Published: 11/3/2018 7:17:44 PM
NORTHAMPTON — Is an alley just an alley or could it possibly be more?
On Saturday, five students from the University of Amherst Massachusetts gave the city a glimpse of what can happen when creativity and spontaneity are unwound and allowed to roam free.
“We wanted to attract as much of the community as possible and get them excited about what this could be,” Dylan Northrup, a junior studying sustainable community development, said on Kirkland Avenue between Downtown Sounds and Lime Red Tea Shop on Pleasant Street.
For five hours, Northrup and his classmates hosted “At a Glance,” a pop-up event where they installed lights and set up benches and chairs to make the alleyway more inviting for people to simply hang out and chat.
The idea is a popular one in large cities and it’s called “tactical urbanism” — inexpensive, temporary changes to an otherwise underused part of a city, like an alleyway or public terrace, to encourage greater interaction among people.
The pop-up event got a nod of approval from Wayne Feiden, Northampton’s director of planning and sustainability, and a thumbs-up from Downtown Sounds and Lime Red, which supplied coupons for the students to hand out. Raven Bookstore provided books for people who stopped by to flip through.
“It looked like an art exhibit,” said Northampton resident Aidan Linden, who stopped by to ask about the lights and set-up.
“It’s not known as a friendly place and it’s not owned by anyone in particular,” Ben Liebman, a junior studying sustainable community development, said.
Liebman, Northrup and their three classmates — Phoebe Hagberg, Lensanok Imsong, and Kevin Atkinson — wanted to change that perception.
The other goal of the group, which did the pop-up event for a class called “Research Issues in Community Development,” was to get people passing by to give their own thoughts about how they would like to see the alley used in the future.
“Especially because it’s downtown, people like the idea of having a more productive space,” Hagberg, a senior, said. “It gives a space for people to come together.”
Liebman pointed out that some people are scared to walk through the alley at night.
“If there were lights in here full-time it would be a lot more friendlier at night,” Liebman said.
Luis Fieldman can be reached at lfieldman@gazettenet.com