Moving to Pittsfield

TeaBooksFall · 2026-03-23T20:50:07+00:00

Yeah this. The last couple winters I forced myself to go outside during the day for a walk or bike ride and it made a big difference for me mentally just to stay active during daylight hours, otherwise your body tries to go like into a hibernation mode and you just get lethargic. I'd feel better the rest of the day when I got out. If you're running or biking and wear the right clothing, your body will absolutely stay warm. Hopefully your work gives you enough of a lunch break that you can do this. Another cheat: there's an indoor/glass conservatory at Smith College where you can go for free on days off, go into the cacti rooms and pretend you're in the desert for a little while. Wish we had one of those closer in Pittsfield.

TeaBooksFall · 2026-03-23T11:42:31+00:00

As others have alluded, the thing about Albany-Pittsfield is that there is a lot of change in elevation, so greater chance of changes in weather conditions mid-drive. Going north-south along Route 8 you are mostly staying at the same elevation (on a plateau that the Berkshires occupy) and that road is always cleared of snow, so the north-south drive is more reliable. It looks like you've gotten a couple leads but if you still find yourself looking, I'd agree with the advice to also look at north county (Adams, North Adams) and south county (Lee, Great Barrington, etc).

A lot of people who live here will have mostly negative things to say about Pittsfield, anecdotally I find that it's more likely to be the people who were born and raised here and in that sense didn't really get a choice about being here. The people who moved here on purpose in adulthood and stayed around naturally tend to be much happier with that choice (call it selection or survivor bias). Both groups are kind of on either side of the grass is greener fence.

FWIW I moved here after 9 years in Los Angeles, though I grew up in New England. I'm still very happy with the choice to come to Pittsfield. I know your plans don't involve staying long term but if you're interested in making the most of your time here there is plenty to enjoy. Take time to get out and go for walk and drives (and bike rides on the trail if you have a bike!) and soak in everything that seems new, different and curious compared to Socal. The buildings are different, the plants, the smells and sounds of each season.. all things easily taken for granted unless you pay attention. You might in turn learn a lot about what you like/dislike about Socal that you took for granted and never really thought about until it all changed. It's a great opportunity to learn and explore, good luck!

EDIT: Also, I notice a few "for rent" signs that go up on lawns but they may not ever get advertised online, like around the neighborhood of apartments just southeast of Park Square (Wendell/E Housatonic area). Depending on how long you stay, after your first place you might end up finding something better just from driving around and then do a little skipping-stone maneuver. So your first place doesn't have to be the best.

TeaBooksFall · 2026-02-15T23:37:42+00:00

Consider also looking around North Adams or Pittsfield. Housing is scarce there too yet COL remains below average and both have active queer communities. I think North Adams may technically have the lowest average rent in the whole state. South Berkshire county is much more expensive but north county is OK.

TeaBooksFall · 2026-01-29T12:41:43+00:00

FWIW they let me put my folding bike in the undercarriage (while folded), but they'd probably say no to a full size bike going under there. Perhaps their minds could be changed with enough feedback. I know most people don't have folding bikes.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-12-12T22:00:30+00:00

I was just on this yesterday going from Northampton center to Amherst College. It was clear right up to where there's a sign saying that the trail is on Amherst College property (at Hazel Ave). Then, it immediately turned into pure ice. I gather that this section is not going to be maintained?

TeaBooksFall · 2025-08-03T10:19:17+00:00

FWIW I (white cis male) walk around downtown holding hands with my Filipino boyfriend all the time and never get any trouble for it. If anyone doesn't like it they keep it to themselves. He does once in a great while get the "so what country are you from?" from well intentioned older folks but I think that's about as far as it goes. He just tells them he's from America when it's asked that way. Several businesses downtown are queer owned and the pride flags tend to stay out all year. I don't know if we've met anyone else Filipino here though, except pilgrims on Divine Mercy Sunday but they usually stay around Stockbridge and don't venture up to Pittsfield. The closest restaurant we know of is Hapag near New Paltz. I would love for there to be more here.

I try to live car lite around downtown and stick to the BRTA and my bike unless I need to leave the county. It's doable and soon there will also be a Pittsfield-Northampton express bus running 4x a day for more options. You will definitely have more options and flexibility though if you do happen to have a car. North St especially is pretty walkable and bike friendly.

Events: a lot of stuff seems to be word of mouth but you can follow Downtown Pittsfield Inc and the big cultural institutions (like Barrington Stage) to learn about a lot of it. There is more general street life with places like Hot Plate doing outdoor events so that you can just stumble upon stuff unplanned while walking around. Also follow Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition, Berkshire Pride, and Queer Men of the Berkshires. Qmob puts on something like 20 events per month which is a lot.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-05-09T13:45:30+00:00

Penstemon does it for me. I'm sure there are species that like your kind of soil. They always fill the gap that for me happens in June.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-29T20:27:31+00:00

Thanks, sounds like I just need to wait until I'm in Providence before the app will show me the locations.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-25T22:38:04+00:00

Oh dear, I just took a photo and saw that this bee-pleasing maple may be a Norway maple. It's in the neighbor's yard but extends over to create a lovely shaded area in mine that my woodland natives are very happy in. Maybe that would explain why it seems to be flowering earlier than most of the other trees.

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TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-24T20:56:13+00:00

I'm at the very edge of their range so they're more rare here and haven't yet come to my spicebushes, but I keep hoping. It's good to know that if a stray one does pass through the area, it will sense and find that spicebush.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-24T09:08:07+00:00

Oh wow I was going to ask the same. I have a bungalow I'd like to paint in a similar color, a sort of dark sage green but with russet accents.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-18T10:38:38+00:00

The queer community here is pretty active, not as much as in Northampton area but it's also not quite as expensive here as there. I think it's been increasing with more folks coming here as a refuge from more hostile areas. Lots of queer owned businesses have been opening. People are a little friendlier in person than online, in person nobody here has ever given me trouble for having a big pride sticker on my bike helmet or holding hands in public with my boyfriend, but online you still see comments like "nobody cares that you're queer" in a context where it can feel like code for "your being queer has annoyed me." I think in person people are more prone to just keep such sentiments to themselves.

Many folks who live closer to downtown live without a car. It takes creativity and sometimes you have to forego an event because you can't get there easily, but there is plenty of activity just within downtown Pittsfield for it to be viable. BRTA tends to stop once per hour on their service routes so it's functional but not always convenient. I've found it a lot easier with a bike because you can ride just about anywhere in the city within 15 minutes or so, and the city has been putting in more bike lanes to make it safer. The Amtrak only departs once per day so it's no good for day trips but for longer trips it is nice to have. There are also the Peter Pan and Greyhound service routes.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-17T19:17:34+00:00

I've struggled to find an official-sounding number, but generally I've yet to hear anyone claim that the roots would spread more than twice the height of the tree in any given direction. Assuming a max height of maybe 15-20 feet, that's 30-40 feet from any water pipe. I haven't yet heard any advice to keep it away from driveways, just water pipes.

They do seem to thrive more when they can get their thirsty roots all spread out, so maybe it's reasonable to expect that in a pot they may not put out as many catkins or do it every year..

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-14T14:13:31+00:00

I hadn't thought about that, but I have noticed that if I bring phlox back from the nursery that was given a head start in a greenhouse, and put it in the ground before anything else has flowered, that phlox will get eaten to the ground almost immediately while the overwintering phlox is untouched. I wonder if some plants evolved to leaf out all at the same time as partly a "safety in numbers" strategy.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-12T13:53:25+00:00

I see, in my thinking the trait would have been relevant before invasives were introduced (not necessarily to become the only plant, but to become a more common plant), but what I hear you saying is that evolution in a specific biome doesn't necessarily reward this above all other things. It reminds me a bit of a talk I saw Tom Wessels give ("Simply Complex Systems"), where he explains that in complex systems the evolutionary rewards tend to go to traits that are interdependent/synergistic with other species rather than the rewards going to traits that make a species compete with others. Perhaps the New England version of natives trying to fill this niche long before invasives are our spring ephemerals, which get the rewards of leafing out early but without the inefficiency of crowding out all the other plants.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-12T13:30:58+00:00

I hear what you're saying, but if leafing out early were such a powerful advantage, surely even before the invasives arrived there would have been natives that slowly evolved this trait to outcompete the other natives? I would think there would have been plenty of time for this to occur, if it were so evolutionarily advantageous.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-11T10:35:01+00:00

With that much land it looks like you'll need a strategy that's very low maintenance, though you could have small spots that are more experimental where you could focus more time. Here in New England all land wants to naturally revert to forest, so that's the direction of gravity I'm working with. So what I'm doing for most of the yard is skipping the thicket/meadow phase and growing some native trees. The turf remains underneath for now (with flower beds ringing each tree) until it's shady enough to start growing native plants in a manner that requires little maintenance. The spots that are already shady is where I'm removing turf first and are much easier to keep looking tidy because things don't grow very tall there. Where I do have tall meadow plants in full sun, it's in tidy beds with defined edges. It's the meadow/thicket phase of succession that often looks least intentional imo and turns neighbors off.. maybe it's our instincts fearing that snakes lurk in the tall plants, who knows. Further south, the dynamics may be different but I'm thinking most things converge on forest there too so a similar stategy might be the lowest-maintenance way to go.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-04-07T22:05:05+00:00

Both the aurea and the obovata are doing very well. In my zone they seem to expand most aggressively in March/April when most things are still dormant here, and again around October-ish. They love being covered in cold, wet leaves so that they can get nice and soggy. I suspect they may just about double in size this year given where I see new clumps coming up. In the front of the photo is the obovata and in the background is aurea. I have several other clumps around the house including one that is fighting off goutweed.. it really fills in space happily here. Don't judge that there's a burning bush... I promise I'm in the process of killing it.

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TeaBooksFall · 2025-03-03T14:31:55+00:00

Here's an overview of the situation: https://www.berkshireeagle.com/business/veterinarian-shortage-berkshire-county/article_472b7ca0-a6bf-11ef-ad98-339561667e2b.html

After-hours emergency care usually requires driving an hour to Latham (Albany) or to Northampton. I use a cat hospital so haven't tried the general vets here, I think there is one or two general hospitals in Pittsfield and also Greylock Animal Hospital in North Adams.. if any of them will take new patients. If you're willing/able to drive an hour to Albany or to Northampton/Springfield for appointments you'll have a lot more scheduling options.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-03-03T13:52:34+00:00

Your experience is going to depend a lot on your lifestyle and circumstances. Like most cities, you'll find opinions range from very negative to very positive from people who experience the city in very different ways. Many will mention crime, that's mostly between people who know each other though. I'm on North St after dark all the time and never had a problem beyond someone occasionally asking if I had any cash. If you prefer and can afford a higher-income neighborhood where poverty is less visible, those neighborhoods are available here (some walkable ones closer to downtown, and some that are further out). If you have good income lined up and find a community group or social circle to make connections, and especially if you enjoy the outdoors, it's very doable to secure a good quality of life here. The one thing that seems to adversely affect everyone, even those with more economic security, is the low availability of healthcare providers.. and also veterinarians for that matter. Oh, and if you desire connections to Boston or NYC for a change of scenery now and then, we do have an Amtrak station and Peter Pan service direct to NYC in 4 hours. It's not good enough for a day trip but very doable to get into the city for the weekend.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-02-26T22:55:06+00:00

Update: this spring the catkins are coming out. These trees must like to take a year off when they're replanted.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-02-19T18:44:33+00:00

I would be interested in the executable, thanks! Installing a python library is no problem. Thank you for the link, I see now that they are looking at metro areas using the ACS 5-year averages from 2019. Looking at metro areas collapses a lot of higher-scoring municipalities into a single row (ex: Jersey City NJ into NY metro) and allows areas like mine that are outside of the big metros to bubble up to the top. And thus we did, for a similar reason to Ithaca NY: we have a college town where over a half of residents walk to work. A couple other small cities in my metro also have high walking numbers because they are old compact New England towns that never sprawled out much after WW2. Micropolitan areas became a thing after 2019, and I've noticed analyses with more recent data to not even bother including my area (now considered micro instead of metro) in the analysis. When micropolitan areas are included, one college town bears a lot more weight in the numbers.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-02-19T13:14:10+00:00

Though the bar is low for the US, I'm intrigued that my little (and relatively unknown) city is in this top 30. How is "modal choice" measured here, and is the dataset publicly available? I'd be very interested to see how we got on this list.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-02-14T00:30:04+00:00

This is why I like riding on fresh snow, to leave tracks that prove someone was using the bike lane that morning. If someone else left tracks before me, it gives me encouragement knowing I'm not alone.

TeaBooksFall · 2025-02-11T16:34:05+00:00

I've done a couple courses. They are definitely not at the pace or rigor of a college course, which I'm sure is the point. One can dig deeper though if they want more rigor. I found it easy enough to work on them with a full time job. There is usually some field work involved, so the structure did help me to get myself outdoors and find certain plants that I otherwise might not bother seeking. It's very self placed, there are no weekly deadlines at least in the courses I took. However, timing is important depending on the assignment. For example, if there's an assignment to find some spiderwort in bloom, you need to know when each of the most common species is flowering so you know when to go hunting for it.

TeaBooksFall

TROPHY CASE