Archived Edition: April 20, 2004 | Back to Current	Sep 10, 2010

Confronting Spring St.’s blues
Ainsley O'Connell - Senior Writer

Given all the growing pains that have afflicted the planning of the new student center, it should come as no surprise that one of Williamstown’s perpetual tensions has once again risen to the forefront of debate: the delicate balance between Mom and Pop, and little Eph.

In an article that appeared on the front page of the Advocate last Wednesday, Spring Street merchants voiced their concern that the new student center – and its convenience store in particular – will adversely affect their revenues by decreasing student traffic. Hart’s Pharmacy, a staple of Spring Street for close to 100 years, was highlighted as the primary victim of the College’s plans.

“We have given our heart and soul to the community,” Steven Wiehl, the owner of Hart’s, told the Advocate, adding later in the article that students formed the core of his business. Wiehl’s comment is perhaps touching, but not especially convincing. He offers no numbers to back up the claim that students are his chief customers, instead relying on sentimental value alone to argue his case. In my visits to Hart’s, I’ve always found Wiehl to be helpful and personable, but I’m afraid my sympathies are difficult to inspire after paying $50 for a tube of toothpaste.

Moreover, while no data is available on Hart’s alone, consultants recently hired by the College determined that “if 100 percent of student-generated demand were spent only in Williamstown, it will support only 10 to 15 percent of the capacity [on Spring Street].” Not exactly a confirmation of storeowners’ fears.

There is a certain charm to having establishments like Hart’s and Cold Spring Coffee Roasters line the street in place of generic stand-ins like Duane Reade and Starbucks, and I certainly don’t intend to advocate for an invasion of cookie-cutter national chains. But charm trumps practicality only to a point. Although the tradition of independent businesses in downtown Williamstown is an integral part of the community’s identity, for student needs as basic as buying a bottle of aspirin after 6 p.m. on a Thursday evening, the College needs to keep its own interests in mind.

Which brings us to a curious predicament: the College is Wiehl’s landlord, aligning the interests of the administration with Hart’s as well as with students. In fact, the College owns a considerable portion of the property on the east side of the street. And the College’s sensitivity to the storeowners on Spring Street – both those leasing its property and those which are independent – is the reason often cited as to why administrators have in the past been reluctant to grant students a small, on-campus store devoted to sundry items like laundry detergent and milk.

To the average community member reading the Advocate’s article, this reluctance is not as clear as it should be. The College is given a substantial amount of ink in the first half of piece, including extensive quotes from Helen Ouellette. Towards the end, however, the article opens the door to an interpretation that labels the College as the big bad wolf and Hart’s as the victimized “endangered species,” culminating in a final quote from an unnamed female business owner, who asks, “Is this just the tip of the iceberg?”

The very idea that this issue merits the use of an anonymous source is a joke. The College and the Town are neighbors, for better or for worse, and to have an unidentified member of the Williamstown community question the College’s motives in print is the equivalent of publishing underhanded gossip about the family next door. Moreover, it does nothing to lessen the strain of Town-Gown relations.

Despite the potential sway of the Advocate, there is still ample opportunity for compromise. To the credit of both parties, a good faith effort is being made to sort out the issue of the proposed convenience store: Next week, the College is hosting a focus group that will bring together students and storeowners in an effort to get to the bottom of the assumptions that appear to pervade both sides of the divide.

The College can’t guarantee that Spring Street’s blues will turn a pleasant shade of dollar-bill green, but it can at least do its part to improve the quality of information available to storeowners. Then, when the new student center opens in 2006, Spring Street will be better prepared to face the competition of a much-needed convenience store across Route 2.