On May 2, a community meeting was held at the Alfred Zanetti Montessori School on Howard Street in Springfield’s South End for a presentation by a Technical Assistance Panel of the Urban Land Institute’s Boston District Council, which had studied the Hollywood-Gemini area there for two days. The panel met with stakeholders, surveyed the district in a variety of ways, and brainstormed intensively on the day leading up to the presentation.
The panel assessed current conditions in Hollywood-Gemini, sharing their observations about what changes could be considered there under a development program in cooperation with all types of stakeholders and including a consultant. Panelists furthermore brainstormed and then presented three possible neighborhood designs to consider, which reflected an altered street layout pattern, rearrangement of beneficial open space, consideration of walkability, parking and retail needs, and possible selective demolition.
Panelist Mossik Hacobian (pictured above, right, with Mayor Charles Ryan), executive director of Urban Edge, told the group how important coalition-building is, and how any coalition formed to undertake a new development plan for the neighborhood must be all-inclusive, and as broadly-based as possible. “Have everybody at the table working with you,” Hacobian urged. “Whatever ideas you hear today are really ideas for you to consider. If you like any of them, or come up with others, based on your experience, take them, and see what you can do with them. The only barrier I’ve found, in our experience, is imagination and will. If you’ve got the imagination to come up with reasonable ideas, and to commit to accomplish them, nothing’s going to stop you."
Read about this meeting in detail, including the three designs presented, in parts one, two and three.
