“I will say, from my own belief and experience, that imagination thrives on contact, on tangible connection. For humans to have a responsible relationship to the world, they must imagine their places in it. To have a place, to live and belong in a place, to live from a place without destroying it, we must imagine it. By imagination we see it illuminated by its own unique character and by our love for it. By imagination we recognize with sympathy the fellow members, human and nonhuman, with whom we share our place.” — Wendell Berry, August 2016

 

 

The comments to the Gazette from the mayor and city’s planning director were disappointing, but alas not surprising [“Northampton’s Main Street redesign start pushed to 2026; costs climb to $29M as opponents press for changes,” Feb. 25 ] . Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra maintained the city was committed to its design plans; and from Northampton Planning & Sustainability Director Carolyn Misch, “everything is still moving forward.”

People, government, agencies and organizations are in a state of shock and facing unprecedented uncertainty just weeks into the new Trump presidential term. The announced delay of Picture Main Street seems like the perfect opportunity to take a breath and reflect; to answer unanswered questions and engage with city residents — those who support it as well as those with serious concerns.

Is Main Street redesign really the most pressing infrastructure project in the city? Will Picture Main Street revitalize Northampton?

And importantly, what does revitalization mean to Mayor Sciarra and Ms. Misch; what promise does it hold for the people in the city? Will people — longtime residents and recent arrivals in our neighborhoods — benefit? Will we be revitalized, more willing to engage and participate in the community; more willing to run for office, vote in local elections, volunteer?

Will it reinvigorate our health; will we walk/move more easily and more often on more inviting, safer sidewalks throughout the city?

I don’t think so. As I follow the growing interest in place-making, I’m afraid what we’re facing in Northampton is the unmaking of place.

“Place-making,” as defined by Mark Wyckoff, ” is the process of creating quality places that people want to live, work, play and learn in … These are places where people and businesses want to be. They are active, unique locations, interesting, visually attractive, often with public art and creative activities. ”

Northampton is struggling to maintain its identity as a quality place. Main Street is struggling, the schools are struggling. People are struggling to find affordable housing or stay and maintain the housing they currently occupy.

In “Hometown” (1999), author Tracy Kidder compares Northampton to Ebenezer Howard’s vision of “garden cities,” “neither quite a city nor a country town. … the best of both. … a truly self-sufficient place, with farms and rural scenery, urban entertainment and variety.” Northampton, Kidder wrote, is that sort of place “where many people went for weeks without leaving because they found some of everything they needed and wanted here.”

Place is the significant word here. Place as in place-making. More and more sociologists, urban planners/designers, community activists and an engaged public understand, or are reaffirming, the value of place. Why it’s important for people to be connected to place and for place — the built and natural environment — to be in sustainable harmony with people.

Local author, lecturer and UMass emeritus professor of geography Rud Platt has raised significant concerns about Picture Main Street. He frames his consideration of place and space as humane urbanism. “Under the growing influence of humane urbanism, cities have become regarded not only as economic engines dominated by downtown and the corporate/technocrat/cultural elite, but also as places to care about, live in, and enjoy — whose inhabitants play key roles in determining the futures of their urban homes” (from “Reclaiming American Cities: The Struggle for People, Place and Nature since 1900”).

Both place-making and humane urbanism stress the active involvement of people and the importance of collaborative process in community/urban development projects.

We have time to reach a better consensus about Picture Main Street. Why not invite local business owners, those remaining on Main Street, to the table? And, I’d suggest they invite Bob McGovern as well. His bar, Packard’s — just off Main Street — has been thriving since the boom times of the 1970s, and it’s the sort of people-oriented business that keeps you in touch with the “local scene.”

It was Bob, commenting on Picture Main Street to the City Council, who said: “A city is about the people; it’s people who make a city what it is.” Why not invite Professor Platt and others with the background and lived experience to help imagine revitalization?

Picture Main Street will not revitalize Northampton. People — residents, business and property owners on Main Street and engaged residents of the many neighborhoods in the city, working together with city government — will revitalize Northampton.

Let’s begin a better process. I think we’ll get a better outcome, a revitalized quality place for a lot less money and without years of disruption.

Claudia Lefko lives in Northampton.