CARJAMICUS, GOD OF CROSSTOWN TRAFFIC, LORDS IT IN PITTSFIELD
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION SEPT. 15-17, 2017) — Once upon a time, a golden, flaming scroll descended from the heavens, and in its ashes one could read the words: How to Design Exasperating Traffic Patterns. And it came to pass that most cities rejected the sacred text, as usually happens to God’s Word and His prophets’ decrees. One burgh, however, embraced the golden scroll, earning great favor with Carjamicus, God of Crosstown Traffic.
THE PLANET understands you may not believe in Scripture, but we do trust you know that, for whatever reason, getting from “here” to “there” in the city of Pittsfield is no easy thing. To travel this gauntlet, you have to endure a maddening combination of traffic lights, stop signs, confusing road pain, poor byways, jaywalkers, construction, shoddy lighting, and too many vehicles for not enough street. The traffic, however, greatly fulfills the city’s credo, one fully embraced by Mayor Linda Tyer: “Do what thou wilt to make things as difficult, infuriating, inconvenient, and expensive as possible for good, honest citizens.”
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Do you have a “favorite” intersection, area, section, stretch, or vehicular junction to single out for raspberries? The candidates are legion. We’d like to hear your nominees. THE PLANET has a beauty: the mayhemed mile from the corner of East Housatonic and South streets to Wahconah Park. We had reason to endure this mile trial by motor car last week.
The fun begins on East Housy. Heading west passing Bartlett and Wendell avenues, traffic on the heavily traversed byway files along in a single lane. As one approached the light at North Street, the lane splits left to head south and right to go straight ahead or take the turn heading north on North. The timing of the traffic lights ensure that the number of vehicles cannot proceed through the cycle rapidly enough, resulting in the inevitable back up, sometimes extending east down East Housatonic to the traffic light at Appleton Avenue.
As we got in the right lane to turn right, several cars ahead of us were heading straight. This meant they had to wait for a full cycle before heading west. And the cars behind them who otherwise could have taken a simple right-on-red? Forget about it. While waiting to legally make the right turn on north, we read all 28 volumes of The Memoirs of Nikita Kruschev, completed and won a game of speed chess with Boris Spassky, advanced into senility, and listened to Wagner‘s entire Ring cycle.
Finally, having turned right heading north on North, we had to pass, count ’em, 14 traffic signals. As in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. Each one, of course, worked independently and not in synch each other or with the amount of traffic. There are brains far more worthy than ours whose precise job is to employ the algorithms that allow traffic signals to be set so as to ensure a good flow of traffic. Unfortunately, they are not employed in Pittsfield, Mass.
Along this Via Dolorosa, we ran into two delivery trucks double parked in the 100-200 blocks of North Street, causing more backups. At that point, the journey became one that combined “chicken” with “Bumper Cars.” Drivers tried to force themselves out of the clogged right hand lane, most without turn signal on of course, battling like salmon against the resolute competition in the left lane, determined, by Carjamicus, not to give the other guy a break.
Along the way, we did not see one police patrol on sidewalks or road. There were a couple of Pittsfield’s Finest working a construction detail. Alas, they missed the carnival of cars, all that fun, because they never once looked up from their smart phones. And that is how all the pleading eyes of vexed motorists were left to make eye contact with the officers in vain, looking for direction from those who had no direction to give.
Facebook and Twitter, you see, is nasty competition.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
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“I am not a number. I’m a free man” — No. 6 in The Prisoner.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
The Usual Disclaimer.
Wahconah and North, take your pick.
So true. The city is hamstrung with traffic lights. And many people get frustrated with the continuous stop and go and stop and go. So a mindset has evolved that up to 8 cars can generally blow through a light after it has changed. It is pretty much accepted. And I say pretty much because apparently there is a slew of accidents at traffic lights in Pittsfield.
Do you wonder if any business contemplating setting up on the PEDA site took into consideration how long it might take to get their trucks in and out of the city?
Sometimes it takes me so long to go from one side of the city to the other that I forget what the hell I left the house for.
Another issue is the fact that Pittsfield drivers lack common sense and courtesy. People drive in lines where there is not enough space between cars to pull out, but just enough where you’ll be waiting at the intersection for 20 minutes. If there is an opening and someone is coming down the road 90% of the time they speed up like the scum they are.
Driving in the Pioneer Valley is like apples and oranges
Not to mention the careless driving into un-painted lanes. I have never seen anything like it. And….the Cheshire Road lane merger …pure stupidity. Aggressive drivers should get huge penalties for their road rage.
Spot on you guys. How about a lane merger anywhere, seems if you go the speed limit and reach that crossover, some asshole tries to pass you at the merge point, happens everytime on That stretch. Another one is getting a green light to turn left, but not an arrow green, very frustrating to have to wait because it should always be an arrow, how the hell does the driver know what color the light is from the opposite direction light? Coming down outer North to turn left onto Wahconah is a disaster waiting to happen.
Anyone near or se the interviews on Channel 13 last night concerning the Pittsfield Grabber One said Pittsdield is a dangerous place to live.
A City Council regular Howard was on, said he never seen it this bad.
Dan V., I don’t know whether to laugh or cry after reading your extremely accurate description of the nightmare of driving in Pittsfield. It took me 10 to 12 minutes yesterday to travel an extremely short distance.
If you start at Park Square there is no place in the city that you can’t get to in 10 minutes.
While the traffic complaints are legit, this is quite accurate
The library is well within 10 minutes of Park Square.
Mr Moore I think you may be mistaken.
For example: I waited 15 min on RT 7 from Handcock Rd to Wahconah St.
There was never a problem there untill the fools decided we needed a light at the intersection. Of course no right on red lane.
I can supply you with many more examples if you wish.
LOL…All I could think as I read this Pat was…first world problems. But taken as a whole, the descent into lawlessness has been persistent and significant. It starts with traffic problems…broken window syndrome…and ends up at daily gang violence. And denying it’s there helps nothing. There needs to be a FT Police Chief and a commitment to cleaning up Dodge.
Now there looking for someone that you’d think was Jack the Ripper. No one got a license plate or seen this guy driving around. How many times has this person been doing this next thing that’s going to get funding is City Wide Cameras. Say goodbye to shot sputter.
Traffic and lack of progress to resolve it is one of the reasons Bruce Collingwood is no longer with the City, however, there is no meaningful succession yet.
There should be a light at the top of Benedict Rd. across from the GEAA. Very dangerous trying to take a left onto Crane because of blocked visibility of cars coming from the right.
Fortunately I don’t have to tackle it on a regular basis.
Every time the city adds a new traffic light they should eliminate two existing ones. Make this rule an ordinance. Traffic lights are super expensive and the lobbying by the salesman is intense. There may even be personal incentives for the purchaser which may explain why Pittsfield has a bumper car traffic control layout.
And no I am not talking about kickbacks! Why do you people always think I am talking about kickbacks?
The intersection that absolutely should have a traffic light is Holmes Road and Elm Street. I found it absolutely absurd that Chris Connell prioritized Stop signs at a couple of the connecting streets off Elm, and this intersection has not had any priority whatsoever.
Does the intersection meet traffic signal warrants?
Unequivocally. Are you at all familiar with the volume? The danger?
Two directions feeding in and two directions feeding out.
which warrants does it meet? do you have the traffic counts by direction?
Good one Spa.
That was Caccamo not Connell. Get your facts straight.
Never had a problem with that intersection. There are always alternate routes to take if that one worries you.
If you have to take alternate routes, it would indicate that this is a difficult intersection. It is.
I don’t need to take alternate routes. I can drive. There’s nothing wrong with that intersection that would EVER need a traffic light to solve.
Lol
Spider, ya just what we need, another light.
I use that intersection all the time, it is not that big of a deal.
Good one spider. It’s like hide and seek.. How about the green light going North and South near the Pontoosac dam, shouldn’t turning left be a green arrow going up Hancock?
I like the 3 lights in a quarter mile stretch on West Housatonic St. from Merriam St to Britton St.. I travel that road almost every night after 6:00 PM. There is little to no traffic and I almost always hit 2 of the 3 lights. They could at least be changed to a flashing yellow after 7:00 PM.
Since when does East Housy intersect with North St.? There’s a thing called Google maps – you should try it.
I was wondering that too WB. Maybe he meant the corner of West Housy and North.
It’s East Housy and South St. Dan should do better research before criticizing.
light at South end of Merriam Street – waited there one day for 11 minutes –
I might have been in back of you that day,Trix. How do you like the vehicles taking that left onto Merriam? talk about cutting corners.
News article:
“Tourism booms but locals struggle: Behind the two worlds of the Berkshires”
By Katie Johnston, The Boston Globe, September 14, 2017
LENOX — The sound of mournful oboes floated across the manicured lawn on a recent misty night, mixing with trilling cicadas as darkness settled over Tanglewood. It was Berkshire Night, when county residents get in free to see the Boston Symphony Orchestra at its summer home — a rare opportunity for most locals. But some are too busy cleaning people’s vacation homes or waiting tables to attend. Others have no way to get there, or can’t afford a baby sitter to watch their kids.
The Berkshires are rich with art, dance, theater, and music, dotted with picturesque towns and rolling hills that bloom red and gold in the fall. Tourists and second-home owners have been flocking here in increasing numbers, but for many of the people who live and work here year-round, getting by is a greater struggle than it used to be.
The number of people in poverty in Berkshire County rose by nearly a third between 2000 and 2015, even as the overall year-round population dipped and the number of seasonal home owners increased almost 19 percent, according to data compiled for a recent study by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, a public charity based in Sheffield. More than 40 percent of residents under age 46 surveyed said they are considering moving in the next three years, largely due to a lack of jobs and career advancement.
Many locals cobble together part-time service jobs that ebb and flow with the seasons, traveling to the tourism-centric southern part of the county on a bus that doesn’t run at night, on Sundays or holidays. And as more tourists visit — visitor spending is up nearly 30 percent since 2009 — and more wealthy New Yorkers and Bostonians buy summer homes, low-paying front-desk-clerk and cashier jobs proliferate while housing prices get more out of reach.
“There’s two worlds,” said Alisa Costa, who works to connect low-income residents with resources in the region, on the western edge of Massachusetts. “The people who benefit from the wonderful assets in our community, and the people who serve them.”
And this divide, similar to those in other tourist destinations, keeps getting bigger.
Pittsfield resident Courtney Mcardle has three catering and bartending jobs and works 50 hours a week during the busy summer and Christmas holiday seasons.
But when it’s slow, she’s often late making her car payment and can only pay the minimum amount on her credit cards.
Mcardle, 26, gets subsidized day care for her two kids, but doesn’t necessarily consider herself hard up. That changed at a fund-raising gala for the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield earlier this summer.
When the auctioneer noted that they needed $5,000 to make it a record-breaking night, the hands went up. Mcardle, who was waiting on the VIP table, was amazed. “It was like it was nothing,” she said. “I didn’t realize how broke I was until I went to this party and they thought $5,000 was chump change.”
Two of the biggest sectors in the region are retail, which provides average weekly wages of $581 a week, and lodging and food service, at $438 a week, according to the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. The county also has a lower share of people working full time, and more working part-time than state and national averages, due in part to a heavy reliance on service jobs.
For Berkshire County residents, the median household income is just shy of $50,000, well below the state median of close to $70,000. For visitors to the Berkshires, it’s $100,000.
The Berkshires once had a substantial manufacturing presence, but between the 1970s and the 1990s the area lost more than 20,000 middle-class jobs as General Electric downsized and Sprague Electric shut down.
A number of paper mills have also shut their doors in recent years. Country Curtains, the home furnishings company that employs about 180 people in the Berkshires, recently announced that it’s on the verge of closing.
“We had a generation and a half that was underemployed,” said Jonathan Butler, president of the regional economic development organization 1Berkshire.
“And we’re still dealing with a mix of generational poverty and a lot of different social challenges that were a direct result of that.”
The opioid epidemic has also taken a toll. Kate Lauzon, a 40-year-old single mom in Pittsfield, says she got hooked after a car accident 10 years ago.
She’s clean now, she said, but is still on disability, and last year she started working part-time as a security guard at Tanglewood, Jiminy Peak, and other tourist destinations. Her disability check was cut when she started working more this summer, though, and now she can’t afford car insurance.
“I guess I’m going to have to take the bus from now on,” she said.
The economy is recovering from manufacturing job losses, in part due to increased tourism, as Pittsfield, North Adams, and other cities have revitalized their downtowns, outdoor recreation has expanded, and spas have become more prevalent, including the Cranwell Spa & Golf Resort in Lenox, which is set to undergo a major renovation.
Tanglewood, the area’s biggest attraction, draws 35,000 more people a year than it did in 2008 and generates roughly $40 million more in economic activity, according to a recent study by a Williams College economics professor.
But the increase in high-end vacation homes also drives up real estate prices, making it less affordable for working families. Steven Picheny, a 75-year-old former owner of a medical device sales and marketing firm who spends his summers in Great Barrington, knows a police officer in town who can’t afford to buy a house but doesn’t qualify for assistance.
“He should be able to buy a house in the town that he’s defending,” Picheny said.
Adrienne Teixeira, 49, of Great Barrington, said vacationers “act like they kind of own the town.” But Teixeira, who has a part-time office job and also cleans rooms at a bed and breakfast, knows they are vital to the economy: “We need these people; that’s the problem.”
Many residents are well aware of the issues their neighbors are facing. Phyllis Cohen, 72, who moved with her husband from Newton to their house in Egremont full-time several years ago, volunteers at a Great Barrington elementary school as part of the Jewish Women’s Foundation.
“The paradise for part-timers and retired transplants is more like a quicksand patch for many of our native neighbors,” she said.
As more well-off tourists and vacation-home owners populate the Berkshires, there is a growing sense among locals that they don’t belong here anymore.
Carolyn Valli, executive director of Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, which gets twice the number of applications for permanent housing than it did a decade ago, said that even though food stamp recipients get incentives for buying produce at farmers markets, some have told her they don’t feel comfortable there because of the wine tastings and other offerings geared toward tourists.
A number of initiatives are underway to help struggling Berkshire County residents. Pittsfield recently landed a $475,000 Working Cities grant from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to promote economic growth, and the city has a full-time community organizer for three years, thanks to the state’s economic development and finance authority.
Berkshire United Way is also developing a matchmaker program that will link residents with job opportunities for in-demand professions.
This type of program could help locals like Andrew Hayden, 24, the electronics manager at Walmart in Pittsfield, who is studying robotics online at Southern New Hampshire University. Hayden lives in a Habitat for Humanity house with his younger brother, who also works at Walmart, and their mother, Bonnie, who has severe rheumatoid arthritis.
Before the sons got jobs a few years ago and helped build their new house, equipped with wide hallways to accommodate their mother’s wheelchair, Bonnie was spending nearly her entire disability check to rent a moldy house with broken windows that allowed mice and squirrels to get in.
Andrew is reluctant to leave his mother, but he isn’t confident he’ll be able to make a good living in the Berkshires. “There’s a lot of jobs; there’s just not a lot of careers,” he said.
The lack of high-speed Internet holds people back, keeping them from opening businesses or completing school assignments. Limited bus service also makes it difficult to get ahead.
Catheryn Chacon, 27, said it took her almost two hours each way, by foot and by bus, to get to class at Berkshire Community College, roughly 14 miles from her home in Lee. She had to rely on friends for rides at night when the bus wasn’t running.
Chacon, whose family emigrated from Colombia when she was a teenager, now works as a tax accountant at Ernst & Young in Boston.
But she thinks about moving home and opening her own business, maybe even taking advantage of the burgeoning vacation-home market, she said: “I know real estate is big in the Berkshires right now.”
Bonnie Hayden, 54, who has rheumatoid arthritis, was the first Pittsfield recipient of a Habitat for Humanity house that is accessible to the disabled. With her is son Andrew, 24.
Katie Johnston can be reached at katie.johnston@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ktkjohnston.
https://www.printfriendly.com/print?source=homepage&url_s=uGGC_~_PdN_~_PcS_~_PcSJJJmoBFGBAtyBormpBz_~_PcSoHFvArFF_~_PcScabh_~_PcSaj_~_PcSbe_~_PcSorExFuvErF-yBpnyF-FGEHttyr-GBHEvFz-oBBzF_~_PcS3uIdd8o0GNSjUUKN5v2BeY_~_PcSFGBELmuGzy_~_PdSF_pnzCnvtA_~_PdQoErnxvAtArJF_~_PdNArJFyrGGrE
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/09/14/berkshires-locals-struggle-tourism-booms/Qhv33VbNtAF9HHxASiPo4L/story.html?s_campaign=breakingnews:newsletter
ice little fender bender out on South Street at 330
Council Grades: Connell D
Mazzeo A
Caccamo A
Simonelli A
Krol A
Morandi A
Marchetti A
Tully A
Rivers A
White F
Amuso Y
Why? You have to give us something.
Think she spelled daffy.
Whyis the Mauor so upped up about talking with some tall bald guy in the woods,we don t go to the woods and we don t ride bies,let alone mountain bike and most can’t afford it.
Hehehehe
Well, one of the guys she’s talking to now looks like he’s never been on a bike.
Why the upsurge with the Sprindside House and the Pond at Springside. Those Properties didn’t have any use,and ended up Blight, and now the Mayor wants to resurrect a Dinosaur that didn’t work then and won’t work now. Mayor, it is cost to much,and like the new High School, the old one wasn’t taken care of, and Springside House serves zero purpose to most taxpayers.
The Pond,back in the day,smelled like a sewer,the wading pool was the attraction and this Mayorr nor McGrath,have zero intention of bringing it back, just the House for the gobsigs. The kids get the shaft.
Maybe Wal Mart could contribute to the financing of a new wading pool. As I recall,the pool was only a couple feet deep,but that little venue was a gem, not the Pond, or the Springside House. It would cost peanuts to life guard it with volunteers.
It. IghtAgain have had a parking problem, I m not sure.
Chesnut Trees are probably the last thing on anyone’s minds
Mayor. What happened to your Blight Fight? Kentucky and Hess still stand, and the Big N and Wesy Housy Wood Chuck Central are in full bloom.
oh the Big N is gonna be a U haul and self storage center. I am sure that will bring many high paying jobs………NOT
Chestnut, see , can’t even spell it, so irrelevant.
There was a reported backpack bomb on south john street
Traffic is much better today than 35 years ago.Much much better.Also ,why is Pittsfield so important to the gangsters.There is a reason.Much of it of course is our connection to inmates getting out of jail and setting down roots.Turf power from out of town.When will Mccandless speak to Pittsfields poverty and his endless budgets and hiring
Tricia Bouvier showed up at a buther shop opening on North.What is Tricia doing for poverty in Pittsfield
Maybe she’ll spread around a few bucks from the raise she gave herself.
With her 40% raise she’s one of the few who can afford to shop at this clip joint.
If you have to take alternate routes, it would indicate that this is a difficult intersection. It is.
Or it would be an indication of poor driving skill. With what I’ve seen from drivers in this town, I’m going with that.
It’s not at all about driving skills. It’s about getting out of Holmes Road. If you dont travel the route much, you dont feel the hassle.
Article in the Boston Globe entitled, “In the Berkshires, Locals Struggle As Tourism booms”. Can’t read the whole article though because you have to pay for it on line.
go to print friendly dot com
here is the link:
https://www.printfriendly.com/
Thank you Jonathan!!!! I never heard of this site before. It’s great! I am reading the article now.
Tyer tripled your taxes so the N Y ers can have three cars.
A cople of friends of mine went to Lantern only to find it wan’t open, To their dismay he was out a couple of Greek Salads.
Mayor Tyer is pictured on iberkshires web site cutting a ribbon for the unveiling of, get this – garbage cans. Just what this dump of a city needs – more,trash cans to,get knocked over or painted over. And Dan you thought Bianchi was the ribbon cutting king. Well, she just dethroned him!
There is a reason trash cans were taken out of state parks – scum bags don’t use em, they abuse em. I give it 30’days and they’ll be trashed, pun intended.
This must be the revitalization of Tyler Street that the Progressives are talking about….garbage cans. They hate big box stores so don’t want a Super Walmart which really would be a revitalization of the Tyler Street area.
Trash cans for the trash to put their trash in. If that isn’t an economic engine then what is?
Ribbon cutting for trash cans wth
Walmart is low expectation from regressives.
Well they were expecting big industry to flock to the PEDA site (not really) but that did not happen so Walmart is better than nothing. And nobody else is coming or they would have been here by now. PEDA cannot give that space away. It is either Walmart or the Pittsfield cemetery annex.
Oh wow….another economic engine idea has sprung to my mind. What if we did turn the PEDA site into a sprawling cemetery? We could take all the unidentified opioid victims from around the country and bury them there and charge the city where they came from. And since we will be soon sending the parking kiosks to a graveyard of their own we could re-purpose them as grave markers. They could be reprogrammed to tell where individual bodies were buried. OMG do you see where I am going here? Can you see what is missing on your city council? Like original well thought out ideas for forward thinking and progressive society?
And what a fitting end to land that was itself fatally contaminated by chemicals that it would be the resting place for people who were also fatally contaminated by chemicals. The circle of life as they say.
One thing for sure dusty, it is the best idea I’ve heard so far, the last umpteenth year. Unfortunately,your plan has been designated to the old Big N Complex out on West Housatonic.
Nah…too wet out there. You could never get a permit to do a cemetery in a flood plain. Actually, in Pittsfield you probably could get that permit if you knew a guy.
The Berkshires are only vibrant for the wealthy. 40% of people under 46 are planning on leaving the area in the next few years.
This was according to a poll by the Berkshire Taconic Foundation which said young people are leaving the Berkshires in droves. I think Linda Tyer should rethink not making jobs a priority for this area. Same with all the other local politicians who don’t care about job creation.
Three of my favorite Movies of all time…the Godfather, Shawshank Redemption, and my favorite is on right now Shane.
Tyer just gave Carmen another stint on the Licensing Board, great leadership, Mayor. Who twisted your arm?
Carmen one took a shower with Sandusky.
Congressman Neal has brought no jobs,Patrick Larkin no job,Bouvier no jobs,Tyer no jobs…they dont know how.They should work together and call Amazon then try to get them here.Bouvier went to the butcher opening
Here are excerpts from the article about poverty in the Berkshires that appeared on the first page of the Boston Globe on Friday. The Berkshire Eagle ran an article several months ago in which they expressed shock (which didn’t seem genuine) that so much poverty existed here in the Beautiful Berkshires that has become a playground for the vibrant wealthy since local politicians show no interest in job creation.
Tourism booms but locals struggle: Behind the two worlds of the Berkshires
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/09/14/berkshires-locals-struggle-tourism-booms/Qhv33VbNtAF9HHxASiPo4L/story.html
By Katie Johnston
LENOX — The sound of mournful oboes floated across the manicured lawn on a recent misty night, mixing with trilling cicadas as darkness settled over Tanglewood. It was Berkshire Night, when county residents get in free to see the Boston Symphony Orchestra at its summer home — a rare opportunity for most locals. But some are too busy cleaning people’s vacation homes or waiting tables to attend. Others have no way to get there, or can’t afford a
baby sitter to watch their kids.
The Berkshires are rich with art, dance, theater, and music, dotted with picturesque towns and rolling hills that bloom red and gold in the fall. Tourists and second-home owners have been flocking here in increasing numbers, but for many of the people who live and work here year-round, getting by is a greater struggle than it used to be.
Advertisement
The number of people in poverty in Berkshire County rose by nearly a third between 2000 and 2015, even as the overall year-round population dipped and the number of seasonal home owners increased almost 19 percent, according to data compiled for a recent study by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, a public charity based in Sheffield. More than 40 percent of residents under age 46 surveyed said they are considering moving in the next three years, largely due to a lack of jobs and career advancement.
Many locals cobble together part-time service jobs that ebb and flow with the seasons, traveling to the tourism-centric southern part of the county on a bus that doesn’t run at night, on Sundays or holidays. And as more tourists visit — visitor spending is up nearly 30 percent since 2009 — and more wealthy New Yorkers and Bostonians buy summer homes, low-paying front-desk-clerk and cashier jobs proliferate while housing prices get more out of reach.
“There’s two worlds,” said Alisa Costa, who works to connect low-income residents with resources in the region, on the western edge of Massachusetts. “The people who benefit from the wonderful assets in our community, and the people who serve them.”
And this divide, similar to those in other tourist destinations, keeps getting bigger.
The Berkshires once had a substantial manufacturing presence, but between the 1970s and the 1990s the area lost more than 20,000 middle-class jobs as General Electric downsized and Sprague Electric shut down.
A number of paper mills have also shut their doors in recent years. Country Curtains, the home furnishings company that employs about 180 people in the Berkshires, recently announced that it’s on the verge of closing.
‘There’s a lot of jobs; there’s just not a lot of careers.’
“We had a generation and a half that was underemployed,” said Jonathan Butler, president of the regional economic development organization 1Berkshire.
“And we’re still dealing with a mix of generational poverty and a lot of different social challenges that were a direct result of that.”
But the increase in high-end vacation homes also drives up real estate prices, making it less affordable for working families. Steven Picheny, a 75-year-old former owner of a medical device sales and marketing firm who spends his summers in Great Barrington, knows a police officer in town who can’t afford to buy a house but doesn’t qualify for assistance.
“He should be able to buy a house in the town that he’s defending,” Picheny said.
Adrienne Teixeira, 49, of Great Barrington, said vacationers “act like they kind of own the town.” But Teixeira, who has a part-time office job and also cleans rooms at a bed and breakfast, knows they are vital to the economy: “We need these people; that’s the problem.”
As more well-off tourists and vacation-home owners populate the Berkshires, there is a growing sense among locals that they don’t belong here anymore.
Carolyn Valli, executive director of Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, which gets twice the number of applications for permanent housing than it did a decade ago, said that even though food stamp recipients get incentives for buying produce at farmers markets, some have told her they don’t feel comfortable there because of the wine tastings and other offerings geared toward tourists.
Before the sons got jobs a few years ago and helped build their new house, equipped with wide hallways to accommodate their mother’s wheelchair, Bonnie was spending nearly her entire disability check to rent a moldy house with broken windows that allowed mice and squirrels to get in.
Andrew is reluctant to leave his mother, but he isn’t confident he’ll be able to make a good living in the Berkshires. “There’s a lot of jobs; there’s just not a lot of careers,” he said.
The lack of high-speed Internet holds people back, keeping them from opening businesses or completing school assignments. Limited bus service also makes it difficult to get ahead.
Catheryn Chacon, 27, said it took her almost two hours each way, by foot and by bus, to get to class at Berkshire Community College, roughly 14 miles from her home in Lee. She had to rely on friends for rides at night when the bus wasn’t running.
In a sad roundabout way poverty is one of the driving forces in the Pittsfield.economy. Lotsa jobs created to hand out essentials to the needy folk. Too bad all these jobs go to relatives of connected peeps instead of the poverty guys who could really use a nice job with great benefits. Remember, someone has to find a meal for that bum and sometimes a place to sleep. And sometimes you need a whole office full of people to do the administrative work for that sandwich that the bum gets. So there is in fact an upside to having a poor population to exploit.
Krimers Pat, we already have a cut and paste guy in Jo athan, but I did enjoy this one.
Fred Fahey and Jim Mooney might have been great men. But look at their disciples over the years, some of worst characters in existence.
Their whole operation had a weird vibe from my point of view. Something always felt wrong there.
They always seemed to be on the search for boys without father figures. Maybe for good reasons maybe not.
Planet, are you familiar with the Wong Fook Hing Book Store?
My cousin
I’ll be glad when the council election gets here and maybe we can get someone new who can stimulate some change in this city.
Obviously, if you’re looking for a book and can’t find the Book you’re looking for,then obviously you’re in the Wong Fook Hing Book Store.
I could be delusional, but I could have sworn I saw James Taylor on Wahnconah St.
Cos, maybe you seen Fire……or Rain?
Hey Cosbie, of course you’re delusional, since you were in Pittsfield and everyone in Pittsfield has been deluded for years by the gobsigs and politicians. JT was on Wahaconah getting inspiration for his next album to be called Guns N Roses, Fire N Rain, Life in the Fast Lane. It’s about raining bullets, burning buildings, speeding cars, shootings and bars, sugar and spice and everything nice in Pittsfield, while the fairytale dust of a once truly vibrant city is sprinkled by The Vibrant One on the poor souls left in the ashes. I even hear there will be,a picture of one of Pittsfields’ new garbage cans on the cover. Whether or not it will be riddled with bullets or splattered with blood remains to be seen.
I got the Title for it SGH….. I’ve seen kiosks and I’ve seen garbage cans.
Good god! Seriously, whose idea was it to have a ribbon cutting ceremony for new trash cans? Were they filming a segment for Saturday Night Live?
I did not see how much it costs for the garbage cans or how many there would be. And how much are we paying this mayor, whom we would hope had more important things to do, to drop everything and do this photo op? Is there a top level of embarrassment when spending taxpayer money?
But really, does anyone know whose brain this photo op came from because that was one bottom of the barrel idea. The person needs to be exposed and it is kind of sad for the taxpayers that the mayor also thought it was a good idea.
Another shooting we won’t hear about happened at 35 Appleton Ave. right across from PHS Friday night – Sat. morning. 8 shots were fired into the house in a drive by. Welcome to Shittholefield.
A Bullet on every corner. Not a chicken in every pot, so to speak.
Probably fake news because there is 18% less crime now and those shots would have put us over. So it cannot be true. Statistics do not lie.
The shot spotter seems a little absurd, money could have been better spent feeding the homeless or supplementing meals on wheels.