Eva Barnett is a long-time resident of Ogden’s East Central neighborhood. In her years of living just a block away from Lester Park, she has been a regular visitor to this park, often taking her kids to play on the now dilapidated playground or frequent the adjacent Weber County Library.
Encouraged by Ogden Civic Action Network’s community leaders program, Eva began to chat with her neighbors and quickly learned that nearly all were deeply concerned by the steep decline in the overall quality of the park, the absence of amenities and activities, and a general lack of engagement with this community asset from the neighborhood. So what did she do about it?
She got to work, like any loyal and true Ogdenite would.
Eva jumped into action to address these issues and to promote opportunities available to the city, residents and visitors of the park. She created the Thrive at Lester Park coalition, a group dedicated to connecting neighbors, sharing events, gathering feedback, and facilitating a collective vision for the park. Through several community conversations with neighbors and city officials, eventually soccer goals went in and fitness kits became available for check out at the main library and use at the park, bringing new life to this underutilized green space.
Ultimately, Eva aims to transform Lester Park into a safer, inviting gathering space that welcomes people of all ages, incomes, and backgrounds in an overarching effort to improve individual and community health and well-being year-round.
In Eva’s story, we can begin to understand the importance of grassroots, resident and community-led, coalition building to improve the vibrancy and vitality of our city’s public spaces and places. This invaluable work was catalyzed by her action as a community leader, sponsored by Ogden Civic Action Network’s larger effort to empower residents to enable change; block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood throughout Ogden City’s East Central area.
But residents like Eva don’t necessarily need a formal position or permission to engage in issues important to them. In fact, over the years, several grassroots coalitions to address critical civic issues in Ogden have emerged outside and apart from the City’s formal structures.
From Ogden 100 Community, Save the Union Station, a group dedicated to preserving green space in Ogden for recreational sports, a group dedicated to increasing engagement in the city’s redevelopment efforts, and more. This rise in engagement outside of the city’s formal structures is no surprise to us because, for three years now, the front doors of Ogden’s municipal building have been locked. This reality is a damning reflection of both the literal and metaphorical lack of access to - and engagement from - the city and its services for the residents and visitors of our incredible community.
This exponential rise in residents eager to engage in the city’s most crucial conversations in sincere and meaningful ways should serve as a signal to our city’s leadership that our strongest solutions to our most pressing challenges as a community are readily available should the city ask and listen. Yes, it’s that simple. It’s a lesson that we have learned firsthand over the many years of community engagement and coalition building that we have confronted together and in direct partnership with countless leaders from across the city.
Currently, there are many city-sponsored advisory committees in place, such as: the Diversity Commission, the Natural Resources and Sustainability Committee, the Strategic Planning Advisory Board and the Marshall White Advisory Board. That said, many resident volunteers have left these positions feeling defeated, underutilized and even frustrated.
Meanwhile, over the years, coalitions of people external to the city have emerged to address relevant issues the city has perhaps avoided confronting all together, be that the work of the Multicultural Task Force on COVID-19, the Save the Marshall White Coalition and Ogden CAN’s Community Leader Network. Some have seen great success as they work with their neighbors and with the city, and we believe that this can and should happen with greater frequency and for a larger impact.
In all of these examples, residents have spent countless hours, days even, engaged in meaningful and robust conversations with our community for the expressed benefit of everyone therein. In the words of scholar activist Anita Wadhwa, “Communities are rich, untapped reservoirs, filled with individuals typically overlooked, anonymous people who can often impact more than credentialed professionals.”
So what now? In the age of connectivity and information readily available with the touch of a screen or the click of a keyboard, there are proven strategies to meaningfully engage in conversations focused on solutions with our community.
For example, we could revive community councils throughout Ogden that emerge within smaller geographic footprints and are hyper focused on issues most impacting their neighborhoods. Or even consider expanding microgrants programs, like Ogden’s Neighbor Up Grant, for residents to engage in projects to beautify and improve their neighborhoods, and facilitate community events.
They could also install a flashing light at a pedestrian crosswalk - like Eva is currently spearheading in direct partnership with Ogden City officials and Ogden Civic Action Network along with private donations and grants.
These simple solutions would be proactive in engaging residents rather than having folks show up when they are impacted negatively by actions the city council and mayor are considering. These efforts would be a much more productive use of our time as a community and would help alleviate the stress of feeling left out of important conversations.
Let’s try some new and innovative solutions to engage residents with their local government! Doing so is a benefit to our entire city - in fact it is vital in addressing any challenge we face together.
Taylor Knuth
Taylor Knuth is a community advocate, deputy director of arts and culture within the Salt Lake City Department of Economic Development and a candidate for mayor of Ogden.
Angela Choberka
Angela Choberka serves on the Ogden City Council as well as with other community groups.
