'Do Bostonians really care about Western MA' Globe article (Worcester: 2015, insurance)

[FCMA]

Cute article, but applying Berkshire County's NYC oriented worldview to all of Western MA just doesn't work. East of Berkshire, in the other three counties, we are still Boston sports fans at least, not New York for the most part. And why would Baker take the Mass Pike to get to North Adams from Boston unless it was snowing, or he's a boring person who hates scenery and hairpin turns and loves tolls and driving longer distances to get the same place... Do Bostonians really care about Western Mass.? - Magazine - The Boston Globe

The snubbing of the three rural counties is a head-scratcher. Seriously Charlie, guess you're not working proportionally because there was no space for 3/175 members (1.7% of the transition team) to represent 6% of the state's population in Berkshire, Hampshire, and Franklin? 7 members from Hampden County, but that's only a small slice of the geography. Not that there's ever been proportional representation across the Commonwealth. Guess we Western MA-holes got used to head-patting because of Deval and Jane Swift. Baker team leaves Western Mass. wanting - Metro - The Boston Globe

[gf2020]

People still read the Globe?

[Boston_Burbs]

I grew up in western mass and don't consider the berkshires part of it either. No boston stations or springfield stations out there.

[bolehboleh]

What is this "Western Mass" that you speak of?

Edit: But in all honesty, what is it that W. Mass needs or wants? The reason why most of the money and attention goes to Eastern Mass is because that's where the people are. If people want to complain, for example, that Somerville is getting this new, expensive Green line extension through their city, then they have to show us how something like that would be cost effective in that part of the state. Hell, in 4 square miles, Somerville has just over half the population of all of Berkshire county does in 946 sq/mi.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

I have friends in the North Adams area who say they align with New York more than Boston, heck even more than Vermont. Politically the entire area is used to being ignored politically. I think isolation also plays into it too where people tend to forget that there are pockets of people out there.

[FCMA]

Needs: more addiction treatment, evening/weekend public transit in certain pockets, keep fixing bridges so nobody falls in a river.

Wants: proportional representation on a gubernatorial transition team; make rt 2 safer.

Of course the VAST majority of people are out east, but 6% of the state's population in Berkshire, Franklin, and Hampshire Counties are getting 0% representation on Baker's transition team. Despite the seemingly inconsequential numbers from the perspective of an Eastern MA-hole, it's a population of about 370,000, totaling that of Worcester plus Springfield, plus 50,000 more (approximately a Weymouth)- would the logic of numbers have made it acceptable to shut out the opinions of the second and third cities?

Nobody thinks a shiny Green Line makes any sense out here, just continued condescending pats on our bumpkin heads from Beacon Hill will do.

[snatale1]

Berkshire, Hampshire and Franklin County are just as much part of MA as Suffolk, Middlesex and Norfolk are. The problem is Boston should be where Worcester is, and not way in the corner. As it's been said, it's the isolation. Sure, eastern MA does need more state money for obvious reasons but that end of the state shouldn't be forgotten about either. Granted is can be like Missisippi out there but so what? The country is cool! You can walk out your back door and shoot at stuff Who doesn't like that? Oh ya, Boston politicians don't! I may be from Boston, but I like freedom, 4 wheelers, shooting and hunting. I should have been born out there. As far as the ones that ARE still in those MA counties and wearing that Yankee swastika? Behead them and thrown them over the state line, No excuse for that.

[in_newengland]

If you're talking about North Adams or Great Barrington, those are in the Berkshires and they do align more closely with New York but the topic was more about western MA. That means Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties, not the Berkshires. Those counties DO look to Boston, not New York.

It's been like this for a long time. In the early days of MA there was a lot of travel and relocation from one part of the state to the other but that was in the days of horse and carriage. Now western MA seems cut off due to not having rail transportation. Loads of educated people out there have no jobs but maybe if we had some sort of public transportation it would get better. We gave you water by letting you damn up a river in a pretty valley back in the '30s and all you did was import more people and get more crowded. Then you wanted to take our CT River so you could get more water and MORE people. But we protested (was that in the '70s?) We are still waiting....we are not just a colony for Boston to exploit.

[missionhill]

Originally Posted by in_newengland

If you're talking about North Adams or Great Barrington, those are in the Berkshires and they do align more closely with New York but the topic was more about western MA. That means Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties, not the Berkshires. Those counties DO look to Boston, not New York.

It's been like this for a long time. In the early days of MA there was a lot of travel and relocation from one part of the state to the other but that was in the days of horse and carriage. Now western MA seems cut off due to not having rail transportation. Loads of educated people out there have no jobs but maybe if we had some sort of public transportation it would get better. We gave you water by letting you damn up a river in a pretty valley back in the '30s and all you did was import more people and get more crowded. Then you wanted to take our CT River so you could get more water and MORE people. But we protested (was that in the '70s?) We are still waiting....we are not just a colony for Boston to exploit.

Well, they did build the turnpike and people at the time thought that made a huge difference to connecting east and west. I remember seeing my father off from Union Station in Springfield on a Buddliner to Boston but that was in the waning days of rail service everywhere, not only on the Springfield to Boston run. I took a New Haven RR train from Springfield to Boston myself once shortly before the New Haven was absorbed into Amtrak. It was very slow-- the route between Spfld and Worcester especially winds this way and that. In the meantime Peter Picknelly made a fortune with his Peter Pan service over the turnpike to Boston which was and is much faster than passenger trains. The Springfield to New York rail service has never ended, by the way, because Springfield is more aligned to Hartford, Hartford to New Haven, and so on, which has sustained the market for rail along that corridor.

[Boston_Burbs]

Originally Posted by missionhill

Well, they did build the turnpike and people at the time thought that made a huge difference to connecting east and west. I remember seeing my father off from Union Station in Springfield on a Buddliner to Boston but that was in the waning days of rail service everywhere, not only on the Springfield to Boston run. I took a New Haven RR train from Springfield to Boston myself once shortly before the New Haven was absorbed into Amtrak. It was very slow-- the route between Spfld and Worcester especially winds this way and that. In the meantime Peter Picknelly made a fortune with his Peter Pan service over the turnpike to Boston which was and is much faster than passenger trains. The Springfield to New York rail service has never ended, by the way, because Springfield is more aligned to Hartford, Hartford to New Haven, and so on, which has sustained the market for rail along that corridor.

That is a good point. I know lots of people in hampden county that work in metro Hartford. Lots if big employers like the insurance companies and defenders contractors.