NORTHAMPTON — As downtown Northampton undergoes its own changes, students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Smith College have been working with city officials this semester to explore what a more pedestrian-friendly Florence could look like.
Saturday afternoon, sections of sidewalk and crosswalk along Main Street were decorated with colorful tape and painted wooden benches, while two sticky-note murals on store windows, designed in color to look like the Mount Holyoke Range and the Connecticut River Valley, invited passers-by to jot down what they think is missing in Florence.
“A lot of villages and towns have been revitalized because of an emphasis on pedestrians,” said Michael DiPasquale, a professor at UMass Amherst, a certified urban planner who coordinates community outreach activities. “We’re trying to create zones that are more pedestrian-oriented.”
A pedestrian-oriented zone could look like a “defining place for people to hang out,” DiPasquale said, with the addition of more benches and visual cues such as permanent sidewalk art.
Two college classes collaborated on the planning and pop-up Saturday, including DiPasquale’s Sustainable Community Development students and Smith College’s Landscape Studies program, taught by Professor Reid Bertone-Johnson.
The pop-up was sponsored by Northampton’s Office of Planning and Sustainability and supported by a grant from AARP, DiPasquale said.
The groups have also been looking at ways to increase safety for the elderly in town, particularly at intersections and crosswalks. High-volume crosswalks could be highlighted by different paving, for instance, to increase driver awareness and encourage slower driving.
“We want people to feel safe, in a space where they can be present and part of the community,” said UMass student Jake Butler.
The event included free food, from boxes of fresh pizza to quesadillas and cookies offered on tables at the pop-up’s main installation, encouraging people to stop and ask questions.
“More restaurants” was one of the most common suggestions left on the sticky notes, along with requests for more retail stores and bike-friendly access.
“I wrote that I wish (this empty storefront) was filled with cupcakes,” said 4-year-old Margot Church of her sticky note, adding that she thought Saturday’s event was “beautiful.” Her mother, Sarah Gibbons of Northampton, said she thought the pop-up was charming.
Five local artists, Pasqualina Azzarello, Leslie Saree, Donnabelle Casis, Sean Greene and Barbara Neulinger, contributed art installations, including painted wooden boards showing scenes from Florence’s history displayed at either end of Main Street.
Curious onlookers stopped by throughout the afternoon to look at and take pictures with the art displays, from bicyclists to groups of local high school students.
Saturday’s pop-up wasn’t the first of its kind; the groups have been holding other events to encourage community engagement, including a chicken barbeque in September that was held near Lilly Library in town, Butler said.
“We heard a lot of people saying they want more pedestrian-friendly spaces and pop-ups like this,” Butler said.
“This has also been a teaching tool for the two classes,” DiPasquale said. “We’re trying to show the community what’s possible … and what we could do with larger funding.”