Hope Street Merchants Association Breaks Ground, Launches Crowdfunding for Solar-Powered Street Lamp Project
Installation of prototype and crowdfunding kick-off party
mark the arrival of Off-Grid on Hope
Providence, RI – A neighborhood improvement project that the Hope Street Merchants
Association (HMSA) has been working on for more than two years has now taken
tangible form – and they’re launching a crowdfunding campaign to build on that
success.
Off-Grid on Hope is a project to install locally designed and fabricated
solar-powered street lamps along the Hope Street business district, with the goal of
making the street safer and more pedestrian friendly after dark. A portion of the
project will be crowdfunded through a campaign that begins on August 15 with a
kick-off party from 5-8pm at the new home of NBX Bikes (729 Hope St.).
On July 29, industrial designer Jonathan Harris officially broke ground on the
project, installing a working prototype in front of Kreatelier at 804 Hope Street.
The HSMA aims to raise approximately $100,000 to implement Phase One of Off-Grid on
Hope, which will install 10 lamps from the intersection at Glendale Avenue to the
Citizens Bank (792 Hope St.). The completed project will eventually install up to 30
lamps from Rochambeau Avenue to Fifth Street.
The location of the kick-off party is symbolic of efforts to improve the
neighborhood, as NBX Bikes’ new location fills a significant gap in the business
district’s streetscape. 729 Hope Street was the home of a beloved local café before
it closed more than five years ago. What had been a neighborhood hub remained vacant
and fell into some disrepair until NBX Bikes breathed new life into it. The kick-off
party will be the first chance for the neighborhood to congregate there once again.
“We’re so proud of the work we’ve done already and now we’re asking for the
community’s help to make the next phase of this project happen,” said Line Daems,
owner of Kreatelier and the coordinator of Off-Grid on Hope. “The Hope Street
Merchants believe strongly in supporting the community where we work through
neighborhood improvement projects, and this is our most ambitious one yet. We invite
everyone to join us for a fun, casual evening and an opportunity to learn more about
his innovative project.”
About the Hope Street Merchants Association
The Hope Street Merchants Association organizes businesses in the Hope Street Area
of Providence with the goal of promoting the diverse urban community as a unique
destination and of being a unified voice for issues related to the merchants. Our
mission is to provide useful and important information to businesses, to create
opportunities for members to better market their products and services, to organize
community friendly street festivals and other events, and to beautify the
neighborhood.