It’s time to finally say goodbye to 2016 and I’m guessing that prospect isn’t going to break too many hearts — especially in this neck of the political woods.
We lost a lot of good people this year, which always happens, but this trip around the sun seemed especially brutal, punctuated in the past week by the deaths of George Michael and Carrie Fisher in the entertainment world, and closer to home with the passing of Betty Nee, who was pretty much the heart and soul of Greenfield High School over the last six-plus decades.
Things weren’t a whole lot better politically, as the nation slogged through one of the longest, nastiest, spirit-sucking presidential elections in history, which ended in an improbable win by the most unlikely of candidates. And while I’m tempted for the umpteenth time to suggest that we all find a way to accept the reality that Donald Trump will be living in the White House in less than a month, I’m not going to waste the ink, because it’s painfully apparent that there are many of us who will never regard him as our leader, especially when three million more of our citizens voted for his opponent than Trump.
I suspect a lot of our national attention, and angst, will be focused in the new president’s direction in the coming year, but fortunately, there are always a few homegrown stories for us to focus on in the new year. Let’s consider just a few.
It’s anybody’s guess whether 2017 will be the year that Greenfield finally learns the fate of its long-awaited French King Highway discount retail store. I think a number of people expect the courts to rule in the town’s favor, including a few government officials, who are planning a zoning change that would make it easier to bring in business that a big box might attract to that corridor.
Next week, the Greenfield Planning Board and the town council’s Economic Development and Planning Committee will hold a joint hearing to discuss the changes to the French King overlay district, which will make it easier for gas stations and small stores to set up in that area, theoretically to take advantage of the additional traffic the big box store is likely to generate.
Though it has been mentioned a few times at public meetings, there hasn’t been a great deal said about the change, which has already prompted Greenfield Sprawlbuster Albert Norman to take to social media to decry the stealth nature of the proposal as he seeks to rally forces to block what he clearly feels is the latest threat to Greenfield’s eastern gateway.
When the first project constructed under a new regulation faces a legal challenge, it doesn’t bode well for said regulation. But that’s exactly what has happened with Greenfield’s new “accessory dwelling ordinance,” which allows residents to construct additional housing on their properties if space permits. The measure was drafted by the planning board and passed by the council with relative ease, although there was one member who not only doesn’t like the idea, but wants to see it dumped in 2017.
“I think it just flies in the face of a lot of other zoning laws which have been on the books for years,” Precinct 7 Councilor William Childs said. “I objected to it before, but was asked to keep quiet and we could come back and change it later, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
It remains to be seen whether Childs has the votes to do away with the ordinance, but I would expect any effort to do so would be met with strenuous objection from planning board members, most notably, Chairwoman Roxann Wedegartner.
The Trump election may wind up being the best thing that could ever happen to the Democratic Party, especially on the local level, where people are looking to channel their anger into action.
This is definitely true in Greenfield, where the Democratic Town Committee is already making plans to recruit a slate of candidates to challenge a number of the more conservative voices in town government over the next few election cycles.
“We have a good energy right now,” Committee Chair Danielle Letourneau-Therrien told me recently. “It’s a great group of people, and we are optimistic that we can effect change in our town.”
Greenfield elections have been pretty much apolitical since the advent of the mayoral charter, and while that isn’t likely to change, it will be interesting to see if the Dems can do so. Either way, it will sure be fun watching them try.
Happy New Year.