The Long game in practice
In September, I was invited to spend a week in San Diego with park designers, community leaders, and arts organizations to share the Pomegranate Method of community engagement. The visit included three talks: one for the general public, one for park designers, and one for leaders and funders of the arts, as well as a one-day Pomegranate Method workshop. This visit was graciously hosted by San Diego Parks and Recreation, the Clare Rose Foundation, San Diego Art Matters, and the Prebys Foundation.
Each presentation began with a simple premise:
We live in times of profound change. Across the country, there are countless efforts to fix what doesn’t work, but few conversations about the long game - how to address the causes of what doesn't work and reimagine our future around more timeless qualities that nourish rather than destroy.
I encouraged the participants to make such work essential, and to explore how artists and arts organizations can foster this kind of reimagining. When our attention stays fixed on just repairing what already exists, we risk missing the chance to imagine what could be. It’s easy to mistake the slogans, PR campaigns, and special events for genuine progress. But a living democracy depends on citizens who think for themselves and who are willing to question the assumptions that often go unexamined, and pose the questions that the leaders may not actually be pondering.
We can ask:
Is the world (town, neighborhood, block) we are imagining for all, or only for some?
Is real change possible if we don’t live it in our personal lives?
What ideas do we already have that could make our cities sustainable and just?
Does nature exist only for us, or does it have its own rights?
And hundreds more…
Each courageous discussion and small act towards these goals helps us reclaim a bit of power.
In my experience working with communities, I’ve seen repeatedly that uninvited change creates resentment. People resist what they don’t recognize as their own, even when the proposal is valuable. But when they participate in shaping what ought to be, ideas gain traction. The more people engage in long-term thinking, the more likely it is that policies and laws will reflect the wisdom and ownership of the people themselves.
This is what was at the heart of the Pomegranate Center gathering places - setting up a project so it can thrive long after we are gone. It starts with trust - bringing everyone who has a stake in the outcome to the same table, not just the initiators of an idea. It means inviting the people who will use a space to imagine together what it could become. That shared curiosity at the beginning is what makes everything that follows possible.
Manzanita Gathering Place just after completion in 2013
While in San Diego, I had a chance to reconnect with the residents of the Azalea Park neighborhood, where Pomegranate Center mentored the transformation of a neglected lot into a community gathering place more than a decade ago. Community activist Linda Pennington helped organize her neighbors to build the Manzanita Gathering Place in 2012, with mosaic artist Vicky Leone leading the creative design.
Years ago, Linda noticed that her canyon kept catching fire. Instead of waiting for the city to act, she gathered her neighbors and brought the Pomegranate Center in to help them begin protecting and restoring the space. Together, we removed fences and razor wire, built a public art gathering place, and opened access to the canyon below. Thirteen years later, the residents still maintain it - cleaning graffiti the same day it appears, tending the plants, and keeping the area clean, safe, and welcoming.
New neighbors have joined them. One, Cameron Eggleston, walks the park daily, maintaining it so her children have a safe and beautiful place to play. Their model is simple: keep showing up. They didn’t wait for permission. They didn’t expect a plan from someone “in charge”. They made civic responsibility part of their everyday lives. That attitude, present at the project’s beginning, continues undiminished today.
Vicki, Linda and Cameron at the Manzanita Gathering Place in September 2025.
Too often, we stand aside and wait, assuming someone else will take care of things, or that the government surely has a plan. But as the Azalea Park neighbors show, the long game begins when we recognize that “someone else” might be us.
For more on the Manzanita Gathering Place, go here or here.
For more on other Pomegranate Center Gathering Places, see the gallery.
And for a fascinating discussion on the role of art in this modern world, listen to Ezra Klein’s recent discussion with Brian Eno.
