Southside Creekways Summit invites community to learn what’s next and guide the project’s future

Back to News Search
- August 31, 2026

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The City of Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation Department invites residents, business owners and neighborhood groups to the free, family-friendly Southside Creekways Project Summit Sept. 9. At the summit, attendees can explore the project process, learn how community feedback guides City projects and help shape the next phase of one of the City’s most significant neighborhood trail efforts.

What: Southside Creekways Project Summit

When: Noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9

Where: MLK Park Community Center, 900 Fuller Ave. SE

The Southside Creekways project is a community-led effort to build a safer, more connected trail network along the Silver Creek and Plaster Creek corridors. The project works to improve neighborhood connections, support active living and transportation and strengthen economic opportunities in southeast Grand Rapids.

The summit marks an important step in the planning process. It brings together residents, project partners and community leaders to review what the team has learned, discuss new ideas and continue building a shared vision for the future of the Southside Creekways. Attendees may come and go as their schedules allow.

Summit attendees will be able to:

  • Learn about the project’s progress and next steps
  • Explore proposed concepts and possible trail connections
  • Meet members of the Community Leadership Team, City staff and project partners
  • Visit City department tables during the resource fair

Event schedule:

  • Noon – Doors open
  • 12:30 to 7:30 p.m. – Resource fair
  • 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. – Opening discussion and presentation
  • 3 to 4 p.m. – Breakout sessions 1A and 1B
    • For You, By You - Join this session if you are interested in hearing how arts, recreation, and community building organizations have and will continue to impact the Southside through the creekways.
    • Develop With Us – Join this session if you are interested in hearing about the future of development in the Southside and how Southsiders can be part of it
  • 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. – Breakout sessions 2A and 2B
    • Actions vs. Words – Join this session if you are interested in hearing about how the Creekways will be built and how long that will take.
    • Own It – Join this session if you are interested in hearing about how the Creekways will be maintained and how community members can claim ownership of the Creekways after they are built.
  • 6 to 7:30 p.m. – Keynote discussion
    • Public Joy: An Audacious Framework for Community Transformation - An immersive discussion featuring Jay Pitter, award-winning public space expert, adjunct urban planning professor, and author of Black Public Joy. Drawing on research and narratives from her book and her broader Public Joy Framework, Jay will position public joy not strictly as an emotion, but as civic, cultural, and spatial infrastructure. She will ground these ideas in local knowledge and expertise emerging from the Southside Creekways Project community engagement findings.
  • 7:30 to 8 p.m. – Closing remarks

Breakout sessions will focus on:

  • How community input shapes project design
  • What future development in the City’s southside could look like
  • How project plans become reality
  • What shared ownership and stewardship of trails means

The City will provide free lunch and dinner while supplies last. Spanish translation services will be available. Kids may attend with a parent or guardian.

For the full schedule, visit the event page. To learn more about the Southside Creekways project, go to https://publicinput.com/southsidecreekways.

 

###