Want/Need

By Mickey Friedman
December 3, 2015

“Want” and “need” often get confused. Webster defines “want” as “to desire or wish for (something)” and “to need (something)” or “to be without (something needed.)”

But for me there is an important difference, a distinction often overlooked in today’s world of more, more, and even more.

And that’s the difference between what is required and what one chooses.

In a world motivated by possession and profit there seems to be an unlimited pool of wants. Many houses, many cars, more clothes, the newest phone – there is no end to what we want.

And increasingly, there is growing gap between what the 1% wants and the 99% needs. While, as opportunity vanishes for so many, America seems to slip backwards.

I recently saw a Pew Research Center account of what life has become for 18-34 year olds.

“More young adults are living with their parents than at any time since 1940.”

Close to 37% of young women and 43% of young men are living at home. A national statistic, this does not include young people living in dorms at school but at home during the rest of the year, so it could actually be higher.

I’m betting this is true in Pittsfield, in Lenox, in Lee and Great Barrington. I remember a conversation I overheard awhile ago at Rite-Aid when a group of women met while waiting for their prescriptions and shared the fact that their twenty and thirty-somethings had returned, and their dreams of a quiet retirement had vanished. With several of them now raising grandkids.

Which brings me to the recent hotel/motel wars throughout Berkshire County.

Want. Clearly there is money to be made here with new hotels. Even with vacancy rates of 30-50% enough money is being made to justify building more and bigger hotels. Developers want these hotels.

But do the rest of us need them?

Sharon Gregory, formerly of the Great Barrington Finance Committee, recently wrote in The Berkshire Record about the differences between Lenox and Great Barrington when it comes to the tax income each town receives from hotels. Lenox brings in four times the tax revenue than Great Barrington. Great Barrington’s $350,000 is 1.5 percent of the town budget. On the other hand, Great Barrington, known for the great variety of its restaurants brings in a much higher percentage of meal tax.

Want and need. There is a difference between what a hotel developer wants and what a small community like Great Barrington needs.

The Pew Report is pretty clear: 18 to 34 year olds clearly need a college education that won’t send them into spiraling debt, well-paying jobs, and affordable housing. Affordable rentals and homes they can buy.

They are not going to be able to rent or buy with what most of these hotel jobs pay: working the front desk, cleaning rooms, washing dishes in the restaurant.

And there is growing need for affordable housing for seniors.

Then, there is the distinction between destination and home. No one is denying the importance of tourism. People with discretionary income want to travel their world. But while attracting those travelers, it’s important not to lose the sense of home for those of us who live here. Travel to any tropical paradise. It’s hard not to see the glaring disparity between the world created for those blessed to be able to visit and the real-life conditions of those whose home it is.

Is it unreasonable to want to retain some of the distinct character of our community? The Red Lion is Stockbridge in a way Holiday Inn Express is only Holiday Inn Express. The bed and breakfasts of Lenox fit seamlessly within. But you can take Great Barrington’s Holiday Inn and plop it anywhere in America; and do the same with the hotels on the Lenox Pittsfield Road. The Red Lion Inn is an example of historic redevelopment in the best sense. Preserving history and building upon it.

Because the more a town becomes like every other town the less the reason to go there. Great Barrington is in danger of homogenizing itself out of distinction. The Best Small Town in America could easily become The Same Small Town as Every Other Small Town in America.

So the debate about hotels and what kind of hotel fits is an opportunity to re-examine what is happening to our communities.

Great Barrington voted to limit the size of motels and hotels in town. Hopefully, the Town Counsel’s legal opinion contradicting the recent ruling of the Great Barrington Planning Board to allow the destruction of the Searles School will embolden the Selectboard to proactively preserve what is different here.

And if we want to attract more visitors and new residents perhaps we can build a town-owned affordable high speed internet network. And invest in a incubator for innovative small businesses that pay decent wages. Need.

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This column was originally published in The Berkshire Record of December 3, 2015.