Earlier this year, the consumer advocate, public-interest lawyer, and (still controversial) former presidential candidate Ralph Nader turned ninety years old. In this Berkshire Argus Podcast conversation, we discuss the American Museum of Tort Law that he established in his hometown of Winsted, Connecticut, his faith in the jury system, and his belief in the ability of citizens to successfully organize and influence their government.

A companion profile of the Tort Museum, “The Unlikeliest Museum,” is at https://www.berkshireargus.com/the-unlikeliest-museum/

The Berkshire Argus: Important stories fully told.
https://www.berkshireargus.com

In this episode of the Berkshire Argus podcast, Bill Shein speaks with Matt Tannenbaum, proprietor—since 1976—of The Bookstore in Lenox, Massachusetts, and subject of the 2022 documentary, “Hello, Bookstore.”

Tannenbaum recalls learning the book trade as a stock boy at the storied Gotham Book Mart in midtown Manhattan and working for a book distributor in Washington, D.C., before following some artist friends to the Berkshires in 1975. Dreams of becoming a writer took a back seat when he purchased The Bookstore in 1976, just days before his 30th birthday.

You’ll also hear about the making of the documentary—which was well underway when COVID-19 arrived—and Tannenbaum’s philosophy of curating a bookstore for an engaged community in the era of discount stores and Amazon.com.

(A free screening of “Hello, Bookstore” will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 3, 2024, at Mason Library in Great Barrington. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for refreshments. A talk-back with Tannenbaum and director Adam Zax follows the film.)

The Berkshire Argus: Important stories fully told.

www.berkshireargus.com

There’s no discussion of the economic future of the southern Berkshires that doesn’t have the cost and availability of housing at its center.

Trends well underway in the last decade were accelerated by the COVID19 pandemic: The cost of houses to buy or rent has skyrocketed, fueled by an increase in properties acquired by part-time residents and others used exclusively for short-term rentals, a failure to keep up with demand via new construction, cash buyers who snap up properties before local working people can assemble financing, and a zero-percent vacancy rate for rentals.

The result of these and other factors has been an unusually large percentage of full-time residents spending more than a third of their income on housing costs, considered the standard for affordability. That’s pushed them further away, geographically, from jobs and family as they seek housing that’s affordable. It’s meant businesses of all kinds are struggling to attract and keep staff, from the service- and tourism-industry jobs critical to the region, to higher-paid health care workers who simply can’t find a house to buy.

This episode of the podcast is a conversation about the current housing landscape with Bill Cooke and Ananda Timpane, two members of Great Barrington’s Affordable Housing Trust. It’s an appointed municipal board, made up of volunteers, and focused on securing funds and investing in housing solutions, from down-payment assistance, to subsidizing affordable units built by private developers, to advancing proposals for accessory dwelling units that can house more people and help those already living here afford to stay.

The Berkshire Argus: Important stories fully told.

www.berkshireargus.com