Northampton’s purchase of the old First Baptist Church in June 2023 for $3.175 million, twice its market value at the time according to a privately funded independent reappraisal, was a huge blunder. The concept of a “resilience hub” as a day drop-in center to provide meals, showers, and other services to people in need is worthy. But the choice of this particular property for the purpose is inexplicable. It has only four small car parking spaces, it is located at a dangerous intersection, it is not ADA compliant, it requires unknown further costs to renovate it for any use whatsoever, and it was vastly overpriced.

The $3.3 million asking price was justified to the City Council on Jan. 5, 2023 by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra based on an appraisal at that value by Franklin-Bennett Real Estate Services. The city’s contract letter to Franklin-Bennett of Nov. 17, 2022 stated: “We have signed an option to purchase the building for $3.3 million” although the deadline for bids was Dec. 2. The letter further stated that “The building is in amazing shape and a renovation [by the seller] was 95% complete,” a claim undermined by a due diligence report by Jones-Whitsett on April 23, 2023.

As the Gazette reported (“Appraisal faults city on Resilience Hub site,” Aug. 16), a group of concerned local residents and business people contracted with the Boston office of Colliers International Valuation and Advisory Services to provide an independent reappraisal of the former church. Colliers estimated the property to be worth $1.6 million as of Dec. 1, 2022 — the date of the Franklin-Bennett appraisal. Colliers included the sale of the Silverscape Building at King and Main streets for $1.3 million on Sept. 16, 2022 which Franklin-Bennett did not mention.

Meanwhile, City Hall and the Mass. Department of Transportation in Boston relentlessly pursue their Holy Grail: urban renewal of Main Street over several years to install two new bike lanes and wider sidewalks. The project will worsen traffic congestion. Local and through traffic will swamp side streets and local residents will avoid downtown when possible.

“Picture Main Street,” if started, will likely never be completed for two overriding reasons: 1) obstruction of emergency responders, despite assurances to the contrary from the city’s public safety leaders and 2) danger to pedestrians, especially mobility impaired persons, from speeding bike lane users. Both issues have been raised against downtown bike lane proposals in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere.

D.C. Mayor Murial Bowser last April canceled a 2.5-mile bike lane project after a letter from the city’s police union (Nov. 20, 2023) expressed “strong opposition to the proposed creation of protected bike lanes along Connecticut Avenue NW . . . [which] “can restrict the overall flow of traffic, leading to congestion and an increased risk of accidents ... In emergency situations, it is crucial that our officers can respond rapidly ... without unnecessary obstacles that could be introduced by the proposed bike lanes.”

The second issue — danger to anyone on foot trying to cross bike lanes — has been raised in a lawsuit against the D.C. Department of Transportation under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The suit is scheduled for hearing in January, 2025. Here in Northampton, the proposed bike lanes on Main Street would likely invite young people to speed through crosswalks on their motorized vehicles oblivious to people struggling to cross Main Street. Ironically, the proposed “resilience hub” would be even less accessible to the very people it is supposed to serve due to “Picture Main Street” bike lanes and traffic congestion.

The downtown Northampton debacle is deja vu for me. In August, 1972, as a young staff attorney for a Chicago environmental group, I helped to challenge Mayor Richard J. Daley’s proposed “Crosstown Expressway.” The $1 billion project ($7 billion in today’s dollars) would connect the city’s radial interstate highways by slicing through low-income minority neighborhoods, razing 3,500 dwelling units housing over 10,000 people, and worsening the city’s choking air pollution. For once, Mayor Daley, the legendary “Boss” of Chicago, actually blinked and the Crosstown was never built.

Proportional to city size, “Picture Main Street” would be an even greater threat to Northampton than the Crosstown was to Chicago. It’s time for City Hall to blink — and then open their eyes to reality

Rutherford H. Platt is a resident of Florence and author of “Reclaiming American Cities: The Struggle for People, Place, and Nature Since 1900.” He is an emeritus professor of geography at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.