Letter: Abortion Is Health Care

To the Editor:

Seventy percent of Americans support safe and legal abortions. Abortion is health care, and is a basic human right that has been protected by Roe for the past 50 years. Yet this right has been rescinded by six radical, ultraconservative Supreme Court judges, three of whom were appointed by a president who failed to win the popular vote.

Maybe that 70 percent got too complacent and took this right for granted. But the lesson is learned: No constitutional right is safe any longer. Many of us are outraged by the court's decision that does not even allow for abortion in cases of rape or incest.

But if we want our rights restored, outrage alone is not enough. We must do all we can to mobilize the vote for pro-choice Democratic candidates this November and in November of 2024 to keep Democrats in control of Congress and ensure that abortion rights are protected. If Republicans take back Congress in November, we face the dire prospect that they will enact a federal ban on abortion, criminalizing the procedure nationwide, and that other reproductive rights, such as access to contraception and the right to marry whom we choose, will be under attack.

In the meantime, if you want to join the fight, visit the Berkshire Brigades Facebook page.

Louise Farkas
Pittsfield, Mass.

Farkas is a member of the Berkshire Brigades steering committee. 

Pittsfield Looks at 'Form-Based' Code for West Side Zoning

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
12:15PM / Wednesday, February 25, 2026

 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Department of Community Development has been working on a zoning proposal that aims to encourage small businesses and lively, characteristic activity in the West Side. 

City Planner Kevin Rayner has appeared before the Community Development Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals to provide updates on the process. 

"I'm really trying to bring business back into the West Side with a soft touch," he told the ZBA in January. 

"So we don't want those big, big businesses going in there. We want to encourage the small family businesses to come back, because there's a lot of storefronts in the Westside that are boarded up, and you can't use it as a store anymore because it's all zoned RM out there." 

This is done by limiting the size, location, or intensity of business use, and allowing accessory commercial units and "micro businesses" on the site of people's homes.  The proposal also adds new street types that support these possibilities. 

"It's something that a small family business is going to see an incentive to invest in," Rayner said. 

"That's the intent." 

The city planner has been discussing this proposal with the Community Development Board for about six months, and as the general permitting authority for properties, he wanted the ZBA in the conversation as well.