OPINION: STAYING AFLOAT. HOW AMERST IS PROTECTING ITS SMALL BUSINESSES

by Gabrielle Gould

Editor’s note: This column also appeared in the Amherst Bulletin

Well, here we are in week 11 or so of being quarantined at home due to the novel coronavirus/COVID-19.  Although pretty much everyone agrees that this is a huge deviation from our respective plans, I for one have at least developed a true and tremendous sense of gratitude that at least I live in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with a governor who has clearly placed human life and well being over the economy. I also write this with some understanding of the toll this shutdown has taken on those whose “stay at home” has not been in any way easy, sustainable or even sometimes safe.

My job as the Director for the Amherst Downtown Business Improvement District is to support, sustain, and grow our Amherst businesses and those businesses, in turn, are the life-blood of our town. Over the past 12 weeks, the BID along with the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce has worked tirelessly to protect those businesses and our neighbors that operate them. We have had the ear of the Amherst Town Council at several public meetings regarding the future of the small and local businesses across Amherst. As organizations, we have expanded our territory to create concepts to and with the Amherst Town Council and Town Manager, as well as state authorities for a return to a new world and a new normal. At each of the meetings we have been presented at we have a limited set time and we keep our focus on the immense toll this has taken on our businesses, we focus on the fact that Amherst now has one of the leading unemployment rates in all of MA at almost 39% and what we can do about that. While it may seem to some that our focus is business over humanity, it is literally and completely the opposite. The colleges and University (to date) have not had major lay-offs; the economic driver that is higher education is as yet unchanged. What has led us to nearly 39% unemployment stems largely from the full or partial closure of our remarkable Amherst businesses during this time.  We are working with the Town Council and state to create various options, ways, means, and solutions to bring these businesses relief and to facilitate a return within State Guidelines.

 Our organizations are also still very committed to the “Destination Amherst” plans that were in development prior to the pandemic, aka: to create a Town that is on its own a reason to frequent and visit- a town that happens to be wonderfully flanked by two esteemed colleges and one of the best Universities in the country. We do so because we understand what small business means to the greater community. Our greater Amherst businesses support social services; they are dependable employers, they create stability in our community and offer services for ALL socioeconomic sectors that define our community. 

We do this because one of the things that COVID 19 has taught us is that we should be, that we deserve to be, and that we can be a community worth supporting and visiting in spite of or in addition to the higher learning entities that flank our sides. When we created the Downtown Amherst Foundation as an “Arts & Culture” builder for our downtown and then shifted it to be a Relief and Resiliency Grant-Making Foundation we did so to ensure that our community could continue to support the year-round residents, the visiting families and students as well as the CHD, the Food Bank, the Survival Center, Craig’s Doors, and many more important organizations.

I ask everyone to take a moment to observe what our local Amherst businesses have accomplished during this insanity. The fact that restaurants struggling to be open over these past 10 weeks have collectively served thousands of meals to the Essential Meals Project, the Feed the Front Lines Project and the continued “family meal” concept to the unemployed restaurant workers throughout our area is but one reflection of how important and crucial the survival of these businesses are. Simultaneously, many businesses fret over how to keep their staff both employed AND safe over and beyond their own fiscal viability. We have a plethora of thoughtful operators in this town who ask me to petition Governor Baker not “get us open” but “please when we are ready, reopen us safely for the health of our employees and our customers as the most important issue”. In the past 12 weeks The Bid and the Chamber have been a voice for our local businesses. Not a week has gone by that we have not been on calls or Zoom meetings with our Town officials, our State Reps, our Senate, Speakers, Secretaries, Undersecretaries, Task Force members, CDBG offices, and even the Governor. We have had the ability to work consistently with these agencies to get answers, to share solutions, to drive legislation, and to have our unique area heard and attended to. We have also raised $265,000 from 280 individual donors for the Relief and Resiliency fund and awarded close to $150,000 of that to sustain over 30 local Amherst businesses.  We will host the second round of micro-grants in early June. We continue to market and support our businesses, host webinars with legal, marketing, accounting, and finance experts and work hand in hand (or zoom with Zoom) to guide our businesses to the best options available at this time. We share a continually updated list of who is open and how they are operating and are constantly sharing information as it becomes available with our community, our businesses, and our landlords ensuring that they have the best and most timely information at the ready. The tagline from the Amherst Chamber is “In Your Corner” but I can say that the BID and Chamber could add “24/7” to that as I know our teams have been working non-stop. We know we live in a remarkable, generous, capable, and resilient community. We know we can return to whatever the new normal is with strength and support. We know that this will not be easy and that the solutions will be imperfect in an imperfect world, but we are here, we are listening and we are taking action to remain resilient, strong and a community that will and does give back on every level. 

Gabrielle Gould is  Executive Director of the Downtown Amherst Business Improvement District