Southside Residents Discuss Neighborhood Needs

Southeastern Bethlehem has marvelous ethnic diversity, pretty acorn –shaped street lights, wonderful views of the city from its steep hills and a great new public space in the Bethlehem SkatePlaza.

But it needs more public gathering spaces, public works of art and playing fields and other places for kids to play. It could use more green space with park benches, water fountains and picnic tables that can accommodate friendly games of dominoes or chess.

A grocery store, an ice cream parlor and a coffee shop would also be welcome.

Those were some of the conclusions drawn by about 50 neighborhood residents who gathered at Donegan Elementary School on Wednesday night for a “visioning party,” to come up with ideas to spruce up the city’s eastern gateway, the first part of the city visitors see when entering from Interstate 78 and Route 412.

Part of the idea was to make South Bethlehem more inviting for visitors to the Sands Casino and the ArtsQuest campus at SteelStacks, so people might make a left turn to visit the neighborhood south of Daly Avenue and have a bite to eat in one of the neighborhood’s restaurants or shop in one of its stores.

But the process was also designed to empower the residents to make suggestions to improve the neighborhood for their own better use.

The discussion was facilitated by team members from the Project for Public Spaces, an internationally recognized non-profit urban planning organization that has helped facilitate the development of public parks, plazas and markets across the country, including Bryant Park in New York and Logan Circle in Philadelphia.

The Eastern Gateway Project is part of Southside Vision 2014, a city-sponsored 12-year program to identify issues and opportunities for South Bethlehem.

During the evening, the participants were broken up into five groups that were sent out into the neighborhood to evaluate its assets and shortcomings and determine who uses the streets, when and for what purpose. Upon their return, they discussed their findings and came up with a list of suggestions, and presented them to the larger group.

The Project for Public Spaces “Place Game” or “Place Performance Evaluation” is based on the work of journalist and urban planner William H. Whyte and his “Street Life Project,” an ongoing study of pedestrian behavior and city dynamics.

Whyte’s own methods involved weeks of study with teams of people who monitored street activity, took pictures, video and interviewed people to measure how and why public spaces are used to better inform streetscape improvements and parks development.

The group would, for example, spend two weeks in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, measuring use and doing surveys, said Cynthia Nikitin, the vice president of the organization.

“It was time consuming and expensive,” said Nikitin, who led the exercise at Donegan on Wednesday night.

About 10 years ago, PPS shifted its methods to bring in residents, who already are most familiar with the neighborhood, to help perform the evaluation, Nikitin said.

“Our clients started telling us they couldn’t afford to feed us,” Nikitin said. “That wasn’t the reason we changed. We wanted to be doing more work.”

What resulted, Nikitin said, is a superior process that gets stakeholders involved sooner and helps cities to create partnerships with the private sector and citizens  that make public space improvement projects more affordable to complete and easier to sustain. People with a vested interest are more likely to invest time and money to maintain what they helped to create, Nikitin said.

The Project for Public Spaces will likely return to Bethlehem in mid-May with a choice of sketch plans that will incorporate the suggestions and problems identified Wednesday. At that point, there will be another public meeting that will give neighbors an opportunity to provide feedback on those sketches and help determine a final plan for streetscape improvements.