What ’ s holding it up ? One of the things that has been ingrained in my mind from when I sat on the council with Mayor Ruberto is this : A thriving downtown can only take place when the two adjacent neighborhoods are also thriving . We have more work to do in both of those neighborhoods — Morningside and West Side . I was at a meeting the other day , and someone told me there are 5,000 people who are employed downtown . Where are they ? They ’ re working from home . That ’ s a business decision that the city is not going to be able to influence one way or another . If I could not have to lease space , or if I could sell my building and still get the same product , why wouldn ’ t I do that ? I look back at 2020 with the city closing , the state closing , the nation closing because of Covid , and I said to myself , “ How are we going to do city council business ? By Zoom ? What ’ s Zoom ?” We have to embrace where we are now and fill our downtown vacant buildings with apartments . Pittsfield is a great place to live .
Are there many vacant buildings downtown for apartments ? The old Berkshire Bank building is one . And Allegrone ’ s is working on another . There are still a handful of buildings in-between . Some will say if you build it , they will come . I think if you build it and create the right atmosphere , they ' ll come . As we ' re building out apartments , we also need to be filling the storefronts and making downtown the place to be . The investment with Hot Plate has started that process . You have a place to go . We need to provide Thistle & Mirth a little bit of help to get them back to where they were . Why should it be for me to decide what the next generation wants ? Why aren ' t we calling them and saying , “ Hey , let ' s have a focus group . What do you want to have for nightlife ?”
How do you make this a reality ? I think it ' s a twofold approach . It ' s beingsomewhat of a salesperson and knocking on specific doors and saying , “ Hey , would you move your business ?” There are some opportunities where you have successful business folks with a shop in Great Barrington that might want a second shop . Let ' s be strategic about what we fill them our storefronts with . What are we missing ? What do we want ? Then let ' s go looking for those kinds of businesses .
What is your sales pitch ? If people are coming to the Berkshires from a tourist standpoint , it is our opportunity to build North Street as a destination . We have the Colonial Theatre , Barrington Stage , Berkshire Museum , Beacon Cinema — we have the attractions to provide a space for a thriving downtown . If we highlight some of our long-term business owners , we can show the success they are having , and we can do even better with the expansion of other businesses .
Does the presence of the juvenile court on North Street deter new businesses downtown ? We can ’ t tell a business owner what they can or can ’ t have in their building . We can ask that this is the environment we want for downtown , though . The other issue is access to transportation . Can people get there if we move it elsewhere ? In a perfect world , if can move it to a good location , why wouldn ’ t we do that ?
Has your perspective changed through the years ? I ' ve always felt that Pittsfield has promise . There have been a lot of success stories over the last couple of decades . One of the biggest is how we survived our major industry leaving town and reinvented ourselves . Let ' s talk about the PEDA [ Pittsfield Economic Development Authority ] property on East Street and the millions of dollars that are going into Site 9 for redevelopment . It is a completely redeveloped three parcels of land that says , “ Hey , Company , A , B or C , we ' re open for business . Come on in .” We ' re out recruiting businesses . We ' ve had some success and some development , but there ' s still a lot of space there . How do we strategically line that up ? That ' ll be part of my focus . We ’ re finally at that stage where we ' re going to redevelop the property . It ’ s going to be completely done by October . We can ' t wait for it to be done and then say , okay , now we are going to go find businesses . We need to multitask . Here ' s the design , this is what it ’ s going to look like , this is what it looks like now . Can we bring you in ?
Pittsfield has an added responsibility as the county seat . Is that at the forefront of your mind ? I want to start building the county team . I know Mark Pruhenski from Great Barrington , the town manager . I know the town manager in Richmond , the town administrator in Adams . One of the things that we ' re missing is a county coalition . Town managers already have their working group . How about giving the two mayors a seat at that table ? The other piece is that we say that we ' re in the Berkshires and we ' re isolated . The Massachusetts Municipal Association provides a lot of networking for elected officials across the Commonwealth . I went to a training at Holy Cross with nine new mayors and four mayors that had been around . They gave us a lowdown of what to expect . They heavily emphasized getting involved in the Massachusetts Mayors ’ Association because there are 51 of us , and we can network and share ideas .
What do you love most about Pittsfield ? Interestingly enough , I grew up as a bowler . I donated a lot of my time to youth bowling organizations in Pittsfield , Berkshire County , and statewide . My down time was about going bowling . I ’ ve got myself to a place where nature has become a thing for me . I ' m not sure if I ' m ready to go hike up Mount Greylock , but I could walk through Canoe Meadows and head out to Burbank Park and do some state forest stuff . You ’ ve got to breathe every once in a while . Most of all , though , it ’ s the people . No matter where you go , people are always nice . n
A new television program , One Pittsfield with Mayor Peter Marchetti , airs the second and fourth Monday at 5:30 p . m . on Pittsfield Community Television CityLink Channel , or on PCTV Select available at pittsfieldtv . org , on Roku , Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices . A livestream will be available on City Hall – City of Pittsfield Facebook page .
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