Who Is Killing the Towns of Western Massachusetts?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Also, while I realize this contention probably won't wow most people on this mostly young, mostly urban, mostly pro-Idea of Progress (in whatever form) forum, I have to put in a good word for the idea that there are intangible cultural reasons to have some well-settled rural areas or even just small cities (of which Western Mass has quite a few) in a country, which could justify a certain degree of subsidization--a sense of connection to the past and the dead, for example, or opportunities for artists and writers to present rural life without being ridiculous and twee, or even the possibility of drawing employees of natural recreation spots from a more-or-less local population.

[dead0man]

Also, while I realize this contention probably won't wow most people on this mostly young, mostly urban, mostly pro-Idea of Progress (in whatever form) forum, I have to put in a good word for the idea that there are intangible cultural reasons to have some well-settled rural areas or even just small cities (of which Western Mass has quite a few) in a country, which could justify a certain degree of subsidization--a sense of connection to the past and the dead, for example, or opportunities for artists and writers to present rural life without being ridiculous and twee, or even the possibility of drawing employees of natural recreation spots from a more-or-less local population.

Or we can return huge chunks of land to nature.  Or better yet, both, some small towns live on while some areas can be full of wildlife that has been missing from the area for 200 years.  Which is the likely result anyway no matter what we do about it.

[Person Man]

Also, while I realize this contention probably won't wow most people on this mostly young, mostly urban, mostly pro-Idea of Progress (in whatever form) forum, I have to put in a good word for the idea that there are intangible cultural reasons to have some well-settled rural areas or even just small cities (of which Western Mass has quite a few) in a country, which could justify a certain degree of subsidization--a sense of connection to the past and the dead, for example, or opportunities for artists and writers to present rural life without being ridiculous and twee, or even the possibility of drawing employees of natural recreation spots from a more-or-less local population.

Or we can return huge chunks of land to nature.  Or better yet, both, some small towns live on while some areas can be full of wildlife that has been missing from the area for 200 years.  Which is the likely result anyway no matter what we do about it.

That is what a lot of conservationists want but there is probably a role for people in nature no matter what.

[dead0man]

Sure, perhaps that's what Nathan's artists and writers can do in their free time/for inspiration?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Or better yet, both, some small towns live on while some areas can be full of wildlife that has been missing from the area for 200 years.

This is actually what has already happened to the hillier parts of Western Mass since the nineteenth century when better agricultural land further west opened up. It's the best of both worlds, yeah. The phrase "dishevelled dryad loveliness" from The Two Towers comes to mind.

[dead0man]

When we can make meat in factories for basically nothing we won't need my state anymore.  I say the goal should be to turn everything north of Dallas, west of KC, east of the Rockies and south of...hell, the North Pole? into one big nature preserve.  If I had my druthers, we'd take it three steps further and introduce long instinct flora and fauna.  Who don't want to see saber tooth tigers, dire wolves and this mofo (wingspan 16') roaming the plains?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Okay yeah that'd be badass.

[Figueira]

I think rural America should get a basic income at this point

Rural America is getting sh**ttier every year and if someone dosent do something about it soon, these people will vote us into the stone age with them

Please. Just stop...

What? This is a serious proposal. Rural America has been dying economically for 40 years and it get's worse every year. That's part of the reason they voted for a demagogue like Trump. They should get a basic income or a negative income tax return otherwise they will start to hold the country back due to resentment at being ignored

I think the Democrats should introduce a proposal to provide a basic income for those "ruined by globalization" It will win them votes and not make rural voters feel like their taking a handout

Most of the towns that are the subject of the article did not vote for Trump....

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I think rural America should get a basic income at this point

Rural America is getting sh**ttier every year and if someone dosent do something about it soon, these people will vote us into the stone age with them

Please. Just stop...

What? This is a serious proposal. Rural America has been dying economically for 40 years and it get's worse every year. That's part of the reason they voted for a demagogue like Trump. They should get a basic income or a negative income tax return otherwise they will start to hold the country back due to resentment at being ignored

I think the Democrats should introduce a proposal to provide a basic income for those "ruined by globalization" It will win them votes and not make rural voters feel like their taking a handout

Most of the towns that are the subject of the article did not vote for Trump....

No, but the Mondale_was_an_insidejobs of the world won't rest until they do! Make the Mohawk Trail Great Again!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Update: Business interests have launched a desperate-feeling rebranding that's being met with universal mockery and disdain from locals.

[Torie]

Perhaps the future of Western Mass is serving the bourgeoise. Hubbardton Forge is just up the road in Vermont, but it is an example. They make artistic unique items. I just bought a pair of forged metal sconces from them (see below). In the other direction, at the other end of the Birkenstock Belt, in the NW corner of CT, I went to an artisan who reclaims century old antique wood from demolished barns and the like, which is re-milled to make new flooring. I wanted aged oak wood because it has a patina that new wood just does not have, and the rest of my units in Hudson have it, so I wanted it in the new unit above the garage. And the folks who run these places, and do the work, are of course urban cosmopolitans with a sense of artistry and romance. And then there is the very expensive farm to market food, that one can buy directly, or savor in restaurants. There is a big movement to subsidize these micro farms. If the huge grain farms in the midwest can "harvest" the federal subsidies, why not micro farms in the hard scrabble land of New England, and the Hudson Valley?

That I suspect is the future of the region - the fabricator and the playground, and the retreat for and of the bourgeoise. But no, you won't see that message in the marketing ads.

[pbrower2a]

They must also pay cops well enough to keep them from finding informal sources of income to supplement their inadequate pay.    

As if that's exclusively an urban problem.  I'm taking a tax prep course being taught by an IRS officer and as he does so, he lives up the course with examples from his work experience.  The topic that night was about what counts as income.  The IRS isn't the morals police, just the tax police, so they are required by law to keep private about the sources of income. So long as you reported the income and pay the tax on it, it doesn't matter if it was earned legally or not.

Anyway, back to my point. One of the stories he told involved an auditor who went out to audit what he thought was a construction company. It turned out it was a rural bordello. The madam had actually done a fairly good job of complying with the tax law. The depreciation on equipment in the playroom was allowed, she'd reported her income honestly, and issued 1099's to her subcontractors for the services they had done for the customers. However, the deduction as a business expense of the bribes given to the deputy sheriffs to stay away was denied, even tho she'd kept the otherwise necessary records to show to whom and when she paid them.

"Informal income" includes bribes and pay-offs which are taxable income. The mobster who gives the cop $5000 to look the other way when drugs are coming in or to ignore his numbers racket is supplying informal and highly-taxable income. The fellow who puts a Franklin behind his driver's license when asked to show his license when stopped for speeding or running a red light is supplying some informal and highly-taxable income.   

Bribes are not legitimate, deductible expenses. Of course illegal activities have legitimate expenses. A numbers racket might have legitimate, deductible costs of wages, transportation, office supplies... paying off the cops is not a deductible expense

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Perhaps the future of Western Mass is serving the bourgeoise. Hubbardton Forge is just up the road in Vermont, but it is an example. They make artistic unique items. I just bought a pair of forged metal sconces from them (see below). In the other direction, at the other end of the Birkenstock Belt, in the NW corner of CT, I went to an artisan who reclaims century old antique wood from demolished barns and the like, which is re-milled to make new flooring. I wanted aged oak wood because it has a patina that new wood just does not have, and the rest of my units in Hudson have it, so I wanted it in the new unit above the garage. And the folks who run these places, and do the work, are of course urban cosmopolitans with a sense of artistry and romance. And then there is the very expensive farm to market food, that one can buy directly, or savor in restaurants. There is a big movement to subsidize these micro farms. If the huge grain farms in the midwest can "harvest" the federal subsidies, why not micro farms in the hard scrabble land of New England, and the Hudson Valley?

That I suspect is the future of the region - the fabricator and the playground, and the retreat for and of the bourgeoise. But no, you won't see that message in the marketing ads.

That is in fact already what large parts of Western Mass are doing--for example, the southern Berkshires or the area immediately north and west of Amherst. Even the generally down-and-out area around the Quabbin has the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, which is supposed to be great if you're into the whole combined scholarship and practice school of learning about Buddhism. But that can't really sustain a whole regional economy on its own (much as it might flatter you to think otherwise ); there's a reason Vermont is one of the poorest states in the Northeast despite generally competent economic stewardship. dead0man does have a point about a certain level of managed decline probably being in order, and I think Jacobin American earlier in the thread is on-point as usual in terms of what would need to be done to keep at least some of these communities vibrant and preserve some semblance of New England small-town life in the long run. There's also a lot to be said about the squandered potential of Springfield as a business and destination city (a big part of the city's problems is that it has an interstate highway separating the downtown area from the main tourist attraction. Gotta love mid-century urban planning!).

[Torie]

Well, if the place is depopulating, it's even better for the bourgeoise, as it becomes more park like. Too many people, is a big negative, particularly if their cultural habits are discordant. Columbia County losing people is just so reassuring that the place will remain relatively pristine.

Well enough of the jive. I think the real answer is the splendor of the region will attract folks, who can work over the internet. So high speed internet, plus good schools, seems most realistic to me. Heck, most of Hudson's downtown shops sell most of their stuff over the internet. That of course doesn't do much to offer higher paying blue collar jobs. Maybe those jobs are just gone forever, and if you don't get quite well educated, you are just screwed, and headed for subsidy dependency, with no escape.

Moving right along, what pray tell, is Springfield's main tourist attraction? And speaking of poor urban planning, I defy you to find a city that f'ed it up more than Albany. What a disaster that town is. I don't even know where to begin, in listing its multiple sins. And it's so bad, that it is really retarding gentrification of blocks of these magnificent brownstones, that are deteriorating so badly now, that the wrecking balls cannot be far behind. And the metro area is this hideous, featureless sprawl. The main street running from Albany to Schenectady, Central Avenue, is this horrific eyesore, every stop light of the way. Sad!

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Moving right along, what pray tell, is Springfield's main tourist attraction?

Their welcome sign - "Hey, at least we're not Hudson NY"

[Torie]

Moving right along, what pray tell, is Springfield's main tourist attraction?

Their welcome sign - "Hey, at least we're not Hudson NY"

That is just because they're jealous. I don't blame them. Few can match our creative dynamism.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Update: Business interests have launched a desperate-feeling rebranding that's being met with universal mockery and disdain from locals.

I have no idea why they didn't just go all in and commission Dr. Westchesterton

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Moving right along, what pray tell, is Springfield's main tourist attraction?

Their welcome sign - "Hey, at least we're not Hudson NY"

I mean other than Six Flags, the Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Big E? Sure

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Update: Business interests have launched a desperate-feeling rebranding that's being met with universal mockery and disdain from locals.

I have no idea why they didn't just go all in and commission Dr. Westchesterton

That's exactly what I was thinking too.

Moving right along, what pray tell, is Springfield's main tourist attraction?

Their welcome sign - "Hey, at least we're not Hudson NY"

I mean other than Six Flags, the Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Big E? Sure

The Basketball Hall of Fame is what I was referring to.

[Beet]

Western Massachusetts seems like a very decent place. The thing with areas in decline is that the turnaround is rarely planned. People were trying to turn around Detroit for nearly 50 years and they just couldn't, until a few years ago when whites, seemingly out of nowhere, started moving into the city. Who foresaw it? What policy laid the groundwork for it?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Performance art?

Can you think of a kinder explanation? Must admit to be struggling on that...

[Torie]

Western Massachusetts seems like a very decent place. The thing with areas in decline is that the turnaround is rarely planned. People were trying to turn around Detroit for nearly 50 years and they just couldn't, until a few years ago when whites, seemingly out of nowhere, started moving into the city. Who foresaw it? What policy laid the groundwork for it?

Housing being basically free helped in Detroit.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Also, Torie, I go to Albany pretty frequently and there's actually a lot I like about the city. Which makes it even more of a shame that it's so poorly laid out and ugly. I blame Nelson Rockefeller.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Albany is at one end of an east-west axis that my life revolves around and that I haven't really left in the past couple of years. (The other end is Boston.) I really love driving along Route 2 between Concord and Greenfield (east of Concord the route becomes kind of a mess) or between Greenfield and the Albany area. Of course these days most people trying to get from Boston to Albany take the Mass Pike, which is faster but less scenic and which you have to pay money for. Sad!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Related point, if it hasn't been mentioned by someone else already: It's appropriate that we're discussing Albany in this thread - seat of state government aside, it has more in common with Western MA than it does with the rest of the I-90 corridor in NYS.

If anything, the Massachusetts state government even under Baker appears to have rather less contempt for Western Mass than the New York state government has for its own Capital District, if the sudden improvement in the condition of the blacktop on Route 2 as soon as you cross the state line going east is any indication.