In three weeks, voters in Northampton, Mass. will vote to pare down who will be on the ballot this November, including a crowded mayoral race. Ahead of time, candidates will take part in a forum Tuesday night to talk city issues and how to tackle them.
For the past few months, four separate mayoral campaigns have been making the rounds in Northampton.
Incumbent Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra is seeking re-election while three other residents are looking to get into the mayor’s office. It’s a race that will be at the center of Tuesday night’s forum at the BOMBYX Center for Arts & Equity in the village of Florence.
Broadcast by Northampton Open Media, the forum’s likely to include its fair share of questions on issues that motivated some candidates to run in the first place.
That includes the “Picture Main Street” project looking to reshape a key roadway in the city’s center. Candidate Dan Breindel, a local artist, has voiced numerous concerns about its potential impact on local businesses and traffic.
“They're about to rip up our Main Street and turn four lanes into two lanes … a bunch of diagonal parking spots are going to turn into parallel parking spots, and - you can just imagine - blocking this entire thing up,” he told WAMC in a phone interview, describing the project likely to start in spring 2026. “And this is Route 9. This isn't just our Main Street - this is Route 9, a major artery."
Breindel's also discussed making city hall more responsive to community concerns - a goal shared by fellow candidate Jillian Duclos, the former head of the Downtown Northampton Association.
“I’ve been in this community, talking to people for almost 12 years and there's a lot that's shifting and changing around us,” she said. “I really believe that we are stronger while being united and I really want to empower this community to have more voice.”
In interviews with WAMC, all four candidates have brought up a desire to fill empty business fronts in the city’s downtown. Candidate David Dombrowski, a former Northampton police officer, says he hopes to tackle the issue, as well as rising costs in the Hampshire County city.
He has told WAMC he also hopes to conduct a “forensic audit” of the city’s spending if elected.
“I guess the first thing I'd really want to do is have a forensic audit performed on the city's accounting and financial records and find out where everything is, and … what things are doing well and other things that might not be doing well,” he said.
Sciarra, meanwhile, says she hopes to continue her work to keep the city on good fiscal footing – maintaining a high bond rating while trying to get more affordable housing online and rejuvenating the city’s center, among other goals.
“Now more than ever, it's really important for us in our city to stay true to what our values are, and to fight for making our community safe and make sure that we have a community for generations to come,” Sciarra told WAMC at her campaign kickoff in March.
The preliminary election on Sept. 16 will narrow the field of mayoral candidates down to two.
The forum will also feature discussions between city councilor at-large candidates, following Monday night’s forum between Ward 1, 3 and 5 candidates – other races to be narrowed during the preliminaries.
Tuesday’s forum begins at 6:30 p.m. Northampton Open Media's livestreams can be found here.
