Over the past several months, I’ve spent some time writing about the challenges facing small, independent retailers. And it’s time for me to do so again, with an issue facing the town of Northampton where my store is located.
Let me start by saying a few things. As an employer, my primary focus is the health, safety, and well-being of my employees. It’s not the money or the stuff–it’s the people.
Increasingly, I feel that my ability to ensure the safety and security of my staff is threatened.
The issue is this: As a town with a reputation for acceptance and personal freedoms, we attract a diverse crowd. That’s great. It’s why we live here, why we chose to live here, and why we love it.
Except for one thing–the increasingly presence of drug and criminal activities on our streets. It’s something we grapple with every day and to be honest, feel torn about.
Here’s why: As a resident of the Pioneer Valley, a mother, a wife, and a business owner, I respect the right to free speech, to free assembly, and for people to make their individual choices. Now, however, we are at a point where people’s choices are interfering with my ability to run my business and to ensure that my employees can come to work safely, have a secure work environment, and return home safely when work is done.
Let me tell you about a few incidents in the last two weeks. In that time, including today, my staff and I have called the Northampton Police at least 3 times, the latest being today when a friend and I witnessed a man virtually unable to walk down the sidewalk, intoxicated, blocking pedestrian access, and requesting money from passersby.
This past Friday night, my store manager called when two of my staff were verbally assaulted by a man we have called about several times in the past. (This same man once asked one of my staff if he could sell her bike for drug money, then share the crack with her. What an offer!)
I called one weekday, on the way to the parking garage, as two men drank Vodka outside of Herrell’s Ice Cream, then threw their empty bottles and cigarette packs into the street. 2:30 in the afternoon, outside an ice cream shop where as a parent, I could imagine bringing my son for an after school treat. Needless to say, it didn’t make ice cream seem desirable.
These are just a few of the episodes we have encountered, in just the past two weeks, and frankly, these are on the tamer side relative to some we have witnessed.
Last night, I attended a meeting of the Downtown Business Community to meet with police and to hear what our options are. On my way there, a couple approached me to ask for money and when I refused, with a simple no, yelled at me the following, “Oh, if you’re black in this town they arrest you, but if you’re gay, they throw you an engagement party.” And increasingly, I hear this kind of talk. Talk that is homophobic, or racist, or offensive in another way.
I shook it off, walked upstairs to my meeting and hoped to hear about my options. And do you know what I learned? We have none right now.
Because of the very important right for people to be on the street, to speak their minds, and to follow their own path, there are no real options. And again-let me repeat-these are rights I value and respect.
And at this point, however, I’m simply at a loss about how to handle it and how best to help our town. And so, I come to you, Essentials’ friends and family. Let’s think creatively about how to solve these problems and take back our streets from these behaviors.
I’ve tried some things and I want to share two letters with you, each penned to Mayor Clare Higgins over the course of the last 7 months. To date, there has been no response to these letters, despite my call for a meeting with her.
If you feel that these issues warrant our attention as a community, and that we have to determine a solution that benefits all of us, I encourage you to write to the City Council, write to the Mayor, and to share your ideas with me and the other business owners in town. Is there a creative way we can address this problem? It’s past time which means the time is now.
Here is the first letter I sent to the Mayor last summer.
16 July 2010
Mayor’s Office-Room 12
City of Northampton
210 Main Street
Northampton, MA 01060
Dear Mayor Higgins,
I write to you today as a business owner in Northampton, having owned Essentials, on Main Street, for the past six years. In my opinion, local independent retailers are the backbone of what makes this town vibrant, alive, and thriving.
I am writing out of exasperation and frustration at what I see as a worsening of issues with drug and criminal activity on the streets of Northampton. It is clear that as a town, we face economic times that require tough choices. That being said, a lack of resources cannot be blamed for letting our town become a place that feels uninviting, and potentially even a threatening place to be.
More and more, I hear customers talk about how they don’t feel comfortable walking the streets of Northampton. They are tired of being accosted and feeling threatened. And I admit-I can’t blame them.
In the last month, we have had a drunken man in the store with a lit cigarette, who became belligerent when asked to leave. I have witnessed yet another drug transaction in the Kirkland Avenue alley, and the participants were unmoved when I shouted to them “I can actually see what you are doing!” We have had to ask numerous people to vacate the front of the store as they impeded access to our front door, smoking in our doorway, discussing drug-related activities. And we have witnessed the “injured vet” in front of CVS literally take shifts with two other men, pooling money with one another as they take breaks from their station to leave the scene and buy drugs. We have also witnessed numerous fist-fights, and as I write this line, one of my staff has come to tell me of another police visit outside the store because of a violent, inebriated man outside.
Two days ago, I left my store to hear a man outside of CVS swearing and shouting expletives as he discussed his latest arrest for wielding a knife. I turned to ask him to please be aware of his language as there were families and children walking down the street, to be faced with another torrent of expletives, now directed at me.
We have watched people pass out in front of the store. We have cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned.
Many of my employees walk either to work, or home at night, on a path that takes them under the bridge on Main Street. They feel threatened by and uncomfortable with the men, frequently in an altered state, who sit there and comment to and about them. I cannot stomach a situation where my staff do not feel safe coming to work, and sometimes fear who might actually come in to the store.
We call police non-emergency on a regular basis. I feel that too high a percentage of my time at work is now being spent on crisis management, dealing with situations like those I have described above, and taking me away from the work I need to do. I cannot “police” the public way, Kirkland Avenue, behind my store, and yet increasingly, feel that this is something I have to do because the activities there directly impact my business. I have a freight door delivery in the back and when my staff needs to go back there, they feel nervous and uncomfortable, often because of the public drunkenness we see back there.
My store manager, Colette Katsikas, who has been with the store for 13-years, dislikes going to her car at night because of the number of men urinating in the Kirkland Avenue alley, leaving alcohol containers—which my staff then has to clean up–, and loitering. She talks to me about how she avoids walking up the street, regardless of the time of day, because she no longer feels safe in a town that is her home. Ms. Katsikas also feels that with regard to inappropriate and unsafe behavior on the street, she does not have a voice because she fears the repercussions of speaking out, and “doesn’t want to make them angry.”
In my opinion, the more customers feel uncomfortable and avoid shopping and visiting here, the greater the economic impact on my business and others. Stores like mine have already been weathering an untenable economic situation, now made worse by the current “feeling” on the street.
To be completely honest, there are many times where even as business owner, I avoid downtown shopping and avoid bringing my son to downtown because I can’t handle the hassle anymore, and because there are certain things I just don’t want my 9-year-old to have to see. It is exhausting. If I am feeling that way, how can we legitimately expect that customers will be inclined to visit us when there are other options for them?
As a staff, we respect the right of people to congregate in town, and yet, when does this behavior impede our right to exist peacefully in our own town?
Town officials need to make clear that there will be zero tolerance in this town for behavior of this kind. Northampton needs to remain a safe place for ALL of its residents and visitors, but increasingly does not feel that way for me and the women who work for me.
I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this with your further and welcome the opportunity for brainstorming solutions to help the situation.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Respectfully,
Sydne J. Didier
Owner, Essentials
To view Part 2 of this post, please visit Northampton Needs Our Ideas, Part 2.
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