner for its Parks and Recreation Department. The Bezos Earth Fund announced the grant in a July 7 release naming Allentown as one of eight cities sharing $100 million in second-round funding under the initiative.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo earlier this summer we were able to announce the next group of cities that will be receiving support through this initiative,\u201d said Diana Johnson, senior manager of Greening America\u2019s Cities at the Bezos Earth Fund. \u201cWe have eight cities in total, and we are very thrilled that Allentown is one of those cities. Through a $4 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund, the Allentown Partnership and the city of Allentown will lead the transformation of Franklin Park into a greener, cooler, and more welcoming space.\u201d<\/p>\n
The design unveiling preceded Saturday\u2019s \u201cParty in the Park,\u201d a community celebration from noon to 3 p.m. coordinated by Ripple Community Inc. with Cohesion Network, Community Bike Works, Ripple Church and other neighborhood groups, drawing more than 200 neighbors for food, games, entertainment and neighborhood resources, according to the Parknership.<\/p>\n
![\"Aerial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Franklin-Park-Rendering-1600x1200.png\")
The master plan for Franklin Park\u2019s $4 million renovation, designed by Simone Collins Landscape Architecture for the City of Allentown, lays out a splash pad, two playgrounds, a full-size basketball court, community garden beds and a pavilion across the park\u2019s 1.1 acres. (Simone Collins Landscape Architecture \/ City of Allentown)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis park is going to help us move that dial from resident to neighbor,\u201d said Darian Colbert, founder and executive director of Cohesion Network, one of the groups behind Saturday\u2019s event. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a difference. People just reside in the community, but once they see investments, seeing they\u2019re no longer neglecting them, we\u2019re out there engaging them, we get to move that dial from residents to neighbors, and then people get to be neighborly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a demonstration of the ability of city government to work with philanthropic organizations and nonprofits alongside residents to meet the needs of our entire community,\u201d Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk said. \u201cFranklin Park shows us what happens when community organizations, city government, philanthropy, and others work alongside residents to achieve a shared vision. The park improvements are a huge win for the neighborhood, but the biggest success is empowered residents who know that they have a partner in improving the place that they live.\u201d<\/p>\n
The park serves more than 16,000 residents within a mile in one of the city\u2019s most heat-vulnerable areas, the Parknership said. It was once home to Franklin Elementary School, which operated from 1888 to 1967, and has since served as a community gathering space, according to the release.<\/p>\n
For more than 20 years, residents and groups have organized in the neighborhood under the Our Franklin Park coalition, which now includes more than 10 organizations, according to the Parknership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis $4 million investment gives us an extraordinary opportunity to build on years of community stewardship and create a park that better supports the way people already gather, play, and connect here,\u201d said Sherri Binder, executive director of Ripple Community Inc.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be a phenomenal park when it\u2019s done,\u201d said Ruffian Tittmann, the Parknership\u2019s executive director. \u201cI think it\u2019s really an amazing asset for the residents here and a real example of what\u2019s possible when we bring together our municipal government, community partners, and residents, and then philanthropic efforts on top of it. So I\u2019m thrilled.\u201d<\/p>\n
The grant is the largest the Parknership has received since it was launched in 2024, according to the organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 City officials, community leaders and a representative from the Bezos Earth Fund on Saturday unveiled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-285193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}