Call me old-fashioned. I like downtowns to be denser and busier than non-downtowns, the place where stores and theaters and restaurants are. And I like the spaces in between the downtowns to be not built up, with farms, mountains or forests. Recently, this area has made some progress on both scores.
First, the open space. The Commonwealth, in an amazing exhibition of quiet persistence and skill, has succeeded in saving important land on both our regional mountain ranges - Mt. Holyoke and Mt. Tom - from inappropriate development. Citizens have worked very hard to protect these places, local officials and state employees in the region have devoted untold hours to meetings and negotiations to the effort, and higher-level state officials said "yes" in meaningful ways to make these purchases possible. It's two victories against sprawl.
Part of protecting some very special places is concentrating development in other places like the centers of towns. Downtown Amherst seems likely to become more like a downtown. The Amherst Cinema project is moving forward with purchase of the building and raising funds for renovation. I hope that in a couple of years or so it will be a functioning arts center, drawing people from this town and its neighbors, maybe even from further afield. More local restaurants will, I also hope, stay open later in the evening so patrons of films or theater performances will have some places to go after the show to talk about what they've seen or just socialize with friends. (I remember being frustrated by the dearth of places to sit and talk after a movie when the Amherst Cinema was showing films not so long ago).
To make this vision happen we'll need several things to come together. Certainly we'll need generous people to commit time and finances to the Amherst Cinema project. We'll need entrepreneurs who accurately read the wishes of the public for types of food, drink and ambiance will attract people to nightspots. We'll need people with similar skills, courage and insight to program the Cinema's performance spaces, to attract a variety of paying audiences. Will we have baroque music one night and hip hop the next? Yet another performance by an actress too old for the part in "The Belle of Amherst"? Local stand-up comics? Can movie theaters alternate showings fine old classics and deserving films that never had a chance to draw an audience with more sure-fire crowd pleasers? I hope so.
Another thing we'll need is more parking that can be found by people who don't know the downtown intimately. That means the garage at Boltwood Walk should be built as soon as we can. While I've never believed that a garage can revitalize a downtown that no one wants to come to, I'm quite certain that lack of convenient parking can interfere with people coming to performances they'd like to see or restaurants they'd like to eat at, particularly if the other things competing for their time and money are more convenient. Much as we might wish that people would leave their cars at home and head out to dinner and a movie by bus, I see no evidence that people who have that choice take it; and I know I wouldn't want to bank my money on prospect. If the downtown were dense enough to have a large potential audience living within a few blocks of restaurants and theater, it would be a different situation and it wouldn't be Amherst. It would be Cambridge.
Can we make downtown Amherst a miniature Northampton? Do we want to? I don't know the answer to either question, but it's time to consider seriously the options and possibilities. In different ways we are making decisions that will stimulate activity in the downtown. From my point of view, renovating an old building for use as an arts center makes no sense if we don't also want to make it easier for people to get to it. Working together, we can help our downtown improve in its ability to interest and serve a wide range of people, and preserve farmland and views from being swallowed up by sprawl.