With several beloved businesses soon closing in a downtown with rising numbers of empty storefronts — and a city government soon to inaugurate several new officials — there is no time like the present to address the elephant in the room: Northampton has a nihilistic landlord problem, and it is past time to act.
While business owners across the nation have to contend with rising, unpredictable prices, Northampton is unique in that so many prominent commercial properties are owned by specific landlords who would prefer to allow empty storefronts to deteriorate for a tax write-off rather than rent to the next generation of entrepreneurs.
To be clear, not every business closure is due to landlord issues, and there are also responsible property owners who are heavily invested in building a thriving business community. But, everyone who has lived in this community for any amount of time knows there are specific bad actors who are preventing a healthy, generational evolution in the small business community.
These are the same individuals that do little to address public dangers like snow and ice, or impassable sidewalks. Why do we tolerate behaviors that are so outwardly disrespectful towards our community?
Rather than allow these individuals to wreak havoc on a beloved downtown in need of support, the city needs to take more actions to show that we are no longer willing to tolerate absent, neglectful property owners.
We know who these individuals are, and we know they flaunt local ordinances and state laws daily. It is time to hold them accountable. City officials should make it a mission to document and prosecute every single code violation, ADA accessibility issue, and failure to remove snow and ice from sidewalks to the fullest extent allowable by law. Issue repeated fines until problems are solved, and follow up.
Northampton needs property owners who view themselves as part of a community. Pressuring the greediest landlords who most flagrantly violate our laws will make it harder to do bad business in town, and hopefully encourage the kind of transition the community needs. It can’t be so easy to do so much damage.
Tom Bodo
Williamsburg