Privatization is the fragmented narrative that Isaac Mass is trying to weave in his op-ed. It is a story about how we can’t spend any money because the senior center will cause taxes to be higher. Twenty to 25 percent usage isn’t high enough. I don’t want to pay for those other people.
The question remains, will the senior center actually raise our taxes? Is this a reasonable critique of the town’s debt capacity, or is Mass using the senior center to make a political point for privatizing government?
We have a public senior center. It seems clear that we need to think about what we want our government to do. What should our government be funding? What do we want to invest our public money in?
In Northampton, this move toward luxury development has created a Main Street that has impossibly high rents for businesses as well as apartments. Do we want to fund private development, to catch the runoff of inflated rentals?
When we have such underutilized spaces in our downtown, why should we build new buildings elsewhere? If we want to build a healthy community, how can we best honor our social responsibilities? Do we want to use bond funding for reinvesting in our community, or just to have the cheapest possible option?
These are questions that Mass seems to be ignoring. These are the most crucial questions for our politicians.
Betsy Shapiro
Greenfield