My name is Chris Stratton and I am running to represent Ward 6 in City Council.

I have chosen to enter this race, because I have been disappointed that our council often operates as little more than an approval body for the mayoral agenda.  Our current council has failed to serve the people of Northampton as a truly independent and counterbalancing branch of government; one which must do its own research and form its own conclusions.

Although I will be new to government service, my career has been a lifelong exercise in curiosity.  I enjoy learning about complex topics and finding solutions to deeply rooted problems, especially those which have fallen into the gaps between people and departments, or between assumptions and facts.

Northampton’s current government has developed a habit of focusing on signature agenda projects, to the neglect of our schools and basic city services.   Most of what the people of Northampton need from our government consists of the boring everyday things.  Needs like roads, fully funded schools, plow truck drivers, and controlling the taxes and fees we pay for them.  If a mayor wants to spend 5% of their time doing something fun and visionary, there can be a role for that.   But only so long as the basics are not neglected.  And only when the changes they would bring are carefully considered, rather than those which upend lives with casual disregard, or freely spend our hard earned money on ideas unlikely to yield the claimed results.

Five years ago I moved to Northampton to reconnect with family during a challenging and uncertain time in history.  A time when family bonds and the opportunity to be present in the lives of my niece and nephew felt especially important.  And I have loved what I found here.   Far from seeking to change Northampton, my desire is to enable Hamp to be the best version of what it already is.

I grew up and attended public schools in a small town a half day’s bike ride south of here.  I moved to Cambridge to attend MIT and spent a decade in that area.  Then I tried life in New York city.  I know firsthand how fundamentally and permanently those communities differ from ours; while I enjoyed aspects of life there at the time, I value what we have here now, and do not seek to change it.

For the practically minded people of Ward 6, the problems with the proposed downtown project are many and obvious.  Far from the misleading claims of marketing tidbits (which continue to present no solution for snow) the truth of our concerns is evident in the engineering reports of the project itself.  Most downtown bicycle crashes, and both of our tragic deaths there have resulted from surprise between bicyclists and drivers. Yet the designers ignored the leading risks they documented, and instead obeyed a political charge to create a painfully disruptive design: one which adds, rather than removes, causes of surprise.  Far from ripping up downtown, safety requires we do simple and sensible things to clarify it for all users.

These are standard and non-disruptive things already used elsewhere in our community:  Paint the lane lines.  Raise the crosswalks to emphasize them.  Add curb extensions so that crosswalks span only the travel lanes and not also the angle parking.  And then fulfill our long neglected obligations to those with wheelchairs and walkers, by rebuilding damaged and unworkable stretches of sidewalk.

Many bicyclists will prefer to take advantage of the flat grade and comparative quiet of the adjacent rail trail.   But when I ride my bike directly to and from locations on Main Street, the actual challenges are the narrow and curving hills of Burts Pit Road.  Keeping the present width and multiple traffic lanes of Main Street not only serves the majority who drive, it allows those of us who bike to ride visibly and predictably, centering ourselves within a car-sized buffer of safety space.

As our city navigates the challenges to come, I seek to represent you, as a councilor who will take the time to understand each issue and its impact on your life, before I cast a vote on it.  I will prioritize funding our schools and city services over grand projects.  And I will cross check budget and financial models to make sure that the revenues of our local economy are best applied to the services we need, so that we can fulfill our obligations to our people without raising taxes.