On a bright, crisp fall day, Virginia Riehl sat with me at an outdoor table at Tourists, by the Hoosic River and the bus stop, and shared her vision for North Adams in the coming years. She is one of 13 candidates running for the North Adams city council this fall.
BTW Berkshires:
Why are you choosing to run for city council this fall — and do you see as some of the more pressing problems or challenges or opportunities that the city is facing right now?
Virginia Riehl:
When I moved here four years ago, I decided I wanted to be of value to the community. And so I just started asking people what was the most important issue. And pretty much everybody I talked to, people I met on the street, bartenders, people riding the bus, said — housing.
And I said, I’m not a housing expert, but I’ll try to learn. So I started on a journey to learn about housing. And I met Lilian Zavatsky, who was also on that journey, and we started the North Adams Community Housing Organization.
And we’ve had community programs and educational programs, we followed state legislation and funding, we briefed the city council, we worked on the legislation around accessory dwelling units, and most recently on the Affordable Housing Trust.
… And then, after a while, I realized that I was in the room trying to get people to do things, and perhaps in some cases being critical, and that I needed to take a shot at being part of the solution on the other side of the table. So that’s why I’m running —because I want to make be part of the solution and not just be outside critic.
About local issues, have four that I usually talk about, and I’ve already talked about housing.
BTW Berkshires:
And I want to hear more about housing. We can map out those four.
Virginia Riehl: Housing
They are Housing, the city budget, economic development and transparency. Housing is clearly a very high priority for me, and for the community. It’s complicated, and I don’t think it’s been a central focus of the city government — it’s still not a central focus — but it is probably one of the greatest needs of the people who live here.
So I think we need to put more resources in it, more attention to it, and find the right partners to work with to increase the kind of housing we need. Really, in the past few years housing development has all been market rate — and that means it’s at the high end — and we need housing in the middle, and what I would call the least costly end too, but we’re not working on those areas.
So it’s going to be a long road, but we’ve got to make it something we’re doing with consistency.
Housing, the city budget, economic development and transparency
A second thing that I have spent time on is around the city budget. I have sat through the budget meetings of the finance committee, which usually in each budget cycle run a minimum of probably 12 hours. And I understand what’s in the city budget. I understand how the city budget is reviewed — the processes around that, the complexities of the Council’s authority, which is not unilateral.
And my perspective is that we are lost in the details and losing the bigger picture. W should be thinking about strategically what we’re trying to do in the city and shape a city budget that to the extent possible can be working towards those strategic goals.
And the second thing I think we need to have in the budget process are metrics. What is it that we will get by this this investment? Will we have our potholes filled sooner? Will we reduce drug sales in our community? What is the end result of the $53 million that the city expends?
Then we need to be understanding grants in relationship to the budget. The city budget is not really $53 million — it’s $53 million, plus all that grant money, which is not presented in a coherent way and not connected to the rest of the budget.
So you’ll see a salary for somebody, that’s not correct because they’re paid out of grant funds, partly. And there are other people who may be paid entirely out of grant funds that don’t show up. So in the budget process, you do not get a complete picture.
And then we need to allow time in the review of the budget and start early enough that really, the council can be deliberative the public can weigh in. Last year, the budget was submitted and passed in a two week period. That’s way too short. The community can’t have a voice when the city is reviewing all the budget in such a compressed time. And in other jurisdictions do you spend longer time going through their budgets.
Last year in the budget cycle, I found there was a state law that if 10 registered voters signed a petition, the city had to hold a public hearing on the budget. The city always just presumed that people could go to 12 hours of finance committee meetings, and that was the way to let the public participate.
So I got that petition, and we had what I think may have been the first public hearing on the city budget every last year. It was held the hour before the budget was passed, which is not the right time.
BTW Berkshires:
Do you have thoughts, and also does the city have thoughts, about what kinds of economic development fit the city now?
Virginia Riehl: Downtown energy
All right. So economic development … I feel we do not have the heft and expertise in our city government that is needed to attract the economic development that is right for North Adams.
I think a prime example is the vacant lot now at the corner of Eagle and Veteran’s Drive, where the Starbucks was supposed to go. A second example is the property that has the planet fitness and the liquor store. That has passed through, I think, three different hands at least since I’ve been here. And none of the people who own that property have developed it.
This is my opinion — but it is possible for an owner to hold the property, and because it’s in a distressed area, if they don’t rent out what’s in the property, they can get tax credits. And so they don’t necessarily have an incentive to develop the property.
And I know one of those turnovers, from one owner to another, the increase in the sales price was $800,000. So you can sit on a property and do nothing, possibly get tax credits and make $800,000.
And so what we need is expertise in economic development that understands this development landscape, that understands developers who are aligned to what the city needs, and then has the network to bring development that will have value for the community.
… I think sometimes we wait for somebody to come to us and say, I’d like to develop that property over there. And then we are just happy to have something on the tax rolls. And that’s not enough. We should be creating places where we can have some of our small businesses succeed, where we can have mixed use business and housing — and the development will fit with the character of the city — and it will create jobs that pay a living wage.
We don’t ask those questions deeply. And sometimes that’s not going to lead to our long-term success.
BTW Berkshires:
I know the pandemic has made it a challenge, but I was somewhat bemused by the Starbucks, which I guess now is not going be a Starbucks?
Virginia Riehl:
You can put in your notes, I just totally covered my face (laughing)
BTW Berkshires:
I mean, I didn’t know it was going to happen until the sign went up, and it’s right across from the Dunkin Donuts.
And it would be one thing to make that a commercial space where somebody can come in and open a restaurant, and then you can choose to lease it or sell it to Starbucks, but if you purpose-build it as a Starbucks that seems to me to limit any future use?
Virginia Riehl:
When we talk about developers coming in, we don’t have a context that says, this will fit with what we want as a community. If we want mixed income mixed-use development in that area, which I think we should have, then why weren’t we doing those things —whether it’s zoning or other ways, to designate it that way, so that if the developer came in they had to be addressing our concerns?
I know that’s what’s done in other jurisdictions, so I don’t know I don’t understand what the constraints are on us. Maybe people are concerned that we won’t get the attention of developers if they feel constrained — but what we’ve got now is a big empty lot.
Another question that I have, and I was not on the planning board when this was started — when somebody comes in and says Starbucks is going to come and do something on this property, shouldn’t we have some solid evidence of that? Like a firm letter commitment.
If you were reading business news at that time, you would know Starbucks was not in great shape. And maybe it’s not the purview of the planning board to ask these kinds of questions, but it should be the purview of someone.
BTW Berkshires:
Pittsfield has created an Arts Overlay District for their downtown. Could North Adams have this kind of conversation about the downtown here?
This isn’t a question about tourism — it’s about local resilience and excitement. KA suggests that if you want people to stay in the community, you need the kinds of jobs people want to work. VR reflects on ways to encourage conversations between the city government and the community.
Virginia Riehl: Communication — for the city and community
My fourth big question is transparency. And transparency is an area where we probably have to spend little or no money to make really big difference. Some of it is about our culture. Some of it is about, and within that culture, how we provide information to the public, you know. And what opportunities we provide to the public to participate and ask their questions.
My fourth one is transparency. And transparency is an area where we probably have to spend little or no money to make really big difference. Some of it is about our culture. Some of it is about, and within that culture, how we provide information to the public, you know. And what opportunities we provide to the public to participate and ask their questions.
You know, right now people just call the mayor’s office and the mayor is really willing to like answer people’s questions, but that means one person has that information. If we had more robust information — on the city website, or more community forums where people could ask their questions — then many more people would have the answers to their questions.
Right now a lot of misinformation is in the community, and that doesn’t help any of us. And so we should not be holding information back, and I do think in some cases we do.
We have some information on the website, but not the kind of enthusiasm, momentum building that might draw people — and some of these groups probably could be revitalized a bit or given more opportunity to do more.
