Joel Russell and the newly formed Northampton Design Forum are having a party downtown in September, and everyone's invited!
Ever have a notion of how to redraw the map and improve Northampton? Put in a playground, remove a road, fix King Street, save Hospital Hill?
Ever found yourself pondering what it might be like if your local government ever tried to really, truly tap into the super-sized talent pool that paid its salary, and not only asked what locals thought but acted on that advice? What it might be like if the city actively facilitated dreaming, planning and working together between neighbors?
If any of the above applies to you, you're going to feel welcome when Available Potential Enterprises Ltd. (APE) opens its doors on Main Street for a week in September (7-13) and invites the public in to work with the Notre Dame graduate Urban Design Studio.
The Northampton Design Forum is hosting the event, and they're already well into a fundraising effort to pay for the team that will help provide a fresh look at the city. The Forum isn't actually the city itself, but a group of 14 design-conscious taxpayers, including two city councilors, Michael Bardsley and Robert Reckman.
Under the guidance of Professor Phillip Bess, the Notre Dame graduate students will hold a charrette (I said "party," didn't I?). This collaborative design process is one Bess used in 2000 that ultimately led to the success of the Save Fenway Park! campaign. With the feedback generated by Paradise City residents at this charrette, the students will return to Notre Dame and prepare a plan—not something that will necessarily be built, but an ideal to work toward. If all goes well, at the end of the process, participants may catch a glimmer of what a united vision of Northampton could be.
That's why everyone's simply got to be there.
Everyone: that means even the Northampton Planning Board, which rejected the notion in a June 12 vote.
In a letter to the Paradise City Forum, Planning Director Wayne Feiden promised that if such a fete was going to happen, it would be a hundred times better under his watch with people he'd handpicked to run it. He referred to Notre Dame's plan as a "shotgun approach," and worried that it might create "a situation where everyone sees either what they want the most or what they fear the most, and community dialogue is stalled."
To be clear, when I interviewed Joel Russell about his new position as chair of the Northampton Design Committee last week, he never once referred to the charrette as a party. As a land-use attorney and planning consultant, he keeps his enthusiasm measured and his tone even.
Based in his office not far from downtown Northampton, Russell has worked on some local projects (including as a consultant hired by the city for the Vision 2020 planning sessions done a decade ago), but he's made his largest mark in villages and towns along the Hudson River Valley and in upstate New York. With each community, he's helped them draft a united vision of their future. As a lawyer, he can help towns rework their zoning to accommodate that vision.
Like many residents, Joel Russell had watched Northampton politics from afar for much of this millennium, but he began speaking out when the plans for the Hilton Garden Inn were first announced. He pointed out that not only did the hotel offend architecturally, it seriously conflicted with the principles of urban planning. Soon after, as someone who's had a hand in writing such documents, he provided a blunt critique of the city's Sustainability Plan released last fall as being a patchwork of disconnected ideas that only its writers could understand.
Whether writing to the Daily Hampshire Gazette's editors or posting on the Paradise City Forum, he's kept his criticism civil and highly professional, as would be expected of a man who makes his living working with bureaucrats, officials and business leaders.
But as our interview progressed, after we'd discussed his background and the politics of bringing the urban design studio to Northampton, his reserve softened. As he began to imagine what could happen on Main Street in September, his consultant's poker face fell away. Sitting in his front parlor in an overstuffed chair, he grabbed his ankles so he was sitting Indian-style and got downright excited.
"The more you mobilize the talent in a talented community—and we've got incredible talent in ours—the better the results, but we don't seem to be taking advantage of what we have," he said. "There is so much fear and distrust now.
"My greatest hope for the Northampton charrette," he continued, "is that it will be a healing experience. It will be a chance for everyone to get together and get excited about something, rather than arguing and fighting. And I've seen that happen. When a charrette is done right—and you can't just do it in a day or a half day; you need to do it over a period of a few days—people get on board. I did one in Lenox in the early '90s, and it was very contentious&. But over the course of the week, this understanding developed. They were having open houses, people were coming in and talking.
"And then there was this final presentation, and this one guy, who had made his reputation as the town crank, he said, 'You know, I've lived here 25 years and I've never been in favor of anything this town has ever done, but I can tell you this is the best thing we've ever done.' I mean, you get things like that. It was great. Every time I've been in one of these you get this positive energy, and people are always surprised. They can't imagine that land use, planning, zoning and issues like that ever can get people excited; they've only ever seen them get people upset.
"I think this could be the linchpin that makes Northampton's Sustainability Plan work.
"And the APE Gallery is the perfect location to do this," he concluded. "I've done around 20 charrettes, and we try to put them in a publicly conspicuous place, easily accessible, attractive—but I've never seen a better place. Right on Main Street with a big store front window, the lower level's already filled with drafting tables. It's like it's all ready to go!"
Sounds like a party to me.
*
If you are interested in supporting the charrette, please consider making a tax-deductible financial contribution. Checks should be made out to A.P.E. Ltd., and sent to 126 Main St., Northampton, MA., 01060. Please write "Notre Dame Design" on the memo line of your check. Learn more at northamptondesignforum.blogspot.com
