Letter: The Real Signs of Blight in Westfield

At its assembly this week, Westfield’s Mayor and Council put into movement the designation of your complete City of Westfield as blighted, and in want of rehabilitation.  The.  Whole. City.  Take into consideration that for a second: Stoneleigh Park — blighted; the Gardens — blighted; Wychwood — blighted; your neighborhood and mine — all blighted within the Mayor’s eyes.

And why? In order that Mayor Brindle can hand out tax breaks that Westfield can ill-afford throughout these difficult financial occasions and after she has spent greater than half of our City surplus. The true blight in Westfield is the Brindle Administration itself. The truth is, the indicators are all over the place.

For the previous few weeks, guests to our City, together with those that is perhaps taken with shopping for a house or opening up a enterprise in one among our many empty storefronts, have been greeted on the City line with massive piece of email boards warning them to “LOCK YOUR CARS!”  What a heat welcome from our Mayor.

As they roll-up their home windows and cautiously proceed their journey, guests are met with “MAYOR BRINDLE: HANDS OFF OUR HOMES!” garden indicators. In the event that they pull over and ask, they are going to be advised that the Brindle Administration has simply given itself the ability to designate any dwelling in City as historic with out the consent of the proprietor, and thereby limit the outside modifications that may be made.  A lot for that potential homebuyer, who is aware of they’ll look elsewhere for an older dwelling that they’ll enhance with out native authorities interference.

However maybe our guests will nonetheless wish to take a peaceable stroll via Brightwood Park, one of many few nature preserves within the area. Earlier than getting there, nevertheless, they discover the various “SAVE OUR SANCTUARY!” indicators, protesting the Mayor’s plan to assemble mountain bike trails and different business facilities within the City’s environmental jewel. They gained’t wait round lengthy sufficient to listen to in regards to the Mayor’s thought to chop down probably 1000’s of timber in Tamaques Park for brand new taking part in fields that she might have already got been constructed elsewhere within the park with out deforestation.

There’s a want for rehabilitation in Westfield, however it’s not in our neighborhoods or our downtown. It’s in City Corridor. There seems to be no stopping Mayor Brindle’s unquenchable thirst for energy and management, collected and exercised when there may be the least risk for resistance — throughout a pandemic and with none in-person public conferences. Fortunately, subsequent November we will rid ourselves of the blight brought on by our present native management.