BUSINESS MONDAY: One mile at a time
Many groups are working together for better transportation options in and to the Berkshires.
It’s no secret that it can be challenging to get to, and around, the Berkshires.
If you don’t own a car, getting from Point A to Point B can be time-consuming. Agencies like Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA), the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), and local Councils on Aging help plug some of these gaps, but the region’s size and geography continue to present obstacles.
Transportation into and out of the Berkshires is even more lacking. The region recently lost daily rail service to Boston and Albany when Amtrak changed the schedule of the Lake Shore Limited train to a tri-weekly service. Although Berkshire residents still enjoy bus service, bus and rail service to the area is often slower than driving yourself, and can be unreliable. Despite the less-than-rosy current picture, recent years have seen forward progress and we have go
11:28
Emails obtained by WAMC News using the Freedom of Information Act show how the city of Pittsfield, Massachusetts developed a strategy to remove unhoused people from public parks in fall 2020 – and why the unfinished plan was scrapped just before it was set to go into effect.
The chaos of 2020 caused some of Pittsfield’s unhoused population to choose to live in homemade encampments in city parks rather than risk contracting COVID-19 in city shelters. Michele Mathews, a city resident living rough in Pittsfield, says the shelters posed other threats as well:
“The staff, albeit really nice people, some of them were sicker than us, she told WAMC. Some of them approached females, you know, for money. And I found a man in my bed. And my husband, 25 years legally married, couldn t even sleep on the same side of the building as me, but other men could in the same corridor as us.”
4:07
Facing a surge of post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 cases, Massachusetts officials today announced new guidance for residents when it comes to celebrating the December holidays.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker Tuesday urged people to celebrate the holidays only with household members and to postpone any planned travel over the upcoming weeks that include Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Any type of celebration beyond that has real potential, as we saw with Thanksgiving, to spread the virus and hurt the ones we love the most, said Baker.
In the two weeks following Thanksgiving Massachusetts has seen a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases.
The average number of new daily cases has gone from about 2,500 in the 10 days prior to Thanksgiving to an average of roughly 4,800 cases in the 13 days following the holiday. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 over the past three weeks have gone up by 93 percent and deaths