Public space workshop
Harrisburg residents weighed in on public space use on Tuesday at another workshop dedicated to downtown revitalization.
The PA Downtown Center held the event at Camp Curtin middle school.
Alongside the city and state leaders and the Harrisburg Regional Chamber and CREDC, the center has been leading a planning effort for the revitalization of the capital city’s struggling downtown with funding from the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
The public workshops follow a survey distributed by the center on the perception of downtown wherein more than 40% of respondents said the city doesn’t offer enough outdoor amenities.
Iris Quigley, special projects and content development specialist for the center, said the survey also found the top three profiles of Harrisburg: working class families, connected young professionals, and longtime locals.
Quigley encouraged attendees to use this information as they discussed public space.
“We need our public spaces to be representative of who’s using them,” Quigley said.
The center split the roughly 25 attendees into pairs. They discussed preferences on gathering space, downtown lighting, traffic calming efforts and more, and voted on visual ideas presented on boards around the room using stickers.
Voting on public space ideas
Participants relayed vote justifications to the room during a subsequent group discussion.
Riverfront space was one topic of discussion.
Julie Fitzpatrick, executive director of the center, encouraged participants to consider how Harrisburg could do a better job incorporating the water feature into Harrisburg’s neighborhoods.
“We have the river. We have the riverfront, but it’s kind of unattainable. It’s inaccessible. It’s not like we are in the water, we’re not doing a lot of activities and engagement,” Fitzpatrick said.
People noted that cars whirring down Front Street can make it difficult for pedestrians to get to the Riverfront safely.
“Crossing front street is like pedestrian roulette,” said David Morrison, executive director of Historic Harrisburg Association. “You never know if a car is going to stop or not stop.”
Another participant noted that she would be hesitant to put any play space for children on the riverfront as it is now because it’s scary to cross. However, she noted it would be nice to have more public space designed around children in the city.
According to Quigley, Harrisburg has twice the youth population of the rest of the state.
While discussing public seating, Fitzpatrick also noted that Harrisburg could develop more gathering space for families.
“We don’t really have a lot of pavilions or places for picnics or family reunions or that sort of thing,” Fitzpatrick said.
Another attendee agreed.
“We don’t really have a mall. Like a place where people can gather,” she said.
Public space workshop
Other subjects discussed included street design, signage, outdoor dining and shade.
Across discussion subjects, attendees noted a preference for flexible public space that could be used for a multitude of purposes.
People also generally preferred more natural public space designs, with greenery or water features, for example, as opposed to more industrial designs.
Another workshop on public space will be held Tuesday night from 6 to 8 p.m. at Camp Curtin.
Two “economic vitality” workshops will be held at Sci Tech Thursday, centered around how Harrisburg can better support businesses. Last week, the center held public workshops on quality of life.
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