To the editor:
As the hearings drag on and on regarding the application for a special permit from The Foundry in West Stockbridge, we are confronted with more questions than answers.
The logical solution is apparent to all, because it has been adopted by cities and towns all over the country: Establish a reasonable standard regarding noise affecting residential abutters, and have a town-administered noise monitoring system. In the case of violations, give fines, then order a temporary closure, and if violations continue, permanent closure.
So why can’t the reasonable people of West Stockbridge come to this reasonable solution? Why are all these nice people who fly Ukrainian flags and support pro-social politics so willing to throw one of their neighbors under a very loud bus? This is where it gets more mysterious, but I suggest there is a pretty good hypothetical answer: They like the noise.
The Foundry could, after all, just book quiet acts, like classical chamber music and poetry readings. And it would satisfy that long-sought desire of bringing visitors to the town.
But the people it would bring would be like the people who go to Tanglewood or South Mountain: sedate, older, well-behaved people, the kind who frequent Stockbridge and Lenox. They spend lots of money, but they don’t have a youthful vibe.
In the current series of hearings, we have been spared so far from the youthful vibe argument. In last year’s public hearings, we had a parade of young people extolling The Foundry as a place where they could hang out, let down their hair, and shake their booties to the music they prefer.
Last year, we also heard about how The Foundry attracts young people to the town, and we need places for them to congregate to get them to want to settle here. This time around, the youthful vibe argument has been relatively silent, except for a maudlin, rambling history of outdoor music in rockin’ West Stockbridge invited by the supposedly neutral Planning Board chair. But the argument may come back as the hearings continue into eternity.
I have had friends say this to me privately: People my age, somewhere between late-middle age and young elderly, say, “Yeah, the music is often banging on drums and screaming, but it’s kinda cool.”
It makes us not feel elderly to have a place to witness loud music and unrestrained energy. What many people are not saying publicly, but saying privately, I think, is that we don’t want a quiet Foundry. We like the noise because it makes us feel young.
So if we want a roadhouse, let’s make ourselves a roadhouse. The roadhouse is an old revered tradition in this country: a place out in the sticks where loud music and bad behavior is the norm. By the way, the reason they are called roadhouses is that they are usually out on a lonely highway where there is plenty of parking and no neighbors to disturb.
If we really want a roadhouse to capture that youthful vibe, let’s build one somewhere else, not try to cram one into the middle of a formerly peaceful village. Let’s put our heads together and identify a location, doing the due diligence before the fact for a change. Maybe somewhere out on Route 102 toward the State Line. The back of the solar farm?
How about a nine month lease agreement with Crane Lake Camp, which is vacant most of the year? How about cutting a deal with the largely silent Stockbridge Sportsmen’s Club to rent space for cacophonous Brooklyn-based bands? Or maybe renting space in one of those still-underutilized mills in Housatonic?
There is more to attracting young people to a town than a roadhouse.
While we are trying to find a place to put one, we could also spend some time thinking about providing economic opportunity, including available and affordable childcare and especially affordable housing to try to bring young people to West Stockbridge. Local stalwart Joe Roy, Jr. is heading up a task force right now trying to address some of these issues. Maybe we could help him out instead of demanding a roadhouse to magically make those youngsters want to live here?
If we want a youthful vibe, let’s figure out how to get one ethically and humanely. I know getting old is a hellish nightmare, but avoiding that nightmare by torturing our neighbors is not a decent way to proceed.
David Anderegg
West Stockbridge
