Letter: Town Discriminates Against Black Owned Businesses
Hazel's Blue Lagoon in downtown Amherst. Photo: Hazel's Blue Lagoon / Facebook
The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council, The Amherst Town Manager, The Amherst Human Rights Commission, The Amherst Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, The Amherst Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, and selected members of the Massachusetts Legislature on June 12, 2023.
I want to thank Pamela Young for pulling together a response to my complaint with the Human Rights Commission against the anti-black, racist actions of town government in joint venture with the anti-black, racist action of the Amherst Business Improvement District to deprive a black owned business, Hazel’s Blue Lagoon, of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money and ultimately drive them out of business. Her response is ten pages and is attached along with exhibits she included.
The Town of Amherst awarded the Drake $300,000 in ARPA funds. The Drake is operated by the Downtown Amherst Foundation (DAF) which shares an executive director with the Amherst Business Improvement District (BID). DAF is the nonprofit arm of the BID. The BID is the DAF is the Drake.
The Town of Amherst gave the BID full control of allocating funds to small businesses. Hazel’s Blue Lagoon did not receive a penny. The public does not know who comprised the committee the BID assembled to approve which businesses would get ARPA funds and how much. Does the town manager know?
The town allows the Drake to operate without a ramp to their stage. The Town treated Hazel’s Blue Lagoon differently and enforced the code with regards to the installation of a permanent accessible ramp and railings. The Town’s building commissioner knew to issue a temporary occupancy license to the Drake pending a submission of an application for a variance with the state. Instead, the Drake was issued a regular occupancy license without any stipulations. Do we trust the process? What does it take to push things through in town? Connections, money, and privilege? How much money and how white do you need to be in order to establish a business in town that thrives and receives the critical state and federal money meant to support businesses like Hazel’s Blue Lagoon to survive?
Why is it that a variance application with the state comes a year after a business is in full operation?
I will be attending the meeting (of the Disability Access Committee) tomorrow (6/13) at 11:30 where the Drake’s issues with their stage will be discussed along with the variance application they plan to submit to the state.
Read the DEI response to the complaint below.
Vira Douangmany Cage
Vira Douangmany Cage is a resident of Amherst.
For anyone wondering who the Amherst Business Improvement District (BID) are, here are the names of their Board of Directors. Source:
https://business.amherstarea.com/list/member/amherst-business-improvement-district-bid-1196
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Executive Committee:
Barry Roberts, President
Jerry Jolly, Vice President
Sharon Povinelli, Treasurer
Tony Maroulis, Secretary
Jeremy Austin
Sarah Barr
Paul Bockelman
Andrew Bohne
Ewen Chen
Gerry Jones
David Mazor
Sharon Sharry
If you did a Venn diagram with 3 circles showing the BID’s Board and staff, the board and staff of the Downtown Amherst Foundation (which runs the Drake) and the decision-makers giving $300,000 in federal ARPA funds to the BID, it shows a pretty small, overlapping group of people.
Janet – thank you. I also took a look at the BID representatives and was surprised to see such a close connection with other downtown (Amherst Center) business interests. Hetty
Adding a bit more to my comment: I think people outside this circle of decision-makers and beneficiaries (some overlapping) could feel left out and reasonably concerned about how decisions were made and fairness. Maybe the Northampton process described would have been more transparent and independent. Also remembering how we were all flying by the seat of our pants during Covid.