Lowell, MA

The purpose of this project is to bring the City of Lowell back to its roots: a human-scale environment with a prosperous historic downtown. The project has three parts: 1) Implementing a participatory budgeting process. Lowell residents can submit proposals about what they envision for Downtown Lowell. 2) Raising funds through increasing parking prices. This fund can be utilized for participatory budgeting and ultimately encourage alternative modes of transportation. 3) Utilizing the fund for potential interventions that mitigate issues resulting from the car-oriented culture and to turn downtown into a cleaner, healthier, safer and a more inclusive, livable, and sustainable area.

The image on the left above shows Merrimack St. The picture below displays the transformation of the existing sharrow into a protected bike lane. Planters would play a triple function: acting as a buffer by separating the bike lane from the street, draining water, and absorbing CO2 emissions.

An abandoned shop could be reactivated by giving these empty spaces to local designers and artists for temporary retail. Also, stores such as coffee shops could be opened with the support of soft credits or revolving loan funds to small business owners.