Jaymie Zapata is a public health planner at the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission and the group’s liaison to the Pittsfield Gray to Green project. The BRPC is carrying out the initiative through a five-year, almost $1 million grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health along with the city, 18 Degrees, and Habitat for Humanity.
“It is an environmental and climate-focused initiative that aims to be inclusive of community members and centering their voices in development of green spaces, access to different areas of their community- Places like, can they easily access the grocery store? Do they feel safe walking to their local park? And seeks to find ways to implement that community feedback," Zapata explained to WAMC. "So, we are soliciting and implementing community feedback, specifically in the Morningside and West Side neighborhoods.”
Those communities were picked for Gray to Green for the unique challenges they experience within Pittsfield, the largest municipality and seat of Berkshire County.
“Based on a really great study done by the local NAACP that shows the history of redlining in these two neighborhoods, they have been historically underserved, they are where the largest portion of people of color in Pittsfield live, and have historically not had as much of a voice and so we're seeking to work with and elevate those voices in the city,” said Zapata.
Three years into the project, Zapata says she’s excited about how it’s drawn out voices that often get overlooked in the city.
“What we've been able to do so far – I was looking at some of the initial demographic data – is, we've gotten a large amount of youth voices," she said. "We have gotten a lot of people involved for whom Spanish as their first language. So actually, many of these audits were done in Spanish, and that's thanks to our partners at Habitat for Humanity and their community navigators. And then we have also had about, I would say, 68% of the people doing the audits are people of color. So, we hope that we are getting people whose voices perhaps have not traditionally been heard and giving an opportunity for that.”
Right now, Gray to Green is going over the 51 audits gathered from community members over the fall.
“Anything that's a safety concern, I am writing up to pass to the city, more or less on an ongoing basis," said Zapata. "So, I'm planning to, after finishing this first batch of audits, making a list: People say at this cross street, this is an issue. In this park, this is an issue. One of the ones I was just reading said, there's a stump, lots of children are playing in this park, touching the stump, getting splinters. There's a concrete slab from an old bench that's no longer there, people are tripping on it. And we're sending it back to the city and saying, hey, you might not have noticed this, but the people who live right here are saying this is something we would like to change.”
Some projects have already made their way to the top of the stack.
“There's a stair from Francis Ave – which is on Jubilee Hill in the West Side – and it goes down to College Way, and it is a major access point to get to the grocery store there, and it has long been noted as being unsafe," Zapata told WAMC. "The railing is sort of like pulling away from the side, the concrete stairs will often flood or freeze. When it rains there'll be ice on them. And they said, hey, we would like this changed. And so, we have gotten some storm drainage plans to propose to community members, we are seeking Community Preservation Act funds, Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness funds to address the concerns about invasive weeds and accessibility up and down those stairs, lighting, perhaps covering the stairs.”
Community audits in hand, Zapata says 2023 is about translating the needs identified in those reports into funding.
“So we've gotten feedback, right on what people want to see," she said. "And so we have turned some of those into applications to the city and to the state for the programs and what we would like them to look like. So, we are hoping in the next year to have those grants in, perhaps even hear about some of them that would give us the funds to implement what we have gathered as information from the community.”
