I’m writing in response to, and in support of, Rutherford Platt’s July 28 letter in which he reiterated the fact that the Picture Main Street project seems to somehow maintain its momentum, and is now being viewed as a fait accompli despite the fact that it’s now estimated to cost almost twice as much as initially proposed; has many design flaws; will result in devastation of many shade trees and most importantly many businesses; and has not had its proposed designs tested in any meaningful way.
What’s especially galling (and remarkable) is that this project keeps chugging along even though Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra demonstrated blatant fiscal irresponsibility for the whole community to witness when she purchased the Old Baptist Church three years ago to serve as the “Resilience Hub” at double what it was worth, according to one appraisal, and from Eric Suher no less, the man who has done more than anyone else to degrade Northampton by allowing his multiple commercial properties in prime locations to lay vacant for years.
Mr. Platt noted all this in his letter as well as multiple letters over the past couple of years. In addition to this letter, many other people have submitted intelligent, thoughtful letters offering ideas, modifications and alternative approaches that surely warrant evaluation. The tone of this most recent letter by Rutherford felt different to me though. What came across to me was a sense of hopelessness and futility, a feeling of yelling into the wind.
About two years ago, I attended a few of the planning meetings of the Say No to Main Street. There was a fair amount of enthusiasm and many worthy ideas were discussed. The months passed by, the meetings became less frequent, and nothing much seemed to be happening. I eventually stopped attending, but I continued to be kept abreast of what was discussed by my wife who remained actively involved. After every meeting I would ask her what transpired and her usual response was “ not much.”
I’m a physician who’s been practicing in this town for almost 50 years. As such, you can be sure I’m not someone who is thrilled by the litigiousness of our society. I also don’t like getting root canals but they can be urgently necessary if, for instance, you have an abscess. Northampton is hurting now. It needs an intervention, but not one of the scale proposed by Mayor Sciarra. My fear is that such an endeavor would have terrible consequences, and at this point the only way to arrest the inexorable progression of this project would be for concerned citizens to unite and sue the city. Otherwise we might be saying what the surgeon said who just lost a patient, “The operation was a success, but unfortunately the patient died.”
Bennett Gaev, M.D., lives in Northampton.