Scroll to the bottom of this page for links to purchase tickets or to watch the livestream.
KEENE, NH – The Keene Downtown Group has invited author, city planner, and urban designer Jeff Speck to visit the city and make some suggestions to city officials on how to revitalize Downtown Keene.
According to the group, Speck works with communities to understand how walkability supports common goals like increasing tourism, economic activity, public health, safety, and sustainability.
For several months now, city officials and the Keene City Council have been working on making a recommendation on the Keene Downtown Infrastructure Improvement and Reconstruction project. According to the plan, the infrastructure underneath Central Square and part of Main Street needs to be replaced, and while the road was already dug up, city staff took the opportunity to recommend some cosmetic and other improvements and upgrades.
The city formed an ad-hoc committee to make recommendations on the project, and hired Stantec as the consultant on the project. Stantec provided various design options, including one that proposed an overhaul of central square, closing the top of the square to vehicle traffic and making it a walkway. Proposed ideas also included various other multi-modal suggestions, including adding bike lanes downtown.
The project has been a major point of contention among the community, the city, and the city council. After several public meetings, hearings, workshops, and other events, Councils Municipal Services, Facilities, and Infrastructure committee ultimately made a recommendation that saw minor changes to the design of downtown, with improvements to crosswalks and traffic lights, and rejected the redesign of Central Square and the inclusion of bike lanes.
The matter went to the full city council at their regular meeting on June 1st, where at-large councilor Kate Bosely moved to table a final decision from the full council until after Speck’s appearance. After a lengthy back and forth discussion, the council voted 11-4 to wait and schedule another full council workshop after tonight’s event.
Speck is in Keene and will hold an event Monday evening at Heberton Hall to share his ideas with city officials and the community. The Downtown Group says he’ll share his perspective on how Keene can become a more walkable community, and why walkability is critical for a thriving downtown.
Speck will be at Heberton Hall in the Keene Public Library at 60 Winter Street in Keene for a pre-event reception at 5:30 Monday evening, and his presentation is set to begin at 6 pm. The event is free and open to the public but due to capacity limitations tickets are required to attend in-person.
Tickets to attend in person are available via Eventbrite here. The presentation will be livestreamed by FACT TV as well on Spectrum Local access channel 1301, and on their Facebook and Youtube pages.
Speck joined WKBK last week to provide an overview of his work, the full discussion is available here. He will join WKBK once again following the event, Wednesday morning at 9:10.
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TICKETS: Eventbrite | Building a More Walkable Keene: A Conversation with Jeff Speck
FACEBOOK LIVESTREAM: FACT TV: Keene | Keene NH | Facebook
YOUTUBE LIVESTREAM: Falls Area Community TV: Keene station – YouTube
