Three great ideas emerge from master plan sessions

Published on October 27, 2006

Amherst Center is a monthly column that seeks to portray local issues from a centrist point of view. It is written by Town Meeting members Baer Tierkel and Clare Bertrand and School Committee member Andy Churchill.

Well over 400 of our neighbors gathered this past week in small groups, taking time out together, sitting on folding chairs, intently focused on each other. No, it wasn't a town-wide group-therapy session. It was the master plan idea-gathering sessions. People from across the spectrum that makes up Amherst were mindfully discussing the future of their town with each other, each person (mostly) listening to each other's perspectives, priorities and, most importantly, dreaming up ideas together.

There were hundreds of ideas and directions generated by these sessions. You can take a look at them as the Bulletin has published them in all their glory. We thought that we'd just grab three of the more interesting ideas we noticed and talk about them here. If these spark your creativity, you can still send your ideas to lacourn@amherstma.gov.

National Poetry Center in Amherst. One of Amherst's strengths and strong tourism draws is our literary heritage. Poetry courses through the veins of Amherst from Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and Robert Francis to the many poets and poetry lovers who live in our town today. One participant suggested developing a National Poetry Center in Amherst, taking advantage of the poetry programs of our fine educational institutions, creating a global destination for the many people who love poetry, serving as a tribute to past poets and a muse to current ones. The center could eventually become a museum dedicated to the heritage of poetry in the United States, support artists-in-residence, coordinate programs with the Amherst public schools, offer lecture series and symposia on topics poetic, and become a center for the study and promotion of poetry in our society. Imagine 'poetry sidewalks' through town, with each block of sidewalk featuring a poem. Imagine our kids exposed to poetry integrated into all aspects of town life, from poets in the schools to poetry slams downtown. Imagine the creation of an Amherst Poetry Journal, a poetry publishing house, and offshoots into other literary/cultural areas such as music, theater and New Media. This idea is do-able, would build on our reputation as a center of arts and learning, and would thus increase our attractiveness as a place to visit, work, and live.

YMCA/YWCA. A number of people said they wanted more services that brought the different generations together. Many also said the town needs to restrain its revenue needs. Several participants made a suggestion that could help meet both of these goals - by creating a YMCA/YWCA facility in Amherst. This type of enterprise could provide services to residents across a broad spectrum: elders, teenagers, kids, parents, singles. And the national YMCA has developed a self-sustaining, nonprofit business model that delivers valuable community programs, much like LSSE, but without the tax support. YMCA makes their revenue by providing a fitness center with a pool that is open to elders, teens, etc., while using that revenue to fund youth sports, classes, etc. Maybe there is a way to move LSSE in this direction itself.

Turn University Drive into a village center focused on students. Let's face it, we have 30,000 college students in our town. You can either love them or hate them, but they're ours. Let's try to improve everyone's quality of life. Students are constantly looking for off-campus housing and entertainment options, and Amherst residents have for years complained about the incursion of these activities into established neighborhoods. So the university continues to put up its own housing on tax-free land, students travel through family neighborhoods to get downtown - and we pay for the services. One participant suggested turning University Drive into a village center targeted at the needs and buying power of college students, a mixed-use area consisting of condos, apartments, retail, university-oriented offices, restaurants and clubs. It could feature direct public transportation links to the university and other campuses, generate sorely needed economic development and tax revenue, and move some of the students' party activity away from the neighborhoods and downtown.

We had looked forward to these sessions primarily because of the outcome - a master plan - should ensure that future development is based on a consistently applied set of guidelines that reflect the values of our town. What surprised us was how much we enjoyed the process itself. In today's world we rarely get the chance to sit down with neighbors we don't know, who have backgrounds, interests and perspectives different than our own, and talk openly about the direction for our town. It was refreshing, to say the least.

We'll leave you with one of our favorite quotes from the sessions: 'Less Bob Dylan, more Black-Eyed Peas.' Now there's someone who's not looking back, but looking forward. Let's continue the conversations; let's continue to meet in the Amherst Center.