Letter: The Children of North Adams Deserve New Greylock

To the Editor:

The City of North Adams has an incredible opportunity on Oct. 8. As a community, we not only have the chance to say "yes" to being the recipient of the largest grant in the City's history, at over $42 million. We not only have the chance to move forward with building a state-of-the-art energy efficient building that is projected to save the city $100K-plus per year in expenses. We not only have the chance to avoid dumping tens of millions of dollars into Band-Aids on our existing deficient building (Brayton) with systems at the end of their serviceable life, and we not only have the chance to invest in a project that could drive over $100 million in local economic impact.

In fact, right now we have the rare, monumental chance to show the children, educators and families of today's and future North Adams that we are committed to the wellbeing, education, and support that our youngest learners and their educators deserve.

For many of us with children in the city, the choice is crystal clear. For those with infants or that are soon expecting, the chance for their preK to second graders to attend a brand-new school is exciting and inspiring. For those of us with children who have recently gone through the doors of old Greylock or Brayton, the reality of the deficiencies of those schools shines a bright light on why we need this new school. For those who are adults in the community that grew up here and benefited from the generational investments in school infrastructure that came before, the opportunity and duty to pay it forward so that future generations can thrive is immense. In all cases, the weight of this decision is ours to make, and the opportunity is now ours to take hold of, or squander.

As a resident and taxpayer in this City of North Adams, a community I choose to call home and the place I have built my life and family in, I am honored to have the chance to vote YES on Oct. 8 for the debt exclusion to fund the city's share ($19.6 million) of the full $65.4 million new Greylock School Project. Furthermore, I ask and urge my fellow residents, committed to our community's youth and the prospect of a bright future ahead, to please do the same.

Benjamin Lamb
North Adams, Mass.

Ben Lamb is a member of the School Building Committee and a parent of two children currently attending Brayton Elementary School.

North Adams' Route 2 Study Looks at 'Repair, Replace and Remove'

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:02PM / Monday, April 07, 2025

Attendees make comments and use stickers to indicate their thoughts on the priorities for each design.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Nearly 70 residents attended a presentation on Saturday morning on how to stitch back together the asphalt desert created by the Central Artery project.

 

Of the three options proposed — repair, replace or restore — the favored option was to eliminating the massive overpass, redirect traffic up West Main and recreate a semblance of 1960s North Adams.

 

"How do we right size North Adams, perhaps recapture a sense of what was lost here with urban renewal, and use that as a guide as we begin to look forward?" said Chris Reed, director of Stoss Landscape Urbanism, the project's designer.

 

"What do we want to see? Active street life and place-making. This makes for good community, a mixed-use downtown with housing, with people living here ... And a district grounded in arts and culture."

 

The concepts for dealing with the crumbling bridge and the roads and parking lots around it were built from input from community sessions last year.

 

The city partnered with Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program and was the only city in Massachusetts selected. The project received $750,000 in grant funding to explore ways to reconnect what Reed described as disconnected "islands of activity" created by the infrastructure projects. 

 

"When urban renewal was first introduced, it dramatically reshaped North Adams, displacing entire neighborhoods, disrupting street networks and fracturing the sense of community that once connected us," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey. "This grant gives us the chance to begin to heal that disruption."