Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 10/17/2023
NORTHAMPTON — The biennial municipal election in Northampton is less than a month away, which means it is time to preview City Council candidates.
Four candidates are currently competing for two at-large council positions, including former councilor David Murphy, former mayoral candidate Roy Martin, current Ward 4 City Councilor Garrick Perry and current At-Large City Councilor Marissa Elkins.
All seven ward positions feature uncontested races, as of press time. Four of the ward seats are projected to feature incumbents while the other three are projected to feature newcomers.
Over the next couple weeks, Reminder Publishing will introduce each councilor and provide their views and goals for the upcoming term.
This edition begins with the projected three newcomers who are running for ward seats on the council: Ward 2 candidate Deb Pastrich-Klemer, Ward 3 candidate Quaverly Rothenburg and Ward 4 candidate Jeremy Dubs. The three candidates and their goals are listed below in alphabetical order.
Reminder Publishing plans to have more stories on the other ward seats as well as the contested race for at-large in the next couple of editions.
The Northampton biennial municipal election is Nov. 7 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Jeremy Dubs: Ward 4
Dubs, who has lived in Northampton for almost two decades, said he became really involved in community activism back in 2018-2019 after years of dealing with a lack of snow removal on the sidewalks, which made traversing on the winter extremely difficult for people with disabilities.
He said he thought about becoming a councilor a couple of years ago but decided recently to pursue this next step fairly recently.
“I think of it as a next step to try to help make Northampton become a more accessible, inviting and inclusive place,” Dubs told Reminder Publishing. “I’ve lived here for 18 years…I would love for part of my life to be an accessible Northampton.”
Dubs, a longtime musician and current chair of the city’s Disability Commission, is running his campaign with a slogan of “Reimagining the Wheel,” which to him means helping people imagine a different way of thinking about how to serve the people of Northampton, especially those who are struggling to get by.
“I’ve always thought of Northampton as a very progressive town, but I feel it could be so much more than it is now,” Dubs said. “I feel like now is the time to solve those things such as sidewalks and all the businesses that are not accessible, the people with disabilities, and not just people with disabilities, but older people and anybody with mobility issues that can’t get into a lot of places around here.”
While living in Northampton, Dubs said it has been challenging navigating the downtown area in his wheelchair and others with disabilities have experienced similar issues. He has spent the past few years advocating for more accessible travel on sidewalks, to businesses and in other areas.
For example, he has worked with places like Spoleto’s, Familiar’s Coffee & Tea and Roberto’s to make certain areas of their business more accessible. But work still needs to be done to make other places accessible.
For example, Dubs said as councilor he would want to look at the different ways in which the American with Disabilities Act from 1990 ties into Northampton’s infrastructure and see where improvements should be made.
“I have older friends that were there when it was signed into law and helped make it happen, and I respect that so much, and I’m glad that happened,” Dubs said, of the American with Disabilities Act. “But I feel like now we’re at a time where it almost gets used as an excuse to not do more.”
Dubs stated housing and the proposed Main Street improvements as other issues he wants to tackle with residents.
Deb Pastrich-Klemer: Ward 2
Pastrich-Klemer, a resident of Northampton of 13 years, told Reminder Publishing that one of her main goals as councilor is to help expand affordable housing in the city. She said it is an issue a lot of her residents express most consistently.
More specifically, she said she is excited about the recent development of Village Hill’s cohousing and the revitalization of existing buildings, but the high costs of living in Northampton are still a problem.
“It’s gotten very expensive here, so we need to make it available for everybody, so they have a place to live,” Pastrich-Klemer said.
A longtime activist from Queens, New York, Pastrich-Klemer said she has done everything from working on AIDS-related issues in the 1980s to organizing rallies and marches in response to former President Donald Trump’s acts and policies.
Pastrich-Klemer cofounded Indivisible Northampton as a progressive movement against Trump’s racist and authoritative leadership. Over the past seven years, the grassroots organization has hosted candidate forums, policy discussion and debates, and has organized many rallies that address ubiquitous issues like healthcare, immigration, climate change and women’s rights.
“As an activist and organizer, I’m good at bringing people together and working with groups of people, and I want to bring that to my job as City Councilor,” Pastrich-Klemer said. “I also want to work the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC community and make everyone feel welcome in Northampton.”
Pastrich-Klemer also said she wants to collaborate with Smith College, the city and Northampton residents on the goal of making the college carbon neutral by 2030. She said the school has an ongoing geothermal project that she wants to continue to support.
“People in the ward are on board with [the project], so I think it will be important to work with my ward and with Smith, just so people know what’s coming and know when there’s going to be traffic interference or any kind of disruption from them,” Pastrich-Klemer said.
Pastrich-Klemer, who has 40 years of experience as a radiology technologist specializing in interventional and neuro-interventional radiology, listed many other issues on her campaign that she hopes to address including police reform and protecting the environment, promoting social equity and many more.
“I’m going to be available to talk to people,” Pastrich-Klemer. “I want to hear what people have to say and what’s important to them.”
Quaverly Rothenberg: Ward 3
Rothenberg told Reminder Publishing that she was interested in civics as a toddler while growing up in a Californian community that was similar to Northampton. Her desire to become a civil rights leader lay dormant until she moved to the area about a decade ago.
Raised to be a trained musician, Rothenberg decided to quit her career as a musician and pursue specific writing jobs, like transcribing and court reporting. She said she took her musical abilities and applied them to a profession “where she could learn more about society,” and that helped her learn more about the world around her.
As a current court stenographer. Rothenberg told Reminder Publishing that she has experienced entire nuances of a courtroom while witnessing the stresses, motions and mechanisms that the justice system offers society. She believes that these informed experiences will help her as a future councilor.
“I felt like running for City Councilor in Northampton is a good use of that skill [as a court stenographer] because I think that two of the major issues here that people wonder about are the criminal justice system and public safety,” Rothenberg said.
Over the years, Rothenberg has served on the Bridge Street School Council and the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association, becoming a go-to person for families and individuals in need. She has also helped the New England Innocence Project and residents of the Hairston House.
As a councilor, Rothenberg wants to continue to be ambassador for the people she represents.
“I have a good ability to sit with people and be diplomatic with them,” she said. “For me, it’s very much more about the process and issue by issue and trying to move forward together as much as we can: trying to figure out how all of these pieces fit together.”
Outside of supporting the newly formed Division of Community Care, Rothenberg said she wants to advocate for more funding for schools and better roads for Ward 3. She also wants to focus on ways in which the city can pursue more affordable housing, especially since a lot of the constituents in her ward are renters.
Rothenberg described Ward 3 as a cool mix of different generations and different backgrounds. She added that it features a tight-knit community and carries a cool city vibe. Because of this mix, there are a lot of different ideas, which is something Rothenberg said she is excited to juggle as councilor.
“Doing diplomatic type work requires listening to people say things that you don’t agree with, but it also requires engaging those people in conversations to try to understand where they’re coming from and to try to show them where you’re coming from,” Rothenberg said. “And I think one of the things I’m really curious about is how can we educate each other?”