“Adaptive Public Spaces: Places for People in the Pandemic and Beyond” looked at seven different public spaces across the U.S. (each of which received partial funding from Knight) to assess their impact in four different areas—design and programming; community/resident focus; its impact on the broader community, town, or city; and its long-term financial and operational sustainability. Funded by Knight and conducted by the global urban design firm Gehl, the report’s data was collected via resident surveys, focus groups, geotagged Instagram posts, and both new and existing observational data on space usage both pre- and mid-pandemic. “We have this belief that great public spaces can connect communities,” says Lilly Weinberg, the Knight Foundation’s senior director for community and national initiatives. “We wanted to evaluate that statement—is it true, and has it worked?”