Holyoke native hoping to be elected as city’s next mayor

Date: 6/4/2021

HOLYOKE –  Another Holyoke native has entered the race to be elected to Holyoke’s highest office.

William ‘Billy’ Glidden grew up on Allyn Street in Holyoke in a multi-generation household. He said his maternal grandmother was beloved in the community having been a well-known teacher in Holyoke for 26 years and his father worked for the Boys and Girls Club in the city. This, he said, contributed to his love of the city.

“I have very deep roots here, there’s a real sense of the communal spirit in Holyoke,” he said. Glidden said while he attended Holyoke Public Schools through middle school, he graduated high school from Suffield Academy and then went on to graduate from Williams College in 2014.

He said from there, he came back to Holyoke and worked as an aide to Alex Morse, who was serving as the mayor of Holyoke at the time. “In that role I spent a lot of time on constituent services, listening to people and their concerns, and helping put on neighborhood listening sessions, things like that,” Glidden said. He said after spending his time focusing on “quality of life stuff” in Holyoke he moved to New York City in 2016 to work for a non-profit organization called Community Access.

Glidden described the organization as “a housing and mental health non-profit that provides affordable housing to the most vulnerable citizens.” He said it was like being “on the front lines of human rights issues.”

He said he returned to Holyoke after the pandemic began in 2020. “When the pandemic hit I started working remotely, which brought me back to Holyoke full time,” he said. Glidden added that Holyoke “was always my home,” and “always where I hoped I would end up.”

While working for Community Access, Glidden said he “saw good relationships between the non-profit, government and private sector.”

“I was always thinking about the ways it could bear on my hometown, the city I love, a city with a lot of challenges but a lot of potential,” he said. That, he said, is how he decided to take out papers to seek election as the mayor of Holyoke.

He told Reminder Publishing he had a small kickoff gathering in April, and was planning a more public kickoff campaign event in late June. “I had a very small kickoff gathering in April in the backyard of a friend and honorary co-chair. I gave a speech for a few people,” he said. “I’m holding a bigger event, a fundraiser where I will speak at the Summit View in Holyoke on June 24.”

Glidden added that while campaign events were fun, conversation with the community would be a significant emphasis of his campaign. “Really while events are fun and I like seeing people, the focus of this campaign will be getting out in the community, going door to door talking about what they care about,” he said. Glidden added that he had “been collecting signatures,” and while he had not returned them yet he was close to the number of required signatures needed to officially place his name on the ballot in November.

He said some of the cornerstones of his campaign was simply bringing the people of the community together, especially after the pandemic. “I think that Holyoke is at a really important inflection point, we’re in the process of weathering this crisis we’re enduring together and understand in a new way our destiny is linked, my neighbor’s health is my health, we’re all in this together,” he said.

Glidden said he believed that what would determine how Holyoke moved forward from the pandemic would be “what kind of leader we have.” He said, “Do we have a mayor that sees, hears and values the community? That builds upon the strengths of our city?”

He said he believed the next mayor of Holyoke needed to recognize that the city’s “most important asset is our people.” Glidden said, “We need a mayor that will be present and accessible, come in every day and roll up their sleeves.”

If he were elected mayor he said he was prepared to do this, as well as fight for local control of schools and bridge divides between the community. “As a young guy, this is what I’m doing. I’m energized, passionate, fired up. This will be my only focus,” he said, adding that he would spend “day and night” thinking about “what do the people Holyoke need.”

Additionally, he said he was committed to making City Hall more accessible for both residents and businesses. “We should be making it as easy as possible to navigate the bureaucracies if they want to open up a shop downtown. I want to make this a welcoming place for residents and businesses alike,” he said.

Those interested in learning more about Glidden or to contribute to his campaign are encouraged to visit his website at https://www.gliddenformayor.com