Holyoke says goodbye to Kmart Plaza as we know it.
Holyoke's Kmart Plaza on Northampton Street is coming down after the City Council signed off on the developer's plan. True Jackie plays the Drake on Friday at 8pm, a Jackie Wilson tribute worth the trip to Amherst. Kids can shape polymer clay at the Agawam Public Library on Wednesday at 6pm. Downtown Sounds, the Northampton record shop, hits fifty and throws a party at the Iron Horse on Monday. Mortgage rates ticked up to 6.51%. Here's the week.
This Weekend
§ 01- № 01
True Jackie at the Drake
Fri May 29 · 8pm · The Drake, AmherstTrue Jackie, the Easthampton indie rock outfit, headlines the Drake Friday night with Nanny and Saliba opening. A short drive for the band, a full bill for $15-ish-money-tier indie at the 44 N Pleasant Street room.
- № 02
Agawam student art, closing weekend
Sat May 30 · from 9am · Agawam Public Library, AgawamThe Agawam Student Art closing reception caps a month of Clark School and Agawam High work hung in the Judith Clini Community Room. Open to the public Saturday, last chance before the walls clear.
- № 03
Relay For Life and craft fair on the Belchertown Common
Sat May 30 · 10am to 10pm · Town Common, BelchertownThe Quaboag Valley Relay For Life pairs with its fifth annual craft and vendor fair on the Belchertown Town Common, 10am to 10pm. Twelve hours of vendors, food, and the relay itself, all on the Common at 31 Main Street.
- № 04
Mushroom Cultivation: You Can Do It
Sat May 30 · 2pm to 5pm · New England Small Farm Institute, BelchertownThe New England Small Farm Institute on Jackson Street in Belchertown runs a three-hour mushroom cultivation workshop Saturday afternoon. Inoculating logs, growing at home, the parts of the process that demystify the jar of substrate at the farmers market.
- № 05
Salsa in the Park returns
Sat May 30 · 6pm to 9:30pm · 95 Montague Rd, AmherstSalsa in the Park is back for its annual run at 95 Montague Road in Amherst, 6 to 9:30pm Saturday. Lesson early, social dancing into the evening, shoes you can pivot in.
- № 06
Eddie Japan brings cinematic pop to the Drake
Sat May 30 · 8pm · The Drake, AmherstEddie Japan, the Boston cinematic-pop group, plays the Drake Saturday at 8pm with The Fawns and Glad Machine. The Amherst room's second-night doubleheader after Friday's indie bill.
Kids Corner
§ 02- № 01
Polymer Clay Crafting at Agawam Library
Wed May 27 · 6pm · Agawam Public Library, AgawamAges · Grades 5 to 6Cost · FreePolymer Clay Crafting at the Agawam Public Library Activity Room hands fifth and sixth graders a hunk of clay and a finished trinket they can take home, baked in the library's mini oven before pickup. Registration required, so call ahead if your kid wants in.
- № 02
Kids' Gaming Club at Forbes
Fri May 29 · 4pm · Forbes Library, NorthamptonAges · Ages 7 to 12Cost · FreeKids' Gaming Club at Forbes Library puts the Nintendo Switch on the big screen and lets a roomful of 7-to-12-year-olds rotate through Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and Mario Party. It runs every Friday, so if your kid bounces off the walls after early dismissal, this is the cheap fix.
- № 03
Sarah Lynn Baker Storytime at the Carle
Sat May 30 · 2pm · Eric Carle Museum, AmherstAges · Picture book agesCost · Museum admissionSarah Lynn Baker reads her debut picture book Becca & Bubbe's Bucket List at the Eric Carle Museum, the kind of author storytime the Carle does better than anyone in the region. Pair it with a wander through the current galleries and you've filled a Saturday afternoon.
- № 04
Read to Duchess at South Hadley Public Library
Sat May 30 · 12pm · South Hadley Public Library, South HadleyAges · Kindergarten and upCost · FreeRead to a Dog at the South Hadley Public Library Storytime Room pairs early readers with Duchess, a terrier from Bright Spot Therapy Dogs, for a low-stakes turn at reading aloud. Spots are reserved by calling or visiting the library, and shy kids tend to lose the nerves about three pages in.
- № 05
Chipping and Putting Mini Clinic in Agawam
Mon Jun 1 · 1pm · Agawam Municipal Golf Course, AgawamAges · All agesCost · FreeThe Let's Golf chipping and putting clinic, a partnership between the Agawam Public Library and the Agawam Municipal Golf Course, walks kids and curious adults through the short game on a real course. Outdoor, free, and a rare chance to put a club in a kid's hands without a country club bill attached.
- № 06
Family Picnic and Book Fair in East Longmeadow
Tue Jun 2 · 5-7pm · 77 Hampden Road, East LongmeadowAges · All agesCost · FreeThe East Longmeadow Family Picnic and Book Fair sets up food trucks, a DJ, and the school book fair on the lawn at 77 Hampden Road for a two-hour weeknight stretch. Bring cash for the trucks and let the kids loose between the dance floor and the book tables.
Real Estate Pulse
§ 03The 30-year jumped 15 hundredths in a single week, the sharpest move up since winter. For a buyer shopping for a $500,000 house in the valley, that's roughly $50 more a month than the same loan would have cost seven days ago.
Monthly payment · 20% down
| $300k home | $1,519/mo | −$55/mo vs last May |
| $500k home | $2,531/mo | −$93/mo vs last May |
| $750k home | $3,796/mo | −$140/mo vs last May |
* Estimated principal & interest only. Excludes property tax and homeowner's insurance.
The 15-year moved almost in lockstep with the 30, erasing most of the gap that had opened in April. Refinancers who were watching the shorter term for a window saw it close a bit this week.
Monthly payment · 20% down
| $300k home | $2,006/mo | −$21/mo vs last May |
| $500k home | $3,343/mo | −$35/mo vs last May |
| $750k home | $5,015/mo | −$51/mo vs last May |
* Estimated principal & interest only. Excludes property tax and homeowner's insurance.
The 10-year actually ticked down while mortgage rates ran up, which is unusual and means lenders widened their margins this week rather than the bond market pushing rates higher. If the Treasury holds here, mortgage rates have room to settle back down in the next week or two.
“With regard to future rate cuts, I am going to need to see improvement on inflation or a significant deterioration in the labor market before I would consider reducing the policy rate. So, on net, my current policy position is to hold rates steady for the near term.”
The mortgage desk read Waller's Frankfurt remarks as confirmation that the pause extends through summer. Waller had been one of the more dovish voices on the committee, so his explicit openness to dropping the easing-bias language, and his refusal to rule out hikes if inflation expectations slip, pushed the bond market to price in fewer cuts this year.
Around Town
§ 04- · Town
Kmart Plaza at 2201 Northampton Street is headed for demolition after the Holyoke City Council signed off on the developer's plan. Mayor Joshua Garcia's office says new tenants are next, though no names yet. The long-vacant box has been one of the more visible eyesores on the Route 5 strip.
- · Town
Tiana Steffenhagen is Chicopee's new city auditor, appointed by the City Council to oversee municipal finances and independent reviews of city spending. She's pitching the role as a modernization job, with transparency across departments as the stated priority.
- · Notice
Longmeadow holds its Annual Town Election on Tuesday, June 2, with early in-person voting open starting Tuesday, May 26. Check the town clerk's page for the ballot and polling locations before you head over.
- · Town
Pajer Superette at 400 Cooper Street and the Agawam City Council reached a compromise on the sidewalk easement tied to planned roadway upgrades at Cooper, Suffield, and Rowley. The intersection work has been in the queue for a while; this clears one of the holdups.
- · Heads up
Easthampton Council on Aging hosts a hybrid info session on the FY27 COA budget on Monday, May 26, from 2 to 3 p.m. at 19 Union Street. No RSVP needed, questions welcome, useful if you've been tracking where senior services money is going.
Local Wins
§ 05Downtown Sounds Workers Co-op is throwing itself a 50th anniversary party at the Iron Horse on Monday, June 1. Half a century of selling guitars, restringing them, talking gear with kids who walked in with a babysitting envelope, and outlasting every chain that tried to set up nearby on Pleasant Street. The shop has been worker-owned the whole way, which is the part that tends to get glossed over: the people behind the counter are the people who own the place, and they have been for a long time.
The celebration lands at the Iron Horse, which is the right room for it · two Northampton institutions on the same block, one hosting the other's birthday. Details on the lineup are with Downtown Sounds and the Iron Horse box office. If you have ever bought a first instrument, a set of strings, or a capo you immediately lost, this is the place that sold it to you, and Monday night is the night to walk over and say so.
Valley Fact
Sojourner Truth
On June 1, 1843, Pentecost Sunday, Sojourner Truth chose that name, told her friends "The Spirit calls me, and I must go," and left with a few possessions in a pillowcase to preach against slavery. She worked her way north through the Connecticut River Valley, and the following year joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Florence, the abolitionist community that supported women's rights and would anchor her to the Valley.