Opinion: Amherst Town Government Needs New Faces, New Leadership

I moved my young family to Amherst in 1993, looking for a hometown more my style, after closing my family’s store on Long Island. Back then, after showing my father around Pioneer Valley, he observed (and I agreed) that “Amherst seemed balabatish,” by which he meant a nice place to raise a family. It did turn out to be a good home base. I am proud of our choice to move here, grateful for the many ingredients that make Amherst a leading college town. We felt quickly connected to many people here, who seemed progressive, sane, curious, and having similar values to us, re: Why Amherst?

We’ve enjoyed that this is the place where only the “H” is silent. People here like to compare notes, build on ideas, challenge assumptions, and make a difference.

My own “political” involvement here was situational. Occasionally, an issue would arise that would concern me enough that I’d go make my 3-minute speech at town meeting, planning board or select board. Those tensions included parking garages (yes), student housing in Cushman (dorms belong on campus, not on conservation land), and downtown filling with large private dorms (“Keep the downtown in downtown!”). At those times, people could get contentious, voicing their opposing views, with some characterization of the other side, and annoyance at people who all claimed to be progressive and logical, but who disagreed so mightily on issues of the day.

But that was nothing like now. Never has our government been this opaque, hurtling so chaotically towards un-scrutinized zoning bylaws, this disengaged from what the public has to say, that might lead to innovation and buy-in and support for a shared vision, which takes more collaboration than this Town Council seems open to.

I know many people who – like me- moved to Amherst for the long term, hoping to have their productive years here, raise a family, and age in this place. Many of them now question whether what Amherst is becoming will sustain them. They are considering whether to remain, because the downtown is so threatened, the leadership so expedient, and the vision so unclear.

I have lost confidence in how this town’s path forward is being determined. Our master plan is past its rated life, not to mention being cherry picked, and therefore misunderstood and misapplied. Major concepts (character, densification) are poorly defined and misused. There is the mistaken notion that the councilors, many of whom won their seats by tiny margins, have a mandate to do several widely unpopular things.

Also, what happened to separation of powers in Amherst? I’m troubled by the way the Community Resources Committee (a subset of Town Council) is actively usurping the function of the Planning Board, and flow charts showing how decisions are legally required to be made are increasingly ignored.

We are now beginning campaign season, where many of the Town Councilors are running for re-election, after serving their first terms of our new form of government. In the majority of cases, councilors have stayed rigidly true to the checklist of initiatives demanded by the political action committee that enabled their election. They will run on their records, what they got done. It is for you to judge if they kept the roads in good shape, created the right dialogue about sensitive issues like reparations, and led a trustworthy process about major initiatives. Were they good stewards? Do they serve the public effectively?

But many councilors’ records also reveal the many ways they have weakened our zoning, reportedly in fear that developers will leave us and go build 5 story student dorms in Easthampton. Did they lead the way by envisioning how our downtown will provide diversity, affordability, quality and design, and reasons to get errands done, and commune with our neighbors in Amherst Center?

I am hoping that this campaign season we will discover new voices, who will become public servants in our town. If you’re a fan of finding root causes, building on ideas, respecting an array of perspectives, you could make a big difference, and the time to register to run for office is now!

There are people in this town who would love to work on your campaign, if you are one of those people who can be a hero in this town. That H should not be silent.

Ira Bryck has lived in Amherst since 1993, ran the Family Business Center for 25 years, hosted the Western Mass. Business Show on WHMP for 7 years, now coaches business leaders, and is a big fan of Amherst’s downtown.