In the heart of downtown Pittsfield, demonstrators lined the edge of Park Square to collectively voice dismay at a proposal from Mayor Peter Marchetti that will go before the city council next week. Innocuously titled “Median Safety and Pedestrian Regulation in Public Roadways,” the amendment to city code would make it illegal to “utilize a sidewalk, median, crosswalk, center traffic island, or safety island to impede traffic flow or endanger themselves, other pedestrians, or motorists” on some of Pittsfield’s major thoroughfares. Marchetti maintains that keeping people out of medians is a safety issue.
“When I look at some of these intersections, and I look at the traffic data that talks about double digit accidents that are happening in those intersections, something needs to be done," he told WAMC. "And when we're looking at Park Square, and if you're traveling west on East [Street] approaching Park Square, there are four lanes of traffic- Two that go straight down the hill on West Street and two that turn on to South Street. The lights change at different times, and if you're on the median, that's one thing. If you're running out in between, there's an opportunity for disaster there.”
Demonstrators in Park Square Tuesday disagreed.
“There's the reactionary take, that these people, quote, unquote, are, they're bad for business, that they deter people from coming in- We haven't found that, and I frankly, haven't seen any data confirming that there's a danger for people standing in the medians holding signs," said Luke Marion, who owns Otto's Kitchen & Comfort, a downtown business directly adjacent to a popular strip for panhandlers on East Street. “This amendment is kind of under the guise of public safety, but I don't think that's quite it, and I think it criminalizes poverty, and I think it criminalizes the unhoused population. And I own a business in Pittsfield, and I have a vested interest in everybody in Pittsfield doing as best they can to continue my business- And if that doesn't happen, then we aren't in business anymore.”
Pandora Stevens held a sign reading “median public safety is lie.” She told WAMC that the ordinance could be part of a domino effect for vulnerable residents.
“They won't be able to get the money, and they're going to lock up people that do not need to be locked up, and they'll have a felony, and now they [have a] felony or jail charge, and a lot of homeless shelters don't allow people with jail time,” she explained.
Demonstrator Fernando Leon said that in an era where authoritarianism is on the rise, Marchetti’s plan feeds into a larger attack on civil liberties.
“Panhandling is part of free speech," he said. "What this ordinance will do is will suppress free speech, especially in mediums that are considered public forums. So, it's not a real solution, it’s overreaching. My concern is, how are we going to enforce this? The selective enforcement is a problem as well. They are also proposing that you have a five feet buffer in certain intersections, which will not allow people to get money from cars. So, I don't think it's a real solution, it’s more about optics, about trying to push people that are in a crisis to the edges of society.”
Courts have generally found that panhandling is protected speech.
“We recognize that it is inconvenient for folks to see folks in pain," said clergyperson Margot Page, the president of event co-organizers Berkshire Interfaith Organizing. "We know it's inconvenient, and we feel as if there's something better we can do than just make the folks that are in poor and in pain be invisible. And this ordinance feels like its goal is to make the most marginalized and the most delicate invisible by making it impossible to panhandle, by making protests impossible, by standing in the way of being heard.”
A man who goes by “Panda” said he was panhandling just to make enough money to stay in his apartment.
“I'm lucky if I make 20 a day, and that's what I need to make to keep going," he told WAMC. "With the mental issues that I have and the health issues that I have, I can't come out every day. So, I'm in a situation where even though I do this, it's hard for me to even do this. So, when somebody says about a job, I can't do it. I'd love to, I can't. I used to work 16-hour shifts, four days in a row or five days in a row at a plastic factory, had issues, and then I'm stuck out here. I had a car, I had everything- I just ended up out here.”
While he stressed that many in the Berkshires offer support, others yell, throw bottles, and assume the worst.
“Disgust, addict, somebody phony, somebody trying to go get drugs, probably somebody that will jump in your car- Because for a while we had that problem where everybody thought you're going to jump in their car,” he said.
There’s nothing fun or romantic about the experience.
“When you first start panhandling, basically, it hits you hard, and depression sets in, and it's a really terrible thing at first, and it breaks your pride," he said. "It is not something where you come out here and it's beautiful and it's great, especially if you're sober and you're clean. It hurts. It hurts a lot.”
Pittsfielder Patrick Doyle connected the rally to the widening gulf between rich and poor at a time when billionaire Elon Musk is leading the effort to slash government services.
“Billionaires are not princes, and we, the people, have the power in this society," he told WAMC. "And if we don't rise up and take the streets, they're going to own everything and make us back into company towns, and that ended in bloodshed. And the history of workers’ rights is not taught in schools and swept under the rug, and unfortunately, it ends in the people having to resort to violence, just like our constitution says. And I don't want it to come to that, but I'm prepared for the worst. And they're making it so that there's no free place to be. Everything costs money, and if you're have no money, that's a crime. So private prisons are the only winners in that situation, and they're beholden to none of us because they're extraconstitutional entities that operate above, beyond, and behind the law.”
Doyle is a board member and volunteer with Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds, a local nonprofit dedicated to workers’ empowerment behind the rally.
“I'm just fed up, and instead of losing my mind and screaming at people, this is productive," he said. "And Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds, we're trying to organize community ownership in Pittsfield and Berkshire community and beyond and paradigm shift and through co-ops and socialism is the way through this and mutual aid, however you want to call it. It's just, we've had enough.”
The proposal goes before the Pittsfield city council’s ordinance and rules subcommittee Monday at 6.
