Published: 9/2/2020 7:27:09 PM
NORTHAMPTON — Petitions supporting and opposing recent changes to upper Main Street are attracting more and more signatures.
Fifty downtown businesses owners and managers have now signed a petition to reverse the temporary redesign. At the same time, a petition that started on Change.org last week, “Make Northampton Streetscape Changes Permanent,” has more than 250 signatures.
Intended to draw more people downtown, the project included narrowing upper Main Street to one traffic lane in each direction to make way for protected bike lanes and expanded open space for activities such as outdoor dining. The temporary changes were made in late August through a nearly $200,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and will likely last until mid-November, Mayor David Narkewicz has said.
Peter Kerantzas, an owner of Haven Body Arts, started a petition to reverse the changes, and now at least 50 businesses in the downtown area have signed it. Those who recently signed include Herrell’s, Eastside Grill, Yokohama Ramen, Paul and Elizabeth’s, and Forget Me Not Florist. Kerantzas cited issues such as less parking, increased traffic, and the fact that the city didn’t consult businesses about what they wanted.
The Eastside Grill signed onto the petition about a week ago.
“There’s nothing wrong with the idea,” Robbie Bocon, the restaurant’s general manager, said of the redesign. “I like the idea. It’s been the execution, really.”
The city didn’t consult with businesses while planning the project, Bocon said. “Not being part of the dialogue has been the biggest concern,” he said, especially when it’s the businesses’ livelihoods at stake. “We could have offered a lot of input.”
Others support the street redesign.
“I’ve driven the new changes. I’ve biked them. I’ve run in the painted areas,” said Carson Poe, a downtown residents and transportation researcher. “I would say it’s better in all cases.”
Poe has lived downtown on Masonic Street for 10 years and started an online petition to make the changes permanent. He works from his downtown home and shops downtown. “Our whole life is pretty much downtown,” he said.
When Poe heard about the petition from businesses soon after the changes were implemented, he said, “I was disappointed. I though it was a really nearsighted view that wasn’t based on data or giving it a chance.”
As for businesses citing issues with parking, Poe noted that the parking garage offers free parking for the first hour. He started the petition “to hopefully highlight the support that I think that’s also out there and not have the story just be, ‘we’re against this.’”
A dueling petition Kerantzas started for the general public, “Immediately restore the former parking and traffic pattern to downtown Northampton,” now has more than 950 signatures.
In response to the petition from local businesses, Narkewicz said he spent time on Main Street late last week taking to business about the redesign and hearing their concerns.
“In my discussions with folks, what I had asked for was the opportunity for us to be given two or three weeks to be able to evaluate the changes,” he said, noting that the petition to reverse the changes started days after the changes were made. “I feel like there was not really an opportunity to see how these changes would be implemented. It certainly didn’t allow time for businesses that wanted to use the public space to go through the process and make that happen.”
Narkewicz is scheduling a virtual town hall on Sept. 10 to talk about the changes with downtown businesses.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.
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