All Over Albany

Such acute little story about how this town at one point had thousands of people making useful things and selling those useful things to acquire wealth so there families could have a car and a house and maybe a trip in the summer together somewhere to relax. Now in the "New" North Adams there are no good jobs except staring at strange pieces of supposed meaningful "art" sitting in an empty old factory paid for by taxpayers from somewhere else so these deplorable people can have jobs making coffees with 5 hyphenated words for people from Manhattan......and they are surprised things have improved faster.....so funny. We need to realize that those jobs MUST come back for our middle and lower classes to survive......please see Germany Japan South Korea for just a few examples of high worth countries that somehow seemed to "miraculously" kept those jobs that aren't coming back here!

... said BS on Jun 1, 2017 at 6:11 PM | link

@BS There is plenty of empty space left in North Adams if you wish to go over there and open a factory and bring in some jobs. The local government would welcome you with open arms, just like they did MASS MOCA. Sprague closed because it couldn't compete with Asia. If that factory came back now, it would certainly not employ the 4000 people it did when it was closed. Those jobs are gone, they are automated now. MASS MOCA saved that space (which dates back to the Civil War, by the way) and brought a glimmer of hope to that town. It's unfortunate you aren't able to see meaning or beauty of any of the "art" there. Have you ever been?

... said Big 'Vic' Proton on Jun 1, 2017 at 9:26 PM | link

You're missing the point....art is neat and needed....it does NOT and will NEVER be a driver of an economy no matter what the elite think...our government both local state and federal need to do more to attract these jobs back....they are not all automated now.....please see the hi tech manufacturing of Germany Japan SouthKorea Norway Denmark etc etc. you can say all you want but nothing will ever replace the industrial economy completely....these other countries know it and make sure that their citizens are taken care ....... we can and need to do more....we need to be the ones involved in advanced manufacturing making goods that other countries need....if not we will not prosper as a society and that's the fact. Not everyone can be a creative dancer or a potter.....not sure why we just keep saying "those jobs are never coming back".... if that's the case will will continue to sprout more places like Detroit or Camden or even just about the entire upstate of New York....

... said BS on Jun 2, 2017 at 10:25 AM | link

BS- I'm from North Adams, my family is still there, and I now own rental property in town. The idea that Mass MoCA is not an economic driver is ridiculous. Manufacturing did not create "wealth" for those working in the factories when they were up and running, what they had were jobs. Jobs that people of my grandparents generation tried to keep my parents generation from doing. When it became cheaper for those jobs to go elsewhere, they did. While small scale manufacturing has returned to a degree for niche products (see the tiny homes referenced in the article), the large scale manufacturing boom seen post WW2 in North Adams will not be coming back.

After the mills closed because they were no longer economically viable, North Adams was called "The Gateway to Nowhere" by Yankee Magazine. Kids moved away after graduating high school and didn't tell people where they were from. Now there are jobs (of a different type), graduates are sticking around or returning home after college on purpose, and the city council is STACKED with people (many young) who are committed to ensuring the city continues to move in the right direction economically and taking as much advantage of Mass MoCA's location as possible. Mayor Alcombright just announced he won't be running for re-election so it will be interesting to see what the next few years will bring.

It's taken some time for the town to fully embrace what MoCA is; I don't think the city or the residents really understood what they were getting at first. My grandmother, when she was approached about donating money to the original opening, thought she was giving money to an MCLA student art project... She still talks about the "art project down the hill" and how nice it is that so many people know about it outside of NA.

It has its problems but I love North Adams for more reasons than Mass MoCA and would be glad to discuss stuff to do in town beyond the museum. But make no mistake, most of these things would not still be around if MoCA did not exist.

... said Cmaxby on Jun 2, 2017 at 11:52 AM | link

Again you're missing the point....it's obvious you have emotional feelings for North Adams.....we all tend to have feelings for our hometowns... they've got something it makes us feel rooted proud etc. I am not deriding North a Adams's at all and have always been saddened by the "city of spires" struggling just as places like Lawrence Lowell Brockton Springfield Pittsfield and on and on ad nauseum. We are not talking about opening mills to make cloth with slave labor. It's neat that some of the former giants of industry towns have some hipsters and a few jobs designing video games....but for the middle and lower classes nothing assured success and improvement like manufacturing.....I'm sorry that's a fact. You can't create wealth for the masses by mixing some some sugar in a speciality coffee .....anybody can do that...there is no inherent value in that type of employment....they are nice window dressing type businesses but DO NOT drive an economy. I drive around upstate NY and see all the once beautiful little towns completely dead filled with zombies, many affected by drug abuse and violence, and it makes me sad....we can and need to do better....that's just reality and you can argue all you want but that's the bottom line. I look forward to my next stop in Noth Adams as I take my tour from Grewt Barrington to Williamstown.....one of my favorite day trips of all time....

... said BS on Jun 2, 2017 at 7:57 PM | link

@BS No one here is "missing the point", because your point isn't factual. You are missing reality. Automation is wiping jobs out, not trade.

The US did indeed lose about 5.6m manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010. But according to a study by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, 85 per cent of these jobs losses are actually attributable to technological change — largely automation

Yes it would be great if some factory opened in North Adams, but guess what? Nobody will work in it. And it will only get worse. The sad reality is that the future is going to be largely automated. The next big loss to jobs is going to be from Self Driving Vehicles. Some 4 million workers in the US transportation industries are expected to be made redundant from this technology. Unless the population starts to drastically contract, there won't be enough jobs for everyone. And what jobs that do exist will be mostly high paying tech jobs, or low paying service jobs.

... said Big 'Vic' Proton on Jun 5, 2017 at 11:31 AM | link

And where do you think those good jobs making self driving cars and all the stuff for them?? Detroit??? A factory of robots??? Germany Japan South Korea Singapore China Denmark Sweden etc etc have ALL protected their manufacturing bases...you've got to stop thinking of a factory where a bunch of people sit along an assembly line.... what you're talking about is just accepting the fate that the elite tell you.....then the fate of all these places is to gradually descend into third world rot like Appalachia or Detroit.....i for one don't accept that....

... said BS on Jun 5, 2017 at 3:43 PM | link

I'm just wondering about my own "elite" status now, having a self-reflection moment if you will. Who doesn't want to upgrade their status, after all?

Like - can I simply call myself "elite" if I ONLY take a day trip from my hopelessly blighted Upstate NY town to visit MASS MoCA and then turn around and head home, or do I have to also stop for coffee in actual North Adams?

Also, I might be interested in upgrading further to "hipster elite". In that case I'll probably also need a gourmet sandwich shoppe or maybe a craft cocktail bar that I can frequent while designing my next big video game. Is that an option?

... said Tim on Jun 6, 2017 at 11:06 AM | link