When I lived in Greenfield from 2017 to 2021, I had a subscription to the Recorder. Occasionally, I wrote a My Turn column or a letter to the editor, or spoke at City Council meetings about what I called the “retail desert” in Greenfield. Jen Davenport’s Sept. 20 My Turn column has reminded me of that unfortunate situation and saddened me to learn that it still exists. Apparently, the powers that be continue to make shopping in town impossible. This is the opposite of what it was like when I was growing up in Millers Falls.
At that time, Millers Falls was a safe, thriving and lively village. We did most of our retail shopping in the nearby vibrant “big city” of Greenfield. So it was very depressing to return to the area in 2017 to find that Franklin County had become the poorest county in the state with a thriving drug trade. Greenfield no longer offered the kind of retail shopping that I had grown up with.
When my familial duty ended in Greenfield, I quickly moved back to eastern Massachusetts, where there is no chokehold on retail for residents. Ms. Davenport, I am sorry that you and others who want retail in Greenfield are still stymied by a minority who manage to get their way.
Joan (Elgosin) Milnes
Acton