After seven years of community planning, the Cherokee Street Community Improvement District is moving to redevelop Love Bank Park, the street’s only public gathering space.

To some, Love Bank Park is exactly that — a place where people can bank on love.

Although the park was officially founded in 2015, when its first basketball hoop went up, the area already served as a gathering place for the neighborhood. It wasn't established with money, but with community presence.

“We have to be mindful of this idea of made versus created,” said Cherokee community member Pacia Elaine Anderson. “Did it get created when the hoop went up? Or was it made when it was activated by these young people? We have to keep their stories and their experiences at the forefront of what the purpose is. It has an intention of being a place of love." [...]

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