Blue dots and hot dogs behind the Honan Library

Several hundred people enjoyed a beautiful evening on the lawn behind the Honan Library yesterday, as Harvard unlocked the gates around what will one day become "Library Park". Harvard President Drew Faust stopped by for a visit as did BRA Director John Palmieri.

People seemed to spend most of their time outside eating the Harvard-provided food and visiting with neighbors. Some people went inside the tent where these posters showed examples of different park styles and different things that might happen at Library Park. Like at this Barry's Corner meeting hosted by Harvard in 2005, people could "vote" for different attributes by putting sticky dots on the posters. At the Barry's Corner meeting dots were rationed so each person could only vote a certain number of times, but last night there were sheets of dots lying on the table so anyone could vote as often as they wanted. There were also blank boards were people could hand write their comments. Hopefully three years from now Library Park will have progressed a lot further than Barry's Corner has since 2005.

Some of these categories for voting were pretty vague (what does "neighborhood" mean?) but some clear preferences (like the small percentage of votes for a "formal" park) did emerge.

You have another chance to get free food, learn more about this project, and comment or vote for what you'd like to see in this park at an ice cream social on Saturday afternoon from 1-3. There will probably be fewer "celebrities" but the posters and Harvard staff and consultants will be there and the wet weather forecast for Saturday suggests that you'll have the place more to yourself than last night's attendees did.

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