Social Infrastructure is Essential Infrastructure: How Public Spaces Make the Affordable, Joyful City Possible

Social Infrastructure is Essential Infrastructure: How Public Spaces Make the Affordable, Joyful City Possible.

Social infrastructure—the physical places that shape our capacity to connect – is essential for the health and vitality of democratic societies. But in recent decades cities and communities across the United States have failed to build or maintain great gathering places where people go to enjoy themselves and, in the process, strengthen social bonds. 

Today, rising concerns about inequality and the degradation of urban life, anxiety about the social damage wrought by phones, apps, and artificial intelligence, and excitement over the election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani signal a hunger for something different. Is this the moment for repairing the social fabric, one library, park, or playground at a time?  

Please join IPK director Eric Klinenberg, Gehl project director and partner Julia Day, and Maria Torres-Springer, former Deputy Mayor of New York City and now president of the Revson Foundation, on May 4, 2026 for a special event to launch a major new report on social infrastructure in New York. The report is based on a two-year, federally-funded research project by the Institute for Public Knowledge and the global design firm, Gehl.

Julia Day is a Partner & Director at Gehl and leads the New York office. Julia is skilled at developing multi-sector partnerships that highlight the power of place to impact health equity and community development. With 20 years of experience working with mayors, commissioners, civic leaders, and philanthropies, she has led planning, design, strategy, and engagement projects to support civic leaders in ensuring people are visible and heard in the city-making process. Julia works across design, strategy, and research to demonstrate the integral role streets play as connective, vibrant public spaces. She has worked on public realm strategies city leaders have used to secure millions of dollars for pilot projects and activations. Findings from her research on NYC ‘Play Streets’ led the program to be adopted in PlaNYC and first lady Michelle Obama’s Partnership for a Healthier America. She teaches Design for Cities at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) Interaction Design masters program.

Eric Klinenberg is Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. His research projects focus on cities, climate change, democracy, culture, health, media, technology, and social policy. His book, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life (Crown Publishing, 2018), argues that the future of democratic societies rests not simply on shared values but on shared spaces: the libraries, childcare centers, bookstores, churches, synagogues, and parks that help us form crucial, sometimes life-saving connections. These are places where people can gather and linger, strengthening personal ties and promoting interaction across group lines. They are vital parts of what he calls our “social infrastructure,” and they are necessary for rebuilding societies everywhere.

Maria Torres-Springer joined the Charles H. Revson Foundation as President in January 2026. She is a nationally recognized civic and urban policy leader with over 25 years of experience driving large-scale organizational transformation at the intersection of government, business, and philanthropy. Maria formerly served as New York City’s First Deputy Mayor where she oversaw the day-to-day operations of the City of New York and had strategic and budgetary oversight of a 300,000+ public sector workforce and an annual $110 billion budget. She led landmark achievements in housing, including the pathbreaking City of Yes for Housing Opportunity reforms, back-to-back affordable housing production records, and historic investments in public housing. She also oversaw an aggressive jobs agenda to regain the 1M jobs lost in the city during the pandemic through major investments in key sectors, new workforce development strategies, and transformative projects across the five boroughs. Maria’s distinguished record of public service across four Mayoral administrations includes serving as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, President and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services, and as Co-Chair of Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani’s Transition Team.