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Date: 2/27/2015
HOLYOKE – How would you make Holyoke a more “walkable” city? That was the question posed to participating students at recent Global Urban Data fest.
The answers vary from artwork to physical fitness to using smartphone technology to call attention to attractions in a neighborhood.
Holyoke Senior Planner Claire Ricker explained to Reminder Publications that Holyoke, because of it density and layout, is already a walkable city, but “people don’t think about walking much.”
The participating students were asked to consider either Holyoke or Somerville and of the 11 teams seven chose Holyoke.
Ricker explained, “The Global Urban Data fest is an international hackathon that took place Feb. 21 and 22 at the Harvard i-Lab. Over the course of a weekend, urban policy experts, business students, computer programmers, journalists and data scientists created teams to develop ‘smart city’ solutions to important urban challenges. Teams were self-selected with guidance from Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consulting firm and one of the sponsors of the event. Teams were made up of graduate students from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School.”
Part of the challenge was using social media technology to connect people in the city and to encourage them to walk.
The proposals included:
• A Youth and Art Program that would include using bus benches and electric boxes as canvases for artwork, as well as adding murals.
• Holyoke Stroll would add signs around the downtown area indicating the number of steps from one location to another, which would help people measure how much they have walked.
• Holyoke Walk would also add signs about distances, but rather than list the number of steps to a destination it would be in minutes. QR codes on signage would reveal information about close by attractions.
• Parking Lot Pop-Ups included the observation that “temporary destinations create permanent journeys” and proposed using parking lots are areas for a variety of public programming.
• Holyoke Walk, Ride and Row proposed using a two-mile course in downtown that would have walking and historical trail markers, outdoor fitness equipment, plots for community gardens, street art areas, benches, lighting, sidewalks, paddle boards and kayaks and power-generating rowing and biking stations in vacant buildings as indoor gyms.
Prizes were given in six categories and the Grand Prize Holyoke went to Holyoke Stroll. Teams winning the grand prizes will move on to compete against contestants from cities around the world participating in the third Annual Global Urban Data fest.
Ricker said of Holyoke Stroll, “It’s a good idea, and I really hope they move on and this is implantable.” She noted nearly all of the proposals use improved signage as part of the proposals and the city is currently looking at improved wayfinding.