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daily.“ All the downtown businesses, we’ re all looking out for each other,” she says.“ It feels like we’ re all holding each other up.”
She’ s grown close with fellow owners, including Santangelo.( Laurie helped him renovate WANDER before its opening in 2025). Conversations are underway about adding a book section inside WANDER.“ Pittsfield is a great community,” Laurie says.“ The people who care really care.”
What makes this cluster of places more than the sum of their parts isn’ t just their offerings; it’ s the way they function in relation to each other. They share resources, spaces, contacts, and small-business know-how, and they cross-promote without any fear of losing their own identities.“ It’ s like a rising tide rise lifts all boats, right?” says Santangelo.
The civic impact is both visible and subtle. Since taking office in 2024, Mayor Peter Marchetti has watched it unfold.“ I think that this seems to have a real ripple effect on the local economy,” Marchetti says.“ Q-MoB( Queer Men of the Berkshires) had done
Emma and Laurie Lenski inside Indie Readery & Records.( Nick Burchard)
STOCKBRIDGE, MA 413.298.4227 SANDLERAIA. COM
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Somewhere in this issue is a fake ad. Send your answer to: editorial @ berkshiremag. com! Congratulations to everyone who picked“ Berkshire Bath Duckies” in the Spring issue.
The winner is John Schreiber of New Marlborough!
The winner is selected randomly from a list of all those who provided the correct answer. an event at Brazzucas, and they invited the executive director from the LGBTQ Mass Chamber of Commerce. It hit my radar screen then, the number of LGBTQ-owned businesses within the mile or two of our downtown.”
Marchetti says the collaboration among the businesses emerged organically after each found its footing.“ I’ m not sure that they started with a focus on working together, but once they became established, they began working together,” he says.“ Which affirms what we’ ve been saying, that Pittsfield is an open and welcoming space.”
The city has worked to support that growth through multiple channels.“ The city has always been trying to help businesses via the PERC grant and the Community Development Office,” says Marchetti.“ We’ ve had for the last couple years the partnership with the Mass TDI program, the Transformative Development Initiative that also brought money to new businesses. It’ s not just LGBTQ +, but ethnic populations and people of color have also benefited from the strategic piece. How can we build a diverse downtown to represent the diverseness of our population within the City of Pittsfield?”
He says businesses themselves have done the harder work of connection“ through the help of DPI and the establishment of these businesses, it’ s really made it easier for connection to happen. Each of them are putting a lot of their lives on the line, because as we know, opening a small business is no easy task. Whatever the city can do to provide as much of a safety net for them as we can, we have attempted to do.”
For residents and visitors, these downtown Pittsfield storefronts are an open-door invitation. They are a place to learn something new, to connect with someone different, and to contribute a shared experience. For the owners, the mutualaid approach is practical. Cross-promotion reaches a broader audience, joint events reduce workload, and help sustain programming. The city’ s role, with initiatives like DPI and the TDI, provide a scaffold for small business owners looking to grow.
What seems to be unfolding on this stretch of Pittsfield is an open invitation to belong. WANDER, Berkshire Pride, Brazzucas, and Indie Readery & Records are small places joining hands to create a larger sense of home. Each time a group meets at WANDER, or a neighbor drops in to Indie Readery & Records for a hardcover book, they’ re finding a place where they’ re known, seen, and welcome. n