Pittsfield Mayoral Candidates Talk Cultural Economy at Colonial Theatre
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Mayoral candidates John Krol and Peter Marchetti discussed the city's cultural economy on Tuesday at the Colonial Theatre.
Hosted by Berkshire Theatre Group and moderated by Senator Paul Mark, the forum covered topics ranging from workforce housing and youth engagement to panhandlers and ride-hailing services.
Questions were solicited from cultural organization members and from the audience.
"I am the co-chair of the joint committee on arts, tourism, and cultural development and so this is obviously a subject matter that is extremely important to me but it's critically important to the constituency I represent, which includes Pittsfield and 56 other communities," Mark said.
Marchetti, who is the City Council president, said that the Colonial Theatre and Barrington Stage have always been special to him. He is enthusiastic about working together with the cultural sector, recognizing the direct and indirect positive impacts that it has on the economy.
"It's not just a cultural economy," he said. "It is a place to live and is a place to thrive and is a place to go and enjoy some premier shows. It's a place to go see some great art. It's a place to be able to go and enjoy life, go to the parks, go to the lake, and come to your great show."
In the meantime, he said that the leadership needs to sell all of those activities and get people to come here, stay here, and visit more often.
BTG's Artistic Director Kathleen Maguire said that singing is allowed at the event and Marchetti took her cue, at one point singing a few seconds of the Golden Girls theme song "Thank You For Being a Friend."
Krol felt that the Colonial was the cornerstone of Pittsfield's revitalization and that the cultural economy will be a core piece of the second revitalization.
Over the summer, his stepson had a special opportunity to be a part of a Berkshire Theatre Group program. It was something that he necessarily wouldn't have volunteered for, but he was chosen to do.
"And this is what the arts can do. You can find skills that you didn't know that you had, you can be inspired where you didn't know that you would be inspired, and you can actually really change lives," he said.
"And I can tell you, that's really what it did. That's the power of the arts and that is something that's deep near and dear to my heart. What the arts can do for our young people."
Senior customers leaving performance venues reportedly feel threatened when they are approached by panhandlers and fear that this will discourage people from attending future events at cultural organizations.
Both candidates expressed a need for police presence in the corridor when the shows get out.
Krol has been advocating for "boots on the ground" and said that people will often want to have a meal downtown after a show but will not feel safe.
"Unfortunately right now we have a situation where people, unfortunately, are not feeling comfortable saying ‘Hey, we can walk down the street and get dinner' and ‘Hey, you can go a couple of blocks,'" he said.
"Instead it's you can get in your car and you can drive further away or you can get in your car and go to Lenox and that is unacceptable. That is something you absolutely have to address and there's a lot of elements to it but it starts with that type of thing."
Marchetti said that making the downtown more welcoming involves a mixture of some police presence and some investment.
"If we want folks to come downtown, we want them to come downtown to see a show and eat dinner so for that timeframe, we need to make sure our downtown is safe, is clean, and inviting with both southern police presence and some investment," he said.
The candidates also offered how they would make Pittsfield safer or more connected for people without a car. Both expressed a need for ride-hailing apps such as Uber or Lyft.
Marchetti thinks efforts should begin with reaching out to the companies and asking them to bring their services to Pittsfield.
"DoorDash is a very popular thing in the city of Pittsfield," he said. "Everybody can seem to get DoorDash delivered to wherever they can to go. To me, that's the same concept. It's a driver delivering food someplace so can we get a driver to deliver people somewhere."
He pointed out that the city has a taxicab commission that may need to be reactivated and said that there were talks of car rental services for the Berkshire Flyer guests from New York City.
"We can't just talk the talk," he said. "We've got to walk the walk and we've got to make sure that we get those things done."
Krol emphasized the importance of safety and being able to navigate the city without their own vehicles.
"We want to make Pittsfield more walkable. I think that is the whole core of what we can accomplish," he said. "So having that full experience means that people have to feel safe whether they have a car or not."
He pointed out that transportation is a struggle for both tourists and the working class.
"I certainly don't have the answer to that question, senator, but that's something we absolutely need to work out for those who do not have vehicles," he said.
A local teenager asked the candidates how they would encourage the youth to be involved in cultural activities, citing the community's one theatre, one bowling alley, one library, and no mall.
Krol said that Pittsfield Public School's art integration program has done a decent job at starting the process but that the program needs to be grown.
"This is not just about the arts institutions. This is about the quality of our schools and the quality of experience in our schools," he said. "We desperately need the arts and culture in our schools."
Marchetti applauded the local cultural organizations for their youth involvement, citing BTG's presentation of Moana Jr. this summer.
"I think that they need a little bit more support to provide more to the youth but they already do an excellent job and all they need to be doing is encouraging them to do more," he said.
Both candidates agree that MCAS should no longer be a graduation requirement in the state.
The candidates were also asked what problems they see with workforce housing, specifically relating to people in cultural organizations, and how they can be addressed.
Krol said that the theaters provide a huge investment in the housing stock every year and it is critical that the options are high quality for those organizations.
"And also I think we should look at the bigger picture and say perhaps there are housing developments, apartments that we could build for our institutions and work with them on that," he explained.
"Because let's face it, we need more units in the city of Pittsfield and there is a lot of pressure on the market in a lot of ways so ultimately, we have to be creative in every way to build more housing."
Marchetti acknowledged the private landlords who house the cultural organizations, adding that it is no small feat and that he understands the challenges that they face.
"I think, first and foremost, it doesn't change from what we need to be doing," he said in regards to the solutions.
"Last year city budget fiscal year 23, we hired two additional code inspectors to be able to provide the necessary inspection that needs to take place and to ensure that all of our housing, whether it's owner-occupied or absentee landlords, all our housing meets the quality level that we're supposed to have and so we would start there and make incentives for those folks to be able to improve their properties."
The forum was sponsored by Arrowhead, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Museum, BTG, and Hancock Shaker Village.
