AMSTERDAM — While nonprofit organizations are beneficial to the quality of life of the city’s residents, sometimes their location is not.

So says Mark Capone, who sits on Mayor Ann Thane’s Downtown Business Committee and is a member of the Amsterdam Industrial Development Agency. Capone said the large ratio of churches and nonprofit organizations to businesses on East Main Street could be causing more harm than good when it comes to restoring the area to a thriving commercial district.

“What’s there are entities that actually are working entities, but might not be helping a commerced area so much,” Capone said. “We’re looking at what’s hurting the area and what’s making it better.”

According to Thane, the Downtown Business Committee is working on a comprehensive plan for all of Main Street, including the eastern and western portions.

Thane said committee members think East Main Street would be a prime location for various restaurants and bars.

Capone said he walked along East Main Street Thursday finding usable properties and coming up with ideas for reinvigorating the corridor.

Capone said the area isn’t just hurt by typical urban blight, but by social service organizations whose missions have unintended consequences that, along with the number of streetfront churches, run counter to efforts to promote a vibrant retail and commecial corridor.

“How many of the spaces on East Main Street are owned by not-for-profits or non-paying entities?” Capone asked. “While some are doing their part and caring for their buildings other places aren’t doing it.”

As far as the committee’s idea of an area for restaurants and bars, the state does not grant liquor licenses to establishments that are within 200 feet of a school or place of worship, Capone noted.

“Try finding a vacant commercial property that isn’t within 200 feet of a church,” Capone said.

Ladan Alomar, director of the Hispanic community agency Centro Civico, said she doesn’t see the many churches on East Main Street or her nonprofit organization as a detriment to East Main Street.

“I look at them as part of the neighborhood just like I look at each individual as part of a whole,” she said. “Are we measuring a neighborhood by better-looking buildings or are we measuring a neighborhood by what it offers?”

Alomar said she views East Main Street as a place where people can walk to get their hair cut, buy groceries and go to churches, which offer soup kitchens and other programs. The diversity on East Main Street adds to the neighborhood, she said.

Alomar said she would welcome anyone from city government or from the private sector who comes with ideas and funding that would enhance the existing condition of East Main Street, whether it be facade or building improvements or a business development plan.

“We have to partner in coming up with solutions rather than pointing fingers and talking about what’s not being done and what is not there,” she said. “Each of them have strengths. How can we collectively make a difference. We all want a vibrant East Main Street, don’t we?”