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The Amherst Town Hall building on Wednesday evening, looking down Main Street toward Emily Dickinson’s house. -
The Amherst Town Hall building on Wednesday evening, looking along Boltwood Avenue with the Town Common on the right. -
Downtown Amherst looking down Main Street toward the Town Hall building on Wednesday evening. -
Downtown Amherst, looking down East Pleasant Street at two five-story mixed-use buildings: 11 East Pleasant, still under construction, and the completed One East Pleasant. -
Downtown Amherst over East Pleasant Street, and the Kendrick Place Apartments building, looking toward the high school on Wednesday evening. -
Downtown Amherst over North Pleasant Street looking toward UMass on Wednesday afternoon. -
Downtown Amherst over the Main and Pleasant Street intersection on Wednesday afternoon.
AMHERST — Addressing political polarization and healing divisions in Amherst has been a theme for some of those running for office in Amherst’s municipal election on Tuesday, which comes after a turbulent period over the summer when the school superintendent departed and three members of the Amherst School Committee resigned, saying they had faced increasingly hostile behavior and vitriol from some in the community.
Yet back in May, the last time voters came to the polls, a $97.5 million elementary school building project received more than 80% support, showing that consensus is possible, even as differences often are highlighted.
For Ben Herrington, one of those who left the School Committee, at least part of the contentiousness in Amherst can be traced to the failed school building project in 2017, a year before voters adopted a new town charter that changed the representative Town Meeting-Select Board-town manager form of government to one with a 13-member Town Council and a town manager.
“I think that there have always been political divisions in Amherst, but it seems as though the previous school building project exacerbated a great deal of those divisions, and what we are seeing in town now is really just a continuation of that,” Herrington says. “It seems as if a lot of the divisions in town follow the same fissures as did the school building project and the charter vote.”
Ira Bryck, a longtime resident who has expressed concerns about inappropriate in-fill development, said that ongoing discord in Amherst feels like a local brand of national divisiveness.
“In Amherst, most people have left-of-center perspectives, but the tone is as ugly as ever,” Bryck said. “Anyone who disagrees with those who want more dorms downtown, who want a healthy mix of families and students, who don’t want unbridled ‘densification,’ are labeled ‘naysayers’ and are dismissed as NIMBYs, instead of being included in a more collaborative problem-solving process.”
Town Councilor Dorothy Pam, who is stepping down when her term expires at the end of the year, said that there has been a collegial atmosphere during her five years on the council.
“Although it is not always pleasant to serve on the Town Council, it is not because of incivility,” Pam said. “Indeed, even though I often say uncomfortable things, having been raised to honor the Quaker tradition of ‘speaking truth to power,’ I have often noted how warmly I have been treated by the members of the public, any nastiness perhaps confined to private emails.”
Clare Bertrand, who was among those pushing for change to town government and is now a member of Amherst Forward, one of two political action committees in town, sees Amherst as a microcosm of what is seen nationally.
“I don’t think we have deeper divisions here than any other town. The tensions that come from having a ‘city’ (UMass) inside a college town are unique, but tensions exist in all communities,” Bertrand said.
Another School Committee member who departed, Peter Demling, said with more wishes and fewer resources, debates become bigger. “Strong disagreements about how to run things and use resources are part of living in a shared society. This has always been and will always be the case and is not unique to Amherst,” Demling said.
With the third election for Town Council about to take place, Andy Churchill, who chaired the Charter Review Commission, said he continues to be pleased by the number of candidates and the amount of conversation about issues and priorities.
“I don’t remember having this level of discussion prior to the new form of government,” Churchill said. “We have competitive elections with candidates and their allies articulating their visions for the future of the town. So far, we’ve ended up with a council that does a pretty good job of representing the different viewpoints in Amherst.”
Both the Progressive Coalition of Amherst and Amherst Forward, the competing political action committees, are active in sending out questionnaires to those seeking office and making endorsements, though some have chosen to run as independents.
Bryck disagrees with Churchill about Amherst’s new government. “The advertised promise of Town Council was to increase transparency and democracy, but it seems that the main change is it now takes nine people of the 13 council members to make radical and unpopular changes to the town, and backroom influencers get those nine elected. Everyone says they are independent thinkers, but too often vote in lockstep.”
Shalini Bahl-Milne, who like Pam has served on the council since its inception, said people not feeling heard is one of the main factors in the appearance of conflict. She suggests a pause and reset may be in order.
“We require better priority setting and decision-making frameworks that enable councilors from diverse backgrounds to collaborate towards shared goals,” Bahl-Milne said.
Though only serving for one term on the Town Council, Michele Miller said she has observed divides becoming more pronounced. “I don’t think it’s unusual, at least initially, for a town that is grappling with its history and beginning the process of becoming more inclusive and equitable to have a heightened atmosphere of division,” Miller said.
Allison McDonald, the third School Committee member to resign, said there always has been a level of vitriol, which may be entrenched due to the divide. “I’ve found that division in Amherst is more a division of people than it is a division based on ideas. There are more areas of agreement in our community than you might imagine given the level of vitriol in our public discourse.”
It is the political action committees, though, that get a lot of attention. Lou Conover wrote a piece published by the Amherst Indy observing that, “Political parties tend to stifle debate by taking hard positions on the questions of the day. They lead to extremism and resistance to compromise.”
Darcy DuMont, who served on the inaugural Town Council, compares Amherst Forward’s tactics to that of Karl Rove, the political strategist who she contends got people to vote against their best interests, arguing that “its priority is to represent the interests of real estate developers, investors and builders.”
“Amherst Forward has been a source of polarization in town since the creation of the Town Council and has used emotional manipulation to continue the division,” DuMont writes.
“I believe that the political action committees in town are more of a symptom of the underlying discourse that had already existed in town,” Herrington counters.
Bertrand, though, said that Amherst Forward is about educating voters and having accountable representation. Churchill notes that there was a climate of suspicion that had already developed among a vocal faction of Town Meeting, who no longer respected the time and expertise of staff and committee members. Many of those are now in the camp opposed to Amherst Forward’s mission.
“At some point that changed, and there were pointed criticisms of Select Board, Finance Committee, and Planning Board members and Planning Department staff, who were portrayed as just wanting Town Meeting to rubber-stamp their plans.”
Demling said a more transparent government means divisions are more transparent, too.
“What’s changed is how organized groups are with framing issues as us-vs.-them holy wars of values; and how comfortable these groups are promoting misinformation and engaging in personal attacks, encouraged by the effectiveness of these tactics,” Demling said.
“It seems the PACs each have their questionnaires that measure allegiance to iron-clad platforms, lacking collaboration and innovation,” Bryck said. “No candidate that chooses to identify themselves as independent and open-minded ever earn an endorsement, and therefore reject endorsements.”
Pam came to Amherst in 2010 after being active in independent Democratic politics in New York City. As she sees it, she can’t support Amherst Forward because its goals are aiming to raise revenues for town services by encouraging investment in student housing downtown, paying little heed to history, aesthetics, or the needs of the year-round residents.
On the flip side, she sees that the Progressive Coalition of Amherst as seeking a more democratic and diverse Amherst for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) folks, and marginalized groups. “Its goals are more suited to the small town I thought we were moving into — preserving and encouraging local small businesses, careful and transparent spending plans, and zoning policies and more affordable housing plans to benefit the community as a whole,” Pam said.
Besides the political action committees, the Amherst Indy, an active blog that reports on town and school affairs and offers opinion pieces, is often cited, with McDonald calling it “a chief vehicle for fueling the divide” and Churchill referring to it as a forum for people who have concerns about town government to share their views.
“It’s not clear to me how many people actually participate in it, but for government or media folks reading it, The Indy may contribute to a feeling that there’s a bigger schism in town than there actually is,” Churchill said.
Art Keene, who founded and edits the publication, though, points out that the Indy has become a place where unfiltered observations are made, and that references to it creating a divide are made because it allows criticisms of Amherst Forward and its agenda to be aired.
“Posting news and commentary that conflicts with the Amherst Forward agenda is not being divisive, nor is it bullying of those who are subjects of the news, but rather, our coverage is an effort to sustain public discourse and civic exposition of the challenges that we face in our town,” Keene wrote in an email. “Amherst Forward and their elected representatives are often engaged in efforts to limit public deliberation and public knowledge.”
Demling thinks the town and schools are functioning as well as they can under the circumstances, but not nearly as well as they could be.
“The bullying and harassment of public employees and officials, including the weaponization of public comment and the vilifying of people who disagree, has contributed directly to the loss of valuable staff in town and the schools, and it’s had a chilling effect on elections, intimidating residents away from seeking public service,” Demling said.
McDonald strikes a similar chord. “Our town government and schools are definitely still functioning well, but we face some big fiscal decisions in the next term and this election is critical,” she said. “If we continue to be mired in debates about each other’s character and moral values, we will continue to be distracted from the dialogue that needs to happen about the future of our town and schools.”
The town’s political divisions were on full display in the public wrangling over accusations that there was mistreatment of trans students at the Amherst Regional Middle School. That led to a Title IX investigation, the eventual departure of Superintendent Michael Morris and the resignations of the three Amherst School Committee members.
Herrington believes Morris’ resignation was the outcome sought by the Progressive Coalition and that the fallout will be felt in schools. He also believes that town government functioning is also affected.
“The people who wanted the superintendent placed on leave are the same folks who have advocated for his removal from that office all along,” Herrington said. “The external discord has absolutely affected how our schools are governed currently.”
The consequences of that discord appear to have affected Town Hall as well, with town employees leaving and with recruiting potentially affected. Bahl-Milne said the town’s divisiveness can discourage potential staff members from joining a seemingly polarized environment, and and led her to not seek reelection.
“This, in part, has contributed to my burnout and decision not to seek reelection,” Bahl-Milne said. “If we want residents with diverse backgrounds and skills to engage in local politics, we must all take responsibility for creating a more compassionate Amherst.”
Churchill worries about what superintendent may be hired if there is a perception Amherst is toxic. “With its three school committees and four towns and lots of night meetings, this was already seen as a difficult district to lead. I am worried about our chances of getting a decent superintendent to come here,” he said.
Still, by and large, Churchill said, most people in Amherst aren’t part of any faction or division. “They just want the town to run and keep providing the services and lifestyle that make this a special place, good schools, diversity, the vibrancy of college town life, and so on,” Churchill said.
Bahl-Milne said residents deeply care about dealing with decaying infrastructure, roads that are insufficiently pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly, the imminent threat of climate change, a shortage of affordable housing, systemic racism, underpaid school teachers and town staff, and the inadequate revenues to address these needs.
“The truth is, we all care about the well-being of our town and cherish the things that make it special — open spaces, history, arts and culture, and an excellent education system,” Bahl-Milne said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
