Local70 Out & About: Ham and Yam!
- May 12
- 3 min read
Cold. Rained most of the day.
Didn’t really slow anybody down.
People still showed up anyway. Families stayed out longer than you would’ve expected. Kids were stomping through puddles like that was half the fun.
Downtown stayed busy most of the day, and somehow the ducks at the Local70 booth became a bigger deal than we planned for.
We spent most of the afternoon talking to whoever stopped by — residents, business owners, volunteers, people visiting Ham & Yam for the first time — and asking one question over and over:
What makes a good neighbor?
Most people answered it differently at first, but eventually they all kind of landed in the same place.
Be friendly. Pay attention. Help out once in a while.
One guy, Wayne Johnson, said something that resonated with us. He was talking about living in a newer neighborhood where there’s constantly construction going on, trash blowing around, little things piling up. He said being a good neighbor can be as simple as picking something up instead of walking past it.
Community Means Participation
Our conversation with Wayne led us to JustServe, an organization that helps connect people with local volunteer opportunities.
Wayne described it pretty simply: there are plenty of people willing to help and plenty of groups that need it — schools, hospitals, local organizations — but sometimes they just have trouble finding each other.
That fit with a lot of the conversations we were already having.
Nobody really talked about community like it was just a location. They talked about it more like participation. Showing up. Knowing people. Being involved in something besides your own house and your own schedule.
Why Smithfield Feels Different
As we talked to people throughout the day, one thing became pretty clear: most weren't opposed to growth. They just don't want Smithfield turning into a place that feels disconnected from the people and character already here.
That came up when we talked with Britton Perry from Garman Homes, the builder at Local70.
Part of the reason we chose Garman is because they think about community differently. The conversation has never just been about houses. It’s been about creating places where people actually know each other and spend time outside their front door.
Britton mentioned that very thing at Ham and Yam – one of the things their team is most looking forward to is getting to know the people already here in Smithfield. She also talked about some of the things that drew them to the community in the first place — the trails, outdoor gathering spaces, the duck pond, and having places where people naturally run into each other instead of just passing through.
Wrapping Up
By later in the day, the conversations stopped sounding like conversations about development and started sounding more like conversations about what people are afraid of losing.
People talked about wanting their kids to be more active. Wanting downtown to still feel local. Wanting to know the people around them. Wanting businesses that are actually connected to the community instead of just dropping in.
That's part of what Stacy Brown from Garman Homes was talking about too when we caught up with her:
"We’ve got different housing options, commercial spaces, and activities coming here — hopefully something for everyone"
And even with the rain, people hung around.
Not just long enough to grab food and leave either. People stood under tents talking for a while. Kids were soaked and didn’t seem to care. Downtown stayed busy most of the afternoon even though the weather probably should’ve cleared everybody out.
After a while, it quit feeling like people were there for a festival and felt more like everybody just wanted to be around each other for a few hours.
