Another weekend, another trip out of Greenfield to go shopping for basic necessities.
This time, I needed some new bedding, but in this town there is no where to purchase quality home products for a reasonable price. Knowing this, I planned my Saturday afternoon accordingly.
We got in the car around 3 p.m., and left Greenfield (as usual). We had choices — Athol, Keene or Hadley. We choose Keene because they just opened a new Home Goods, and they also have a TJ Maxx. You can’t help go into Walmart, too — it is right next door. I was able to get the bedding I needed, along with additional items while saving a bundle.
I noticed they were building a brand new hotel in Keene; demand for rooms must be high. How’s our new hotel construction at the old Roadway Inn going? It looks a little behind schedule.
We usually leave town on the weekends so that means incorporating dinner out somewhere. Good luck finding a place to eat in Keene around 6 p.m. on a Saturday; every restaurant was so-oo-oo packed and the people were waiting outside! You don’t usually see that around here. We were actually forced to go to Brattleboro instead for pizza.
So, to re-cap, hundreds of dollars lost from our family alone on this particular Saturday. Multiply that by many other families who leave town on the weekends to shop and eat. Too bad this is acceptable with our town leaders. It is hard to believe these people think they represent what is best for Greenfield. The townspeople are crying out for stores, restaurants and revenue. So, keep on blocking interested businesses from coming here to protect our “downtown.” I hate to break it to you, but, there isn’t a vibrant “downtown”! You are all so archaic and so backwards. Keep on raising our taxes to make up for all this lost revenue. Don’t you want the economic development to be HERE?
It feels like I have to write one of these letters every once in awhile for therapeutic reasons. It is my only way to remind you (town leaders) that you continue to force local residents and families to leave because we do not have access to the goods we need! All of your roadblocks are so frustrating to the families and people living here. But, hey, at least you spent your time wisely and were successful at banning plastic bags — that’s a big win for Greenfield.
Jennifer Davenport lives in Greenfield