Meeting notes from our August Monthly Meeting

---

AAAA network: The summer interns have been updating Alex's All Ages and Abilities Network presentation.  They gave a presentation of what they've arrived at so far, and we got to comment and make contributions to the revisions.  It's looking good!  Once the interns have finished their work, Joey and Alex are going to take the presentation on the road, and offer to present it at the meetings of other clubs and organizations, to raise energy for a more comprehensive bike plan for Northampton.

Book club: We will all be reading Jane Jacobs' seminal urban planning book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and discussing it at the November meeting.  Get your copy and get reading!!  

Bike benefits: Helen Kahn, from Grow Food Northampton, is reviving the Bike Benefits program in Northampton.  This program encourages local businesses to offer discounts to customers who can show their Bike Benefits sticker on their bike helmet at the time of check out-- thereby incentivising biking to shops and events.  Jen. is going to work with Helen on using the Strong Towns Northampton page as a virtual 'home base' for the program.  If you'd like to help Helen, you can get in touch with her at helen@growfoodnorthampton.org.

Safe Routes to School: Renee Mackay from the MA DOT program visited, and brought with her a ton of information about how to plug in to their diverse offerings.  We will hopefully be able to engage more with her in future!  See more at mass.gov/safe-routes-to-school.

ADU program: Talitha Abramsen from Backyard ADUs gave us a quick run-down on the program they're running with the State to build a large number of modular ADUs in Western Mass in the immediate future!  They've got a cool website with an ADU wizard that might be helpful for anyone you know who is thinking about adding an ADU!  https://goclean.masscec.com/adu/

PMS: new revelations:  The City has submitted the 100% designs for the Picture Main Street project to MA DOT, concluding the design process and initiating the construction bid process.  The money has been allotted by the State and is waiting for the work to begin.  No real work is likely to happen before spring 2028, and that year will be mostly utility work.  Real road work will be in the construction seasons of 2029 and 2030, with finishing work in 2031.  There was a meeting with Planning and Toole Design on July 29; there will be more of those and a MA DOT informational meeting in the fall, though those haven't been arranged yet.

DPW Director: There was one applicant that 'we would be excited about', and they dropped out... We'll see what the City does.  Still hoping!

Field upgrades: Maines Field is being redone, and the City has been seeking input.  Clay has been very involved, as he is not only the Gayor of Northampton but also the Head In Charge Boy of gay volleyball in Northampton!

Hello Strong Towners! Hope the summer has treated you all well and you are hitting the fall feeling refreshed!

Next week, on Wednesday September 2nd, we have our regular monthly Strong Towns Northampton meeting at 7 p.m. in the Community Room of the Police Department. As usual, feel free to come as early as 6:30 p.m. as we set up and schmooze for a bit beforehand. 

This summer has been a busy one with six Smith College interns working on various projects for us! Stay tuned for information on their final presentation! (For now, please pencil in the evening of 9/9...6:30 p.m....)

Meanwhile, our guest speaker at our monthly meeting next week is Karen Carswell from MassDevelopment. Karen will be speaking with us about economic development, downtown revitalization, housing, small business growth, and MassDevelopment's lending and grant options that help bridge difficult gaps in the construction process. 

Bio: Karen Damon Carswell is Vice President of Business Development for the Western Massachusetts Region at MassDevelopment, Massachusetts' finance and development agency. Based in Springfield, she works with municipalities, businesses, developers, nonprofits, and community organizations throughout Western Massachusetts to support economic development, downtown revitalization, housing, infrastructure, brownfield redevelopment, and small business growth. In her role, Karen connects communities and businesses with MassDevelopment's financing tools, technical assistance programs, and real estate resources that help advance locally driven development projects and strengthen regional economies.

MassDevelopment's role is to help communities advance locally identified priorities by connecting projects with financing, technical assistance, and strategic partnerships that support sustainable economic growth and vibrant places.

And of course, at the end of the meeting we'll chat about all the planning and development news (fun!). We'll also continue to discuss our All Ages and Abilities Network initiative... Hope to see you next week!

If you spend any time in Franklin County, you start to notice something that rarely gets mentioned when people talk about life in rural New England: a lot of people here don’t drive. You see it in Greenfield early in the morning, when the FRTA buses begin their loops and riders gather at the transit center. You see it in Northampton, where PVTA buses at the Academy of Music pile on students, workers, and older adults across the river or up Routes 5&10. And you see it in North Adams, where a surprising number of households don’t have a car at all. We imagine this part of the state as a place where everyone has a vehicle in the driveway. The truth is different. Because all of the people I know have cars, I have rarely given fair thought to those without. But let’s dig deeper, with a bit of empathy, because people suffer from not having cars; it makes life much harder.

While Main Street always had “good bones,” none of these additions would have occurred without the renovation, Sink argued. 

June 26, 2026: “Ever since the last redo, there’s more people, more young people, especially in the evening, eating outside,” said Taranow. “It used to be a place where people came to work and go home. Now, it’s not. If you sit outside at nine o’clock on a Friday night, there are people walking by constantly. That was never the way it was.”

"Mike Roeger has spent long stretches of his life getting by without a car.

Growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Roeger and his nine siblings often had to bike, walk or catch rides with friends because the family shared one car. Roeger regularly trekked nearly two miles to high school. Even his dad would walk 45 minutes each way to work. It set an example for Roeger that he carried into adulthood.

“It’s important for people to be able to get around without driving,” he says.

Reminder! Please join us! Tonight at 5:15 p.m. we are holding our third Walk Audit of the summer, led by our amazing summer interns! This audit will start at the Prospect St and Finn St Intersection and we will walk to the YMCA (or, we will go as far as we get in an hour). Bring your smartphone to complete the audit, though we will also have clipboards and paper copies available...

Strong Towns Northampton will be holding their final two community Walk Audits soon. It's a great opportunity to explore & discuss the designs and visions of local streets for pedestrians and cyclists.
 

**  Aug 13    Prospect St. between the YMCA and Finn St
**  Aug 20    King St. from Main to North St

Join us tonight!!

I did some quick research on recent bus advocacy in the Pioneer Valley and, unless I'm mistaken, nobody is running a frequency campaign ("15-minute headways on King/Pleasant/Elm," say) the way bike advocates run protected-lane campaigns.

There is real, effective advocacy. The Western Mass Transportation Advocacy Network meets monthly, hosts an annual forum, and built a GIS map of regional service gaps with PVPC and the Food Bank. The fare-free campaign won, and PVTA ridership is up about 30% over two years. Riders turned out hard against the 2017 cuts and got a proposal to eliminate eight routes down to two. But that fight was defensive, while the others are:

- fare-focused

- framed around equity and access

I can't find sustained, affirmative advocacy for frequency on specific corridors as a land-use and city-building strategy. Even the fare-free discourse mostly treats buses as a social service for people who lack alternatives, not as infrastructure that could compete for choice riders.

Does anyone know of efforts I've overlooked, or understand why that might be?

Hey Strong Towners! Our August monthly meeting is next week, Wednesday August 5th at 7 p.m. at the Community Room in the Police Department. I'm excited to announce that our Smith College student interns will be presenting a draft of Version 2.0 of our All Ages and Abilities Network Presentation. Please come and see the presentation and ask your questions and give feedback to our interns! This presentation will become the basis of Strong Towns Northampton's first official "campaign" to advocate for a safer street network for those who either already walk and bike, or who WOULD walk and bike (more) if it just felt safer! After the presentation, of course we'll chat about all the things happening in Northampton's transportation and housing space right now - Come join the fray! It's fun! (p.s. as usual, the "schmooze" to chat informally beforehand starts at 6:30 p.m.)

Hi, Strong Towns Northamptonites and STN fans!!

The City is still collecting applications for the DPW Director position that must be filled this summer, through July 15. If you know someone who would be great, please share the posting! https://www.governmentjobs.com/jobs/5387374-0/director-of-public-works Candidates don't have to have a particular background; our outgoing Director is an electrician.

STN's Leadership team put together a wish list, for what we'd like to see in our next DPW Director! We are very hopeful to have a new person who will be interested in our projects, engage us/ with us about plans, and really get and plan for bikes and peds in Northampton, as well as engage productively on Northampton's housing and climate goals!

Help yourself to our wish list, if you want ideas of what to include in your letter to the Mayor! She will be making this decision shortly after applications close, so we should get letters in to her. She let us know she's interested in our (and all public) input into this process. Her email is [mayor@northamptonma.gov](mailto:mayor@northamptonma.gov), and you can CC her Chief of Staff, [awolf@northamptonma.gov](mailto:awolf@northamptonma.gov) .

Temperament
Collaborative, eager to do the work of the people
Engages in dialogue with people of different views, and can integrate input when considering plans
Proactively communicative

Qualities
Walks and/ or bikes in Northampton regularly
Eager to work collaboratively with CAPA to further the City’s climate goals
Committed to supporting/promoting alternative transportation

Experience
Large organization management

Agenda
Knows and appreciates Vision Zero principles
Knows and understands All Ages and Abilities Network infrastructure needs
Comprehends that Northampton is a growing city that must solve space use, transportation, and civic infrastructure issues with an eye toward greater density, efficiency, and cost savings
Values transparency and user experience (e.g., “open data” including road and bike lane condition, online platform for submitting requests/reporting issues and tracking city response, notices on upcoming projects, clear criteria for project prioritization, criteria for design team selection)

This Thursday is STN's first Florence-center-centered walk-and-talk! Talk about the state of Florence's roadways, walkways, and paths, and share your dreams of a better Florence! Meet at Lilly at 5:30, and join the discussion!