My wife and I moved to Northampton last summer after 33 years in Brookline where we’d been active in the civic and political life of the community. We quickly found ourselves facing the controversies over the Picture Main Street project — loss of parking, dangerous bike lanes, harm to local businesses, years of messy construction, inevitable cost overruns, etc.
Picture Main Street will not solve Northampton’s affordable housing crisis, its shrinking tax base, or the financial insecurity of its schools. And if the project were to deflect action and attention from those more serious problems, then we’d oppose it. But without thoughtful change (and Picture Main Street has been subject to years of serious thought), towns and cities stagnate and decline.
The Picture Main Street project definitely requires a leap of faith because the outcome, as with any major design endeavor, cannot be predicted. But downtown needs a facelift, the streets need modernization, and essential infrastructure repairs should not be delayed. Picture Main Street is not a paradisial solution, but odds are it will bring renewed vibrancy to our aging city.
Charles Morgan
Northampton