Neighborhood Evolution

Idea:

Interactive display/gallery of neighborhood maps in each neighborhood and how they’ve changed over the years, including personal/family story sharing and zoning education.

Benefit:

It would allow Lowellians and tourists to see how the city's neighborhoods and grown and changed over the years and hear personal stories from Lowell's history.

Location:

Citywide, OldIdea.

Neighborhood flags

Idea:

Collaboratively design a flag for each interested neighborhood, working with residents, businesses, neighborhood groups, and perhaps K-12 students. Put them up in prominent spots so you’ll identify each unique neighborhood.

Benefit:

People would know what neighborhoods they lived in. More people may go to neighborhood meetings and get involved. The process of designing an unofficial flag may teach participants about the history and characteristics of their neighborhood.

Location:

Citywide, OldIdea.

Neighborhood Food Truck Fair

Idea:

Food Truck Fairs would offer affordable options not easily found in some neighborhoods. For example, South Lowell has many Vietnamese, Cambodian and Spanish restaurants, but no African restaurants or low-cost sushi and Life Alive style food.

Benefit:

This idea would increase access to affordable, healthy and unique foods.

Location:

Citywide, OldIdea.

Neighborhood Gardens

Idea:

Put a garden in every neighborhood.

Benefit:

Kid's idea.

Location:

Citywide, OldIdea.

New-Age Year-Round Hydroponic Community Garden

Idea:

Develop a demonstration/model hydroponic community garden. Community gardens have always brought entire cities together and have improved the quality of life. We are aiming to take all of these advantages and improve upon them to better help the city of Lowell with its access to fresh produce year-round.

Benefit:

First, planting and harvesting can be done year-round meaning much more produce, especially during the off-season when it is most difficult to grow and buy. It also allows many more residents to have an opportunity to grow due to the increase in harvest cycles per year compared to the one [Read more…]

Location:

Citywide, OldIdea.

New dog park (with a bar!)

Idea:

The current Lowell dog park is in a difficult-to-reach location and cannot permanently stay. We should research potential locations for a new dog park, and perhaps even do a day-long event in the space for dog owners and their dogs, serving drinks and food, to generate support for a new park. If a new dog park was [Read more…]

Benefit:

Make Lowell pet-friendly! The current Lowell dog park is in a distant location from downtown. Some homeless people have pitched a tent next to it as well, creating challenges for volunteers who clean the park. Currently we have to drive to Hudson or Andover to use their dog parks. We’d [Read more…]

Location:

Don't Know, OldIdea.

No Bullying Festival

Idea:

Kids dance teams, including “No Bully Zone” team, perform and explain their stories of bullying.

Benefit:

Kids can try to be more kind and nice and respect other people because the words you say can affect people. So Lowell youth, kids, adults can learn about bullying and how to prevent it.

Location:

Don't Know, OldIdea.

Oliveria Park Baseball Field Cleanup

Idea:

Clean up the trash at Oliveria Park (on Chambers and Newhall Street) and add improvements so people don’t trash it.

Benefit:

The field often has trash in it. We would like it clean and kids can play baseball there more often. It would make a nicer area.

Location:

Back Central, OldIdea.

Open Art Spaces – Making ‘The Arts’ Accessible

Idea:

There is a lot of talent in Lowell. We need cheaper studio options for exploring visual art (painting, photography), music (rap music) and dance. Maybe established artists, photographers, dancers, could have open studios with opportunity for “hands on” experiences for youth.

Benefit:

This idea would provide more opportunities for people to experiment with equipment and supplies, and develop their skills.

Location:

Downtown / JAM, OldIdea.