PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Over the last 10 years, Evan Hickok has formed good relationships with many of his co-workers at General Dynamics.

 

They are recruited from out of town, come to work as engineers, and the staff at the Pittsfield facility grows a friendship. And then the young professionals leave for what they see are greener pastures. They leave for the city life of Boston or New York envisioning a thriving social scene and nightlife. But more often than not, the workers find themselves taking a job in the suburbs and still not living the life they believed they were getting because as much as the pay increases, in many cases the cost of living increases even more.

 

"I'm kind of tired of losing friends from that," Hickok said. "The life in the city is a mirage ... the allure, to me, is fool's gold. I've been watching that happen for some time."

 

For Hickok, he's built up his social network over the last decade and there are plenty of things to do right here in Pittsfield and Berkshire County. But not every young professional from the area knows that. So he and his friends teamed up to create a new community organization, Pittsfield WILL, to promote and a "positive vision" for the city. 

 

"The Berkshires and Pittsfield is a rewarding place to live but it is not obvious," Hickok said. "All that stuff is here. It is just harder to find."

 

Pittsfield WILL, which stands for We Innovate, Live and Love, now has a charter and a board and expects to act as a social network of sorts for young professionals. They will be sharing information about things to do socially and economically and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. The hope is to harness the energy the young professionals bring to the table and move the city forward economically, socially, environmentally, educationally and culturally.

 

"We can take control of certain things and we will reach out to the community for that," Hickok said. "We are looking toward a positive future for Pittsfield."

 

They hope to promote events, organize river and street cleanups to improve aesthetics, share social events, and energize the community. 

 

But then the unexpected happened. It was just two months ago when the group got together to start this organization, and shortly after Waterstone Realty returned to the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority with a request to use the William Stanley Business Park to construct a Walmart Supercenter. 

 

"This is not a positive step for Pittsfield," Hickok said. "Pittsfield WILL doesn't see the Walmart advancing something positive."

 

The 15-member board — not all of the seats have been filled yet — then found itself right in the middle of the debate. Members watched the tape of the PEDA meeting in which the letter of intent was granted and composed a list of questions they wanted answers to about the project. They printed them out and took them to the open house at Hotel on North put on by the developers.

 

"We were asked to leave the room. We were kicked out," Hickok claimed.

 

The questions asked if the developers were willing to pay for an independent economic study and a traffic study. It cited a 2008 Journal of Urban Economics study claiming that for every job Walmart creates, 1.4 jobs are lost at existing nearby businesses, and asked how the new supercenter would impact those businesses on Tyler Street. It questioned the tax revenue cited, asking the company to commit to the $300,000 to $500,000 figure as a projected increase. And they asked for more details about the number of full-time versus part-time jobs and hourly wages and benefits.

 

"We are only hearing one side. We are only hearing Waterstone's side," Hickok said.

 

Hickok says the proponents of the job are "professional pitchmen" with money to be made through the project — and the flier asking questions reads "please keep in mind that the developers giving today's presentation are paid a lot of money to convince you that this is the right thing to do. They are in no way obligated to disclose information that might jeopardize the successful development of this Walmart Supercenter. 

 

Pittsfield WILL wants an independent study on the economic impact to show whether or not this will be good for Pittsfield.

 

"The first thing I can see happening is Mezzie's Variety going out of businesses and then you can go down the line," Hickok says of the economic reverberations he expects from the Supercenter. 

 

In the first quarter of this fiscal year, Walmart boasts $115.9 billion in total revenue from more than 1 billion square feet of retail space — both figures culled from Walmart's website. Broken down that means the new Pittsfield store with close to 200,000 square feet would take in some $80 million in revenue, Hickok said. Even if all 300 employees were paid at $14 an hour, which the company says is the average wage, that would generate $5.5 million going back to the economy. The rest goes back into the store, products, and to the rest of the company.

 

"That's not a positive equation," Hickok said, advocating for more locally-grown businesses that contribute a higher percentage back into the local economy.

 

Hickok says in order to grow wealth one needs to "manufacture, mine, or farm" and "anything else is just redistribution of wealth." 

 

"I think it is a negative step to let industrial land become retail," he said. 

 

Further, he says the proposal goes against the city's 2009 master plan, which reads: "Pittsfield economic development efforts should focus on the three sectors identified in The Berkshire Blueprint. These included Creative, Plastics, and Hospitality & Tourism. According to the report, these clusters were selected due to their substantial impact on the regional economy, competitive position vis-à-vis other domestic and international regions, alignment of strengths with nearby metropolitan areas, and the level of organizational support for a cluster activation strategy." 

 

In that same plan, it calls for the city to create "high-paying jobs and long-term career paths" while listing retail as the third lowest paying sector existing in the city with weekly wages of $482. Retail is also one of the largest business sectors in Pittsfield alongside social assistance and accommodation and food services. 

 

"It feels like an inappropriate use of industrial land," Hickok repeated.

 

The group has just recently launched a Facebook page and is holding walks through the Morningside neighborhood in hopes to spur new ideas for development in the area.