The council voted to accept a $322,435 grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It will support a new effort to address a lack of pedestrian infrastructure in Pittsfield’s West Side neighborhood – namely access to grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, and other resources that car routes currently block.
“This is a collaborative project between the city and the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission and other West Side partners," said city Park, Open Space and Natural Resource Program Manager Jim McGrath. “The project is sort of multi-pronged, but it really looks at access from the West Side to the neighborhood Big Y pharmacy, that sort of Center Street area. At present there isn't really good pedestrian access. So, this study will, taking into account a lot of community input, will look at sort of routing routes, pedestrian routes, and how safe they are, if there needs to be other improvements to make certain that folks in a non-motorized way can make their way down safely to those retail portions of that neighborhood.”
The West Side is the heart of Pittsfield’s Black community, and, after decades of redlining, experiences disproportionately high levels of crime and low levels of investment and infrastructure. Pittsfield has sought safety improvements for heavily-traveled thoroughfares in the neighborhood following the death of a young woman earlier this year who was hit by a car while crossing West Street with a toddler.
In parallel to the pedestrian infrastructure, the project will also look at an area along Francis Avenue where a proposed parklet might be sited.
“Right now, it's sort of just an open area where the road sort of curves around at the top of the stair set, which heads down towards Center Street," explained McGrath. "That'll be turned into a parklet area. The neighborhood has expressed the desire to see that greened up, if you will, and turned into a nice, pedestrian friendly area. And there are also some stormwater challenges associated with that corner. So, there'd be some stormwater infrastructure improvements there as well.”
Per the grant, the project must be completed by June 2025.
The council also accepted a $293,100 grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs.
“This is a large grant through the state to enhance the digital literacy of our seniors," said James Clark, Executive Director of Pittsfield’s Council on Aging. “It provides equipment, it provides training, and this is a joint effort with 14 other COAs. So, the COAs will get some equipment to lend. There'll be an outside contractor coming to do four semesters of 10 weeks of training on how to use computers and become more, less handcuffed for technology, especially in the sense of medical care, telehealth, telemed, telepharm. Also, to increase the telehealth too. As we all know, transportation is a huge issue here in Berkshire County, especially for our seniors. It’s approximately a $400 round trip paid out of pocket to go to Springfield. Now they can do telehealth appointments with their doctors online and not have to drive back and forth. So, it's a win-win for everybody. We've tied it with the hill towns, like I said. We're sponsoring it, but it’s 14 COAs that'll benefit from this throughout Berkshire County.”
