Earlier this year, a director working in western Massachusetts collected a top community media honor.
Thomas Draudt is no stranger to awards – he’s collected at least one Emmy and several nominations for his work on the series "This Old House" – and one nomination for "This New House."
But, as the city of Northampton approaches a major overhaul of its Main Street, Draudt has been looking to capture the ins and outs of what goes into what seems like infrastructure heart surgery – operating on an artery thousands of people rely on.
He spoke with WAMC about his work, community media and more.
--
On an ordinary Friday in May in downtown Northampton, foot traffic might not be heavy in the early afternoon, but there’s no lack of buses passing City Hall, cyclists rounding corners and delivery trucks.
It’s Main Street – and for the past few years, its future has been a source of much contention. “Picture Main Street,” an almost total overhaul of the broad roadway, has been in the works and climbing in estimated costs.
Currently, the state is footing much of the $43 million bill – though the city’s almost $12 million contribution has drawn rebukes. Concerns have been mounting over parking, foot traffic and just how long heavy machinery will be around once work starts sometime in spring 2028, along with other issues.
City leaders say the work is long overdue and promises to address a significant “crash cluster” in the area, while bringing protected bike lanes and expanded ADA-compliant sidewalks. Critics have questioned the project’s unforeseen costs and where city funding is coming from, all while raising the concerns of small businesses.
The debates have been some of the fiercest in Paradise City – even warranting a recent Boston Globe piece. Amid the debates thought – and before the Globe piece - enter Thomas Draudt.
After 45 years in the film industry, Draudt has been venturing into the world of community media -- again. He’s no stranger to it – he says the time he spent in community media after coming out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst was foundational.
In fact, he’s known well in the world of public media, given his time working on “This Old House.” Now, though, he spends time as a “community media producer” with Easthampton Media – and his work is being noticed.
A new docuseries he’s produced “EQUAL=STREETS,” netted him and Easthampton Media an Alliance for Community Media Foundation award this year – first place in its “transportation” category.
“It has a lot of meaning because, unlike the other work that I've done - I've worked with a giant team of people. I've been the director of a group of highly-skilled camera people and producers and technicians - and this one, I did all myself,” he told WAMC, sitting outside the Familiars café earlier this fall. “I'm shooting, editing, producing - I mean, I'm making the calls… all myself, and that gratification comes from digging in so hard…”
Released episodically in 2025, the series offers a deep-dive on what goes into such a Main Street overhaul and the logic behind it.
An avid cyclist himself, Draudt said the bike lane and pedestrian aspects leapt out to him - as did the accessibility aspects.
“I was realizing that Northampton was like ‘What are we… why are we doing this? Why?’” he said, touching on early confusion and concerns over the project. “Well, it's happening everywhere in the Pioneer Valley. This, and it's happening everywhere around the world. I wanted to sort of base this project in a kind of larger concept of … this is happening in [Greenfield and Easthampton] in this Pioneer Valley, so you can relax about that a little bit.”
However, the earliest plans ended up being scrapped. That included bringing experts into a studio to talk city planning and infrastructure, Draudt said. The working product – a bit dry and, as he tells it, not an easy lift editing-wise.
But, at the same time he said, election season was in full-swing. It was late-2025 and, as Draudt saw headlines and Facebook group debates continue – he said it started to look like Picture Main Street was going to be a major issue – bearing down on the mayoral contest.
Enter Strong Avenue – the same street on which he spoke with WAMC.
“I felt it was my responsibility, as an informed resident or citizen on this project and … using the skillset that I have, to produce an argument that can stand against the naysayers,” he explained. “In other words - facts, positivity… [interview] people that use the Rail Trail and people that use the streets in a different way than in a car - to have that voice. This is really an equity issue. I mean, it's many things, but you have to use that word, ‘equity.’ A lot of people believe in equity, but do they really?”
The end product – a series of conversations with experts still, but also stakeholders – especially residents with a stake in the project’s ADA-compliance aspect, like Amy Sugihara, who chairs the Northampton Disability Commission.
Three episodes in, the conversations go heavy on pedestrian safety, while touching on business impacts and traffic along the way.
Mainly, Draudt says, the perspectives come from those who have either come around on the project or are simply for its reforms – viewpoints, he argues, that are drowned out online.
He says nowadays, beside other projects like a series of interviews with the mayor of Easthampton, his focus is turning to the aforementioned Greenfield and Easthampton Main Street projects – ventures that will keep up the community media spirit he adds – a medium that Draudt says remains vital to this day.
“Community access was extremely important in its origin because, up until then, the only [way] people could get video equipment and have a broadcast for the people, so to speak … was if you worked for a professional channel or network,” he said. “[Community access] was a very democratizing situation that happened. Now, fast forward 40-45 years, you've got YouTube - you've got all this digital media - everyone's a filmmaker. Making stuff is ‘easy.’ Everyone is doing this and it easily [goes] out on social media."
“To find the purpose in a community access channel now, you have to lean into it a little bit and realize that it's a community just like anything else,” he added.
—
Some audio for this story was provided by Easthampton Media.
This piece originally aired on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026.
