Published: 10/3/2020 6:48:58 PM
HOLYOKE — Volunteers hauled wooden barriers up and down Race Street on a bright Saturday morning to transform part of the road into a more pedestrian- and bike-friendly space for the remainder of the fall.
The concept for the new and temporary project, named the “Canal Walk Roll & Stroll,” was conceived by the city as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Cynthia Espinosa, senior project manager with the city’s office of planning and economic development. She said the city was looking to create safe recreational spaces for residents and visitors during the pandemic.
“They can bike, walk and push strollers and still be able to enjoy being outside … (if) they don’t feel safe going to a park or any other location,” Espinosa said.
While the city came up with the idea, the project is being completely funded by The Lawrence & Lillian Solomon Foundation, a group that has worked to get greenway projects built around greater Boston, according to Michael Moriarty, executive director of the OneHolyoke Community Development Corporation. The city-based organization is managing the new project, which Moriarty said will run from the corner of Race and Main streets to Hamilton Street. By Saturday afternoon, the installation appeared to end at Spring Street.
Moriarty described the “Canal Walk Roll & Stroll” initiative as a “placemaking project,” or “a development concept that just says ‘If you find a little piece of geography that you want to change, have a creative plan and just do it.’ You can set up a riser and all of a sudden you have an outdoor theater.”
“It’s really more to highlight what we’ve already got” rather than making a massive infrastructure change, said Moriarty of the project.
The most major change to the street will be the installation of many wooden barriers connected with rope that are situated a few feet away from the sidewalk closest to the canal. This will create an expanded path where people can walk and bike. Moriarty said the plan was originally to have the project take up half of the street to make it one-way, but that the city’s fire department nixed this idea as their equipment would not be able to fit through safely.
Between Dwight and Appleton streets is the city’s “Canalwalk” improved sidewalk. Moriarty said that the wooden barriers will be flush with the existing sidewalk there as he said the area is a “choke point” for the city’s fire department.
Walking, biking and literacy events for the “Canal Walk Roll & Stroll” are in the works. Beginning Oct. 5, the Holyoke Chicopee Head Start Family & Community Program will install a “story walk” between Race and Cabot streets, where pages of the children’s book “Animalia” by Graeme Base will be zip-tied to the fence so families can read as they walk.
Holyoke’s Biking & Pedestrian Committee, in addition to having provided an air and oil station for bicyclists on Saturday afternoon on Race Street, will also hold a community walk on Oct. 24. Moriarty said he hopes food trucks, community groups and other vendors come to use the space.
“This is a place to be,” Moriarty said, “and we want people to see it that way.”
Espinosa said that the project is a good pilot for an extension of the the city’s Canalwalk project. According to Espinosa, there’s no set date when this new project will be taken down but that it will likely be when the weather changes.
Christian Malave, 19, of Holyoke, was volunteering on Saturday and said he works at OneHolyoke where he helped paint and put together the wooden barriers over the past two weeks. He said “I like what they’re doing with the strip.”
“I just like the idea that they’re trying to get the community more involved,” Malave said.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.
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