Holyoke hired Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. to develop this Vision Plan. The plan will help Holyoke with long range planning as it reevaluates the downtown "building by building, lot by lot."
The hearing was not what I expected. After orientation we were broken into round table groups for a structured discussion on the questions posed to us. One person at each table took notes while we each took turns giving our ideas, and vision for the future of the city.
Some people in attendance lamented the fact that it was the same people who are at all the meetings. "Hardly anyone from the Spanish speaking community that make up a large number of downtown residents."
One of the 'Old Guard' Holyokers who participated was amazed that everyone had a similar vision for the city. He mentioned it was important to build up the density of the urban core. "Holyoke is city. It needs density not duplexes to build up the tax revenue."
Architect of the Open Square, John Aubin, was very out spoken before and after the hearing. He proposed a concept called 'Holyoke 2020' - to increase our city’s population by 20,000 by the year 2020 via an urban plan designed to achieve that goal.
The hearings will continue on May 28th, and June 25th, 6pm to 8pm on both nights.
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4 comments:
What exactly is an "old guard Holyoker?"
And, is it not counterproductive to delineate the population so arbitrarily? Unless we are all "Holyokers", plain and simple, infighting and distrust will prevent ANY vision of the future from moving forward productively.
I heard "old guard Holyoker" used more than once during a stakeholder meeting with Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc. They were using it to describe a faction of Holyoke less willing to accept new ideas.
I was at that meeting, in fact I'm in one of those pictures. The guy taking notes for our breakout session was born in Holyoke and repeatedly referred to the rest of us as "outsiders", even during his presentation of the notes. Not in a mean way, I think he meant newcomers. I personally don't think "camps" help Holyoke at all but its unrealistic to act like they don't exist.
FWIW, I have never been to one of those things before, but I definitely got the idea that certain people had certain agendas and they were there to present them and not much else.
-jbo
As far as I'm concerned, the moment you move to Holyoke you become a Holyoker.
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