I have recently learned of the new Pulaski Park redesign committee formed by Bob Reckman, chairman of the Board of Public Works. I'm starting to learn more about this, and I'm very interested in it. If you have any information or opinion on this, please comment below.
"The Committee will have a total of 14 voting members, including two members of City Council, 5 members of other City Boards, Shardool Parmar from the Hotel, 2 downtown residents, 2 business owners, a representative from the Youth Commission and someone whose children use the play structure in the Park." This committee was drafted to be "very broad based". Some might feel it is. Some might feel it is not. I certainly immediately questioned why Shardool Parmar from the Hotel was on it. Comments or thoughts on the choice of committee members, and or the planned redesign of the park? Please leave them in the comments below.
The committee members and their contact info is included below, in addition to the planned process drafted for the four months the committee has allotted for input, meetings, and planning. You should feel comfortable contacting them if you are as intrigued about this new new development in town as I am. Contact them with your thoughts and concerns, they do want to hear them. Your input will help shape the process, planning, and redesign. I have spoken with some of them already, and they have expressed their desire to help facilitate this in an inclusive and equitable way.
The news that the City of Northampton is forming a committee to redesign Pulaski Park, and the potential the redesign could have for a more equitable and democratic Northampton, if even only in one small area of public space such as Pulaski Park, is an opportunity for community building and visionary use of public space that could serve to inspire the residents of Northampton towards greatness for the next 30 years.
What if the park was redesigned to include a fountain for children to play in during the summer months? What if the redesign allowed easy viewing of free films from a digital projector on the wall of the Academy, a digital projector working from inside an office of Memorial Hall that housed the a new Pulaski Park working group? What if a weekly night for free films was reserved for a committee that consisted of residents of Hampshire Heights, for instance, or perhaps residents of the New South St. apartments, who would be allowed complete control over choice of films and showtime on Thursday evenings in the summer? What if the redesign allowed for four community corners in the park, with a book exchange in one corner, a cafe in the other corner, a free photo booth in one corner that automatically sent pictures taken to a page viewable by anyone online, and a community bulletin board in the fourth corner? These are the ideas I have thinking about it now. Are they ridiculous? Are they impossible? Economically prohibitive? Not interesting? I don't know, maybe they are. With that said, who knows what the community really wants. But it is imperative that we ask them, and ask the whole community. Ask, listen, and then help them implement these ideas. Every segment of every community of people who call Northampton their home should be invited to tell the committee what there desires are for this public space; downtown Northampton's faintly beating heart.
I feel like I should add a bit about why this new proposal for a redesigned Pulaski Park resonates with me so much, with the hope that the concern I have about this becomes more easily understood.
I recently started this blog to talk about issues affecting Northampton, especially issues involving public spaces. As a resident for 32 years, I walked up the hill to South St. School to attend grade school, I played kicker in the street, I lived next door to my principal and teacher who brought me my homework when I was out of school sick. Our streets, our downtown, and our parks were where myself and others lived our lives. I didn't play inside in my room. I slept in my room.
We played downtown, we played in Veterans Field, we played outside, and friends and I had long discussions about god knows what on rooftops of buildings all over town, while coming and going as we pleased. I delivered the newspapers for the Gazette for a measly 15 cents per paper, I got arrested for disturbing the peace by officers who were disgusted with me, and frequently found myself running from them in Veterans Field and Smith College. We worked at TJ's and and Serios and Fitzwilly's, and picked cucumbers in the summer for mean polish farmers who would buy us McDonalds when they were feeling genial.
As teenagers, we sent Mayor Musante a letter asking the City to build a Skate Park in Veterans Field, and it looks like he finally did it. Thank you Mayor Musante, we knew you would come through for us.
I bought workshoes downtown at Fines, had ice cream soda at Woolworths and hot chocolates at South St. Variety. We bought back-to-school supplies at Bradlees, even though the example set by some local police at the time made it clear to me that you didn't have to pay for things at Bradless if you didn't want to. My brothers and sisters worked at the 591 Diner, which my Dad, a young man who had recently emigrated from Italy, had purchased in 1976. Even though his friends told him he was crazy, that NYC or New Haven, where he lived most recently before coming here, was where he needed to open a restaurant. Northampton, especially that end of Pleasant St. in 1976, was a literal ghost town, and friends and relatives through marriage were confused by his choice. My dad didn't tell his friends that he and his wife were visionary people, and that there were other visionary people here in town too.
We gradated high school and went to college or the army or had families or passed away too young or moved to Chicago, NYC or San Francisco. I spent some portions of life in NYC, Italy, and elsewhere. After coming back from the Dominican Republic on a long vacation, (a country who's first memorial in their 'Hall of Heroes' is for a women who created the first public school for girls, and the second memorial is for an individual who opened the first hospital) I painfully realized that I just can't live in a community unless I can live in it outside. Painfully because I just didn't (don't?) think Northampton would take pains to protect and evolve their public spaces in a way that considered, first and foremost, thought to how it would benefit the public body, without first thinking about how it could be monetized for business owners. As Enrique Peñalosa, the former Mayor of Bogota, Columbia (a city recognized internationally for it's visionary use of public spaces) once famously said,
Public space is for living, doing business, kissing, and playing. Its value can't be measured with economics or mathematics; it must be felt with the soul.I would like to make an attempt to use what I have learned and experienced to contribute to a community that more closely resembles one that I would like to live in. At times, I have felt disappointed with Northampton's direction, and every so often resolved to leave, making plans to make a home in NYC, or overseas. Communities where culture, the public interest, and long range visionary planning are paramount. Places where communities already exist that resemble the community I want to live in. Communities that value public property, citizen input, good economic senses, and who have city officials who would sooner tell someone to go sh*t in their hat before they bent the rules for them in way that was detrimental to the community. I imagine that at some time soon I would still like to make a permanent home in such a community. In the interim, I still live here. This is my home.
I understand that I only have the experience and knowledge of one person, who lived in a bubble that was unique to my own life. Experience, thoughts, and opinions that are mine, and that others may or may not find constructive, helpful, perceptive, informative, or reasonable. But that's what I will offer. My thoughts, opinions, suggestions, and help. So creating a blog to write about issues of concern for me in Northampton, and then having the redesign of Pulaski Park be announced by the city shortly after, just seems so prescient. I could write and talk about the use and necessity of public space, and it's importance to the health of a community, all day long.
For those of you who believe in the ability of urban design and public spaces to help further the creation of a more just, equitable, and democratic community, the redesign of Pulaski Park is manna from heaven. Will we seize this oppurtunity presented to create exemplary public space?
As someone from the Committee told me via email, "I want everyone...to seize the day and turn that park into something special that is in use by hundreds of people a day instead of the current dozens."
Indeed.
PULASKI PARK SCHEMATIC DESIGN COMMITTEE DIRECTORY
VOTING MEMBERS
Member name Affiliation Phone # E-mail address
Nancy Denig Denig Design Associates 413-5851644 ndenig@denigdesign.com
Bob Reckman Board of Public Works 413-695-0281 bobreckman@aol.com
Jim Dostal City Council, BPW 413-586-1390 JMDostal@comcast.net
David Narkewicz City Council, T&P 413-586-7230 dnarkewicz@comcast.net
Andy Crystal Academy of Music 413-534-0243 ACrystal@oconnells.com
Ken Jodrie Planning Board 413-585-0702 kjodrie@cbaarchitects.net
Joe Blumenthal Downtown Sounds 413-586-0998 Musician@downtownsounds.com
Harriett Rogers Skera Gallery 413-586-4563 Harriet-Steve@skera.com
Shardool Parmar Pioneer Valley Hotel Group 413-231-7540 sparmar@pvhg.com
Deb Jacobs Tree Committee 413-584-3989 debjacobs44@gmail.com
Chris Kennedy Historic Commission 413-586-7059 e-modern@comcast.net
Rosa Ibarra Downtown Resident 413-582-0362 rosa@rosaibarra.com
Gina Ayvazian Downtown Resident 413-584-7280 margin17@comcast.net
Grace Fleming Youth Commission 413-584-9906 gmflem@hotmail.com
Mandy Gerry Northampton Parents Center 584-1915 grmg@comcast.net
NON VOTING MEMBERS
Bruce Young City Planning Office 413-587-1263 byoung@northamptonma.gov
Ned Huntley DPW Director 413-587-1570 nhuntley@nohodpw.org
Rich Parasiliti DPW foreman, recreation 413-587-1577 rparasiliti@nohodpw.org
David Kutcher Arts Council 413-303-9612 david@confluentforms.com
Ann Marie Moggio Recreation 413-587-1040 amoggio@northamptonma.gov
SCHEDULE
Preparation July - August
Planning/DPW meeting
Case studies
History
--Related plans (hotel et al)
Site Assessment September
Inventory
--Base plan update
--Photo-documentation
Analysis & evaluation
--Physical/environmental factors
--Functional factors
--Cultural/aesthetic factors
--Legal factors
Summary
--Opportunities
--Constraints
Program Development
Goals, objectives + criteria
Features
3rd Tuesdays:
Review
Committee I September 18
Conceptual Plans
--Alternative plans + features
--Committee II (preview) October 16
--Public Meeting I ditto
Plan Development
Draft schematic design
Review
Committee III (preview) November 20
Public Meeting II ditto
Production
Schematic design drawings
Budget projections
Committee IV (preview) December 18
Public Meeting III ditto
Submittal
They will meet on the 3rd Tuesday of each month in the hearing room on the 2nd floor of City Hall. They are currently planning to have 4 meetings, so we should be done by the end of this year. Bob Reckman will be talking to Nancy Denning (a landscape architect who has donated her time and services) to be sure that our first meeting is a productive one. Please think about how you would like to see the Park when they are done with the schematic design. They look forward to seeing you all at 5 PM on September 18th. Please feel free to call or e-mail committee members if you have any suggestions or questions.
LABELS: pulaski park redesign, downtown, public policy, public space,
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