Peter J. Most is a member of the California, New York, and Massachusetts bars, practicing complex business litigation. He has been living with his family in Great Barrington since 2018, practicing law remotely.
“This is a way for people who would ordinarily be renting a house to own a house,” said Great Barrington Affordable Housing Trust Fund (GBAHTF) Board member Bill Cooke.
Keeping in mind that when you find yourself in a hole, you should stop digging, wouldn’t it be wise for Great Barrington to cease distribution of any additional impact funds until it is established as a matter of law to whom the funds belong?
The Mercers’ position is akin to the deep-sea fishing boat that brings its catch back to the lone fish dealer at the dock. Not selling a deteriorating asset is not an option for the fishing boat. The same goes for the Mercers’ deteriorating HWW.
To loosely paraphrase Woody Allen, a town is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward (with housing), or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.
As far as I can tell, there is nothing inherently better about a local or unsuitable about a newcomer, but try convincing a local of that. At some point, locals and newcomers are indistinguishable—except to locals that is.
It is not known if a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse in the area was conducted, but reports suggest that GBPD was unable to locate “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” perhaps because the book has been flying off of shelves for years.
Have you considered the lack of new construction of multi-family workforce rental housing in Great Barrington? Sure, existing structures have been and are in the process of being renovated and repurposed for rental housing, but there has been no new workforce construction in ages.
The simple tweak to the Massachusetts code proposed here would be to empower judges to make an equitable determination whether a de minimis defense should reasonably prevent eviction.
So let’s consider, then, what Great Barrington looks like in a climate changing world. More to the point, what does Great Barrington’s service economy, founded in multi-season tourism, look like in our climate changing world?
It is fine to be close-minded, as long as you don’t imperil the educational opportunities for future generations. These election results were decidedly not fine.
The question shouldn’t be why would Great Barrington honor Mr. Du Bois, but how could it not? Statues speak volumes, quietly, about who we are and what we revere.
I supported Berkshire County’s progressive district attorney until I could not. I would have given full-throated support for the various progressive reforms, but too much of a good thing isn’t.
