Letter: Williamstown Needs to Change to Diversify Housing

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To the Editor:

Williamstown cannot hope to become a community of diverse households while allowing only one type of house. Believing that it can relies on the notion that there are lots of folks just like the modal Williamstown household in key ways — affluent in income, two to five people in size, best suited to a three-bedroom house with a garage — yet are somehow, at the same time, in their 20s, and/or Black, interested in cohousing, and/or multigenerational households, physically disabled, and/or not car owners.

To diversify our community, we can hold our breath for several more decades, waiting for society to change, or we can act to change our housing stock today.

Sincerely yours,

Cheryl Shanks
Williamstown, Mass. 

 

 

 


Tags: zoning,   

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Flag Meant to Represent Inclusion Sparks Debate in Williamstown

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — One of the authors of a proposed bylaw amendment to allow the display of the Progress Pride on town flag poles said he welcomes more dialogue about the proposal.
 
"It's been a good learning experience through all of this," Mount Greylock Regional School sophomore Jack Uhas said last week.
 
"Any attempt to hinder a conversation in our community would be disappointing to me. I'm excited to hear what people have to say."
 
Uhas is the vice president of the middle-high school's Gender Sexuality Alliance, which developed the bylaw proposal that will be before Thursday's annual town meeting at Mount Greylock.
 
The advocacy group has been talking for some time about how to foster a public display of support for the LGBTQ-plus community.
 
"Last [school] year, we started thinking of ways we could make an impact in the wider community beyond Mount Greylock," Uhas said. "We talked about doing something like painting a crosswalk like they do in other communities.
 
"[Select Board member Randal Fippinger], who was the father of the GSA president last year, came in and talked to us. And, apparently, there were some Department of Transportation regulations that meant it wasn't feasible [to paint a crosswalk]. We pivoted to other strategies."
 
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