For One Day, Ridge Road Was the Main Street Residents Deserved.

In Lackawanna's Old First Ward, many residents walked long distances for groceries and basic necessities. The neighborhood was home to a diverse, low-income immigrant community, and access to everyday services was a real challenge.

A vacant lot along Ridge Road offered an opportunity to bring those services closer.

But residents weren't interested.

The planning team couldn't understand why. Why would a neighborhood with so few resources resist the possibility of a grocery store, restaurants, and local shops?

So instead of asking the same questions again, they invited the community to Try It On.

For one day, Ridge Road came alive. A mobile vegetable market became the grocery store. Food trucks became restaurants. A local barber set up a temporary storefront. Residents could walk through a version of the neighborhood they'd been asked to imagine.

Then came the question that changed everything.

"Where's the parking lot?"

The team asked whether the residents owned cars. Many didn't.

So why was the parking lot so important?

The answer revealed what the earlier conversations had missed.

Residents associated new retail development with unattractive strip plazas and dollar stores. They assumed a sprawling parking lot was simply part of the package.

They weren't rejecting the services they desperately needed. They were rejecting the kind of development they thought they would have to accept.

And suddenly, a different future became possible.

The conversation shifted from whether the neighborhood wanted retail to what kind of neighborhood experience residents actually deserved.