When the Credits Roll on a Community:

The following is a letter to the editor I submitted to the Putnam Courier, presented here in full. By now, we have all heard about the loss of Carmel Cinema, here in Carmel Hamlet.

Below, I address what this means, what my concerns are about the future of our community, what role massive corporate real estate firms should play in it, and what the dangers of the doing so are.

To the Editor:

My name is Brett Yarris. I live in Carmel Hamlet with my wife and our two young children. I’m running for Putnam County Legislature in District 5, and I’m the founder of the For The People Party—an independent line created to ensure that those who actually live here are at the center of the decisions shaping our towns. Our committee has a Republican Ranch owner, a sitting Democratic Legislator, and a local leader in the Conservative Party.

We did this because party should not matter for the issues that matter most: the local issues that touch our lives on a daily basis.

The closing of Carmel Cinema has sparked a wave of nostalgia, but it should also spark something deeper: a conversation about who controls our community’s future.

For many of us, the Cinema was more than a business. It was a space where families gathered, memories were made, and neighbors bumped into each other on rainy weekends. I personally had one of my first dates with my wife there 15 years ago. Our children have seen their first movies there.

But this isn’t just about a single theater. It’s about a larger pattern of community disempowerment at the hands of corporate landlords and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Across Putnam County, national firms—companies with no roots in our region—are acquiring commercial properties, raising rents, denying lease renewals, and squeezing out long-standing local businesses and developers. These landlords operate on a financial model that favors vacancy over affordability, and speculative redevelopment over long-term investment. Their decisions are made in boardrooms, not on main streets, and they’re driven by shareholder value, not community well-being.

Meanwhile, local entrepreneurs and developers—the people who actually live here, who raise their families here, and who want to invest in this community—are being pushed to the margins. They face steep permitting costs, unpredictable approval timelines, and limited access to fair, affordable commercial space. Even experienced builders and small business owners are walking away from projects they would otherwise gladly pursue, simply because the system makes it too risky and too expensive.

What’s worse, tax breaks, land use approvals, and development incentives are regularly handed out to absentee corporations—without long-term community guarantees or public transparency.

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We don’t need to reject outside investment, and government should not be involved in lease agreements between tenants and landlords. I’m a believer in small government that does not interfere in the civil liberties of our residents and businesses.

But, the precise time for government to get involved is when they need to protect us, the people, from the elites who use our communities to enrich themselves at our expense.

In those cases, we absolutely need to rebalance our policies to support those who are already here, doing the hard work of building our towns. That starts by disincentivizing long-term vacancies and setting clear expectations for corporate property owners. It also means streamlining permitting processes, reducing unnecessary costs, and creating fast, fair pathways for local developers and small business owners to succeed.

These are not partisan issues. They are structural ones—and they demand collaboration. Our local elected officials, planning boards, and business councils should be working together to enact policies that prioritize community ownership, increase transparency, and restore local control over how our commercial spaces are developed and used.

When we lose institutions like Carmel Cinema, we’re not just losing a tenant. We’re losing a reflection of who we are. We’re losing the spaces where community happens. And we’re losing them to forces that have no stake in our future beyond what it can yield on a quarterly report.

The For The People Party is built around a simple principle: decisions should serve the people who live here. Our committee includes a Democrat, a Republican, and a Conservative—not as a political gimmick, but because we believe that local government works best when it puts people above party and community over ideology.

I never intended to run for office. But like so many others, I’ve grown tired of watching our community’s values get sidelined while power consolidates behind closed doors. I’m running to protect what makes this place worth calling home—and to fight for policies that work for the people who live, build, and grow here.

Let us reward the real community members. The ones who bet on their hometown, who open the shop and never stop showing up. Not encourage the domino effect that pushes them out while paving the way for disconnected national investors to cash in.

This is Putnam County, “where the country begins”, and where a handshake and a look in the eye still mean something. Let us make sure it stays that way; for the families who have been here, and the ones just getting started.

For the Hamlet. For Putnam County. For the People.

Sincerely,
Brett Yarris
Candidate for Putnam County Legislature, District 5

Carmel Hamlet • Lake Carmel • Sparrow Ridge • Hill and Dale • Fairways