Letter: Removing Parking Spaces On North Common Is Unjustified
North Common parking lot. Fifteen of these spaces will be lost with the design adopted for remodeling the Common. Photo: Art Keene
I am writing to express my disappointment in the Council’s latest action to renovate the Common and remove parking spaces. No good reason was given for making the change and there are many reasons not to:
1.) Amherst is blessed with green space. One would be hard pressed to walk a block without interfacing with natural areas so we don’t need more.
2.) Our downtown business district struggles to survive with the current limited parking. They lose business to the malls with easy parking and every space lost is a customer (or ten) lost.
3.) Reducing parking won’t encourage public transit use since the PVTA schedule and routes are not conducive to daily use or running errands.
4.) The curbs in the parking areas on the Common were recently rebuilt and will have to be rebuilt again.
5.) Finally, and most importantly, the Council’s attention must be focused on the other important improvement projects such as a new elementary school, a new fire department, a new public works building and repairing the library.
Distraction by unnecessary projects diverts needed funds and attention from necessary and long overdue projects such as those listed above.
If we want to be an environmentally sensitive community we will heed the advice of the latest Pritzker-winning architectural firm which believes the most environmentally sound project is the one that is not built.
We have to repair the sick school, and give our government workers decent conditions. I don’t have children in school but the last budget I want to see cut is the school budget, especially if the equivalent funds are used to remove parking spaces from downtown!
A vibrant town requires a vibrant business district and it seems that Amherst votes against commercial interests every time.
Judith Williams
Judith Williams is a resident of Amherst
I agree entirely. It’s absolutely absurd to further impede the recovery of downtown Amherst businesses by removing some of the most essential parking spots for customers of shops at that end of town.
Without those spots you can bet that the liquor store will be closed in a year – because who would want to have to park in a parking garage (that still doesn’t exist), or blocks away to pick up a bottle of wine or six pack of beer? Nope. You can bet if you have a choice you’d go where you can pull in and park and run in and back out again. –
You can bet that traffic to the Black Sheep to grab lunch or coffee to go will be impacted. And who will want to have go searching for parking spaces blocks away for the Farmer’s Market?
It’s unfathomable to me how these decisions that continue to make it impossible for small businesses to survive in Amherst are constantly gaining traction. I’ve stopped shopping in Amherst solely because there is no diversity in the kind of businesses in the downtown- how much food can one town eat? There are no shops of interest left – so the few that are still there are struggling because they are living off of the stray diner who wanders their way. If we had a stronger presence of a far wider variety of shops people may want to come to our town. Now they just eat and leave. And if you take more parking away, who wants to bother?
How about just cleaning up the existing two sections of the commons and placing NICE QUALITY picnic furniture, maybe a decent covered stage for performances, with a movie screen for outdoor movies, some public bathrooms(!)and some nice plantings.
Someone has to be getting a kickback on this deal because it honestly makes no sense.
Thanks for your comments, Judith. I also totally agree with all your points. I marvel at the urge to make more green space by taking away necessary parking spots while approving huge buildings that eat up all sorts of green space possibilities.
I’ve only recently moved to Amherst, yet I’ve already spent many hours downtown. Still, I’ve always found the Common disappointing. Parking spaces dominate the best part of the space. If Austin Dickinson and Frederick Law Olmstead could see what their fine work has come to, I think they would find it sad. Yet the Common can be great again if it is re-designed to attract the town’s people, not their vehicles. Parking can be relocated so that it does not ruin the unique beauty of this exceptional space. The Council has come up with an excellent plan. I look forward to seeing the Amherst Common become the gem it was designed to be.