Blogger pays surprise visit to Northampton Lodging

You would walk by Northampton Lodging at 129 Pleasant Street in the daytime and never give it a thought. The building itself is attractive , landscaped and attractively signed. The ship on its sign is fully rigged and sailing on calm seas. Ah, but if you were down and almost out and needed a place to stay for a couple weeks, checking in might be the gateway to some bad company and lousy adventures. There would be a lot of coming and going and banging at night and someone sleeping in the corridor in the morning. Someone who goes by the name of spentfuelrod is posting on MassLive (see post 6851) about a rooming house that has to be Northampton Lodging. He is urging people to call the Mayor about it, and characterizes it as a major source of drugs in Northampton. I went down there the other night to see what was going on, and although the building was quiet, you could see what spentfuelrod was talking about. The high tech set of pushbuttons on the front door didn't work, and anyone could walk in and out at any hour. And downstairs I smelled crack cocaine in the air outside one room, and another door was suspiciously ajar. Anyone who leaves his door open at 10:30pm in a rooming house is probably looking for business to walk in.

Long ago Norma Rubeck was the manager of the place, and she was tough and fair and the Lodging, while not a palace, worked as rooming house. Now someone else is managing the place, and conditions have gone downhill. I didn't have my badge with me, and I couldn't get in to see the bathrooms, which were locked, but my fellow blogger, who I think probably lives in the building, says that they are pretty foul. In the nineties the city had a task force working with people in the SROs and I heard that the city wanted to have Valley CDC take it over as they did with a number of SROs in Florence. But somehow Bill McCloughlin, the owner and CEO of Bowditch LLC and the city were never able to come to terms. For many years, I think, he had it on the market without any bites. He lives far out in the country, of course, in scenic Conway.

So something needs to happen here. The Mayor needs to broker a little meeting and do some jawboning. The Board of Health needs to inspect. Officer Opie needs to come by and check the doors and make a call when calls need to be made.The place should not be shut down, but it needs to shape up. Two consecutive nights I went down there and the building was wide open both times.