I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a wonderful school vacation. I’d like to talk about three topics this week: spending and taxes, hiring, and downtown development.
First, spending and taxes… The budget process has begun. The mayor and department heads are preparing plans for the next fiscal year.The council should receive the budget in April or May, and we’ll vote on it before the end of June. This process is where the actual tax burden is set (based on the spending plan). Now is the time to let your city council representatives and the mayor know what your priorities are. Please don’t wait until after the budget is set or the tax shift is discussed before participating.
Second, hiring… The city has, and will have, several key positions open. We need to make sure that we hire the best employees possible to serve the best interests of Westfield. I’m not talking about the best connected, or the one who’s been employed the longest, I’m talking about the best skilled, the most experienced, and the person who can bring wonderful leadership and realistic vision to these key spots. I don’t care if they live in Westfield right now. I’d like to see searches that generate a large pool of qualified candidates, and then a review of these candidates by a qualified team who will make an unbiased recommendation for hiring. The council will have to review and approve some of these candidates. I hope council does its own due diligence before confirming appointments. The people elected us to be a separate branch of government and a separate set of eyes and minds. We’re supposed to independently review things and come to our own conclusions – this is necessary to fulfill our obligations and the expectations of the people we represent.
Lastly, downtown development… This is a tough one. There are no easy answers. The new roads and bridges are nice, but they aren’t game changers. Downtown is still downtown. Yeah, we’ve got some nicer roads and new parks (and the taxpayers have a lot more debt) but the characteristics that have troubled downtown are still there. Frankly, it’s a pain in the neck for many folks to shop and park downtown. Everyone’s been saying that for years. I give a lot of credit to those business owners who have made the efforts to start or continue a business in this district. It’s not easy. Recent “vision” plans have included all kinds of “wishful thinking” or have been based around the “It’s a Wonderful Life” version of downtown living. The plans are nice, but most are not realistic. The world is different today. The population is more mobile and people have a lot more options when shopping. Businesses need to sell enough product or services, at prices that give them enough profit to pay their bills, employees, taxes, and all the other operating costs of the business. Bowling alleys, movies theatres, craft stores, and bookstores (except college) are all having very tough time surviving in high population, high income, markets. It’s unrealistic to think they could survive in downtown Westfield. Restaurants are great, and I’d like to see more variety. But, realistically, how many can our population support? If we open a new one, does it just take away business from the current ones? How do we compete with West Springfield, Springfield, Chicopee, and others? Are folks from those towns going to drive to Westfield on a regular basis?
In my opinion, Westfield needs more downtown residents with higher disposable income if we expect to have a vibrant downtown. The residents who live further away from downtown can easily get to the malls on Route 20, Holyoke, West Springfield, and Chicopee. They can shop at super stores like Walmart, Target, and Costco. They shop online. Ask yourself, what is it that you can’t get from one of these other sources? What would it take to get you to skip one of those other sources and shop downtown? Tough question, right?
Some folks want to compare us to Northampton. In my opinion, we’re not the same, and it’s unrealistic to think we can be the same anytime soon, if ever. Northampton has a concentrated population with more disposable income (average is about twice that of Westfield). They have a very large student population within 15 minutes or so. The Northampton – Hadley – Amherst corridor serves a very large population and land area – and has almost no competition. Westfield competes with established commercial areas in West Springfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke.So, what do we do? I think we need to try to increase the downtown population with students, young working adults, and seniors with disposable income. We need to make sure the infrastructure supports new residential and commercial facilities. We need to make sure there is plenty of parking and easy flow in and out of downtown. Right now, Westfield has a population gap in the 20-30 year-old range. Young working adults, with disposable income, are not making Westfield their home. We need to try to keep young people here and hope they choose to make Westfield their home when they start their families. Eventually, we need to offer new employment opportunities, but in the short-term, just having the residents will make a big difference. If we have the right type of homes (nice high-density market rate apartments, condos, etc…) and easy traffic flow, people can live here and travel to work in other towns if they don’t work at the hundreds of businesses in town. If we can increase that population, the businesses that support that population will start popping up.
In my opinion, what isn’t going to work, is increasing the population of low-income families downtown, nor building a bus terminal in the middle of Elm Street, nor redistributing the income by taxing businesses in other parts of town and granting money or providing other government funds to small businesses in downtown. Facelifts are not going to fix the problems downtown. For the businesses to be successful, they need customers and they need to be able to make a profit.
Please feel free to give me call or blast me an email at [email protected] if you have any comments or questions.
Dave Flaherty, City Councilor
