I’m excited to announce that I am running to serve as your Mayor for another four-year term. I hope we can continue to work together and make our beloved city even more accessible, equitable and sustainable.
Being mayor is not a one-person job. To get things done and make things better requires robust collaboration. The greatest joy and satisfaction I experience as a mayor is working with an incredible team of public servants and an engaged community always ready to step up.
Over the past three years, we’ve tackled big challenges together, making transformative investments in Northampton’s future, for example:
- We secured increased funding for roads and sidewalks as part of our five-year Capital Improvement Program.
- We launched the Division of Community Care, which has reimagined crisis response in Northampton, providing compassionate, unarmed support that has helped nearly 2,000 people facing emotional distress, substance use challenges, and housing insecurity.
- We launched the Climate Action and Project Administration Department, which works across city departments to ensure decisions relating to planning, procurement and capital help meet our sustainability goals.
- We advanced the Picture Main Street redesign—positioned to leverage nearly $30 million in state funding to revitalize our downtown, with groundbreaking scheduled for next year.
- We established the Special Education Stabilization Fund to support critical student services.
- We awarded $4 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act Community Recovery Project funds to expand housing and shelter services, address food insecurity, support small businesses and nonprofits, strengthen healthcare access, support early education and childcare, and invest in arts, culture and recreation—including helping to reopen the Iron Horse.
- We have supported downtown initiatives including outdoor dining, live music, and seasonal events which have driven Northampton’s COVID recovery, boosted local businesses and revitalized public spaces.
These achievements, driven by our collective resolve, reflect Northampton’s core values of equity, resilience, and community.
The need for all of us in Northampton to work together is even more urgent now that we are facing the prospect of cruelty, chaos, and incompetence from the White House and all the uncertainty it may bring over the next four years. But I know we can work together–through any disagreements and differences–even in increasingly difficult times.
Before making my decision to ask you for a second term, I thought a lot about a text I received from my predecessor David Narkewicz the day after the gut punch of the 2016 election. He wrote, “Councilor Sciarra, I know this feels terrible, but now more than ever our city needs us, and we are going to get up and get to work for our community.”
It was the kick I needed to shake out of my fog. I had to make a decision: Was I going to own that responsibility in my community? Yes! Of course I would step up. We’d all need to work harder to find ways to protect and improve our great city, even in the most trying of times. I remained on the City Council through the first Trump administration, and I served as Council President and as Mayor through the waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We not only persevered through those experiences, but we grew together as a community. And I am confident Northampton residents will again step up to ensure we stay true to our values. As I said on my first day as Mayor in January 2022, “Have faith in Northampton … There is no place that I know of where the people do more to make democracy work, and do more for each other, or care more about their city and its responsibility to the larger world.”
Over the course of this campaign year, I plan to meet with as many constituents as possible, to share more about what we’ve achieved together, and to hear from you about what we can do together going forward.
If you’d like to schedule a small gathering with me, at your home or elsewhere, please fill out the online form at glsciarra.com/volunteer and choose “host a house party” or email campaign@glsciarra.com.
And one more announcement! On Monday, March 24 at 6:30 PM, the public is invited to participate in a campaign kickoff event – at the Iron Horse, which we re-opened together last year with the help of many citizen donations and the city’s Community Recovery Grant.
The responsibilities of a mayor are many, and the task is never easy. But I believe the last few years have shown what we can accomplish when we work together to realize our shared values. I am honored that you entrusted me with such an important job four years ago. I hope to earn your vote again in November.
