Letter: A Future Worth Investing In

To the Editor:

Our community has a bright future. I wasn't so sure about that as a teenager in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Downtown was a place your parents would plead for you to avoid, the decaying Bradley's parking lot was a field of exotic weeds, and the number of dilapidated GE buildings was staggering.

Pittsfield is a postindustrial community that has survived hard times and is coming back. A significant piece of our city's rebirth is the Taconic School Project.

The Taconic project will bring a state-of-the-art teaching and learning facility to our city. The opportunities for students in a host of vocational programs will surely draw in students from surrounding communities. A new facility will improve the educational environment and provide the working and learning conditions our faculty need to better prepare our future citizens. This is a worthy investment that will benefit local businesses with skilled workers and colleges with academically prepared students.

As a person who grew up in a Pittsfield that appeared to have little hope of rebounding I am happy to have returned to it in better times. I applaud those who pushed to revitalize North Street, downtown, and the Common. I commend those involved in the arts and cultural community who have played a significant role in enriching the area. I thank the members of the School Building Needs Commission and all involved for the decade of work they have put into making this new school a reality.

Brendan Sheran
Pittsfield, Mass.

Sheran is president, United Educators of Pittsfield and social studies teacher at Pittsfield High School. He lives in Ward 5.

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