To the Editor,
Recent coverage of downtown property purchases has framed these investments as efforts to “save” Peterborough. For many longtime residents, however, it feels less like preservation and more like wealthy outsiders trying to shape the town’s future to their own vision.
Peterborough does not need saving in the way a struggling or abandoned place does. Its strength has always come from the people who live here year-round — those who run small businesses, volunteer, and carry the town through good times and hard ones. When newcomers buy up multiple downtown buildings and speak of needing “a seat at the table,” it’s reasonable to ask: whose table, and who gets pushed aside?
Change is inevitable, and investment can be a good thing. But there is a real difference between supporting a community and remaking it according to outside priorities and financial realities most residents don’t share. Market-rate housing, rising rents, and curated retail may look like progress, but they can quietly erode the character and accessibility that made this town appealing in the first place.
If we are going to have a serious conversation about the future of downtown Peterborough, it should be led by — or at least centered on — the people who have long called it home, not by summer people or wealthy Boston backers with the capital to redefine it.