March 12, 2024: New survival tactics

It’s inevitable that new paths be forged. We see it in the 71 year tradition that has become the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It’s grown from a one day celebration of the Irish community, to a two day extravaganza recognized by the Library of Congress. Committee president Hayley Dunn joins us to talk about the evolution of the parade, and her role within it, as they gear up for the culmination of all their hard work this weekend in the Paper City. We see it in a place that we know well, that is now facing a labor standstill. The members of the UAW that work at Mass MoCA have been on strike for the past week, after 4 months of stalled negotiations. But this conflict and lack of resolution has repercussions that are reverberating far past the museum’s campus. NEPM’s Jill Kaufman explains some of the nuances involved as the stalemate continues. And it’s in what the future holds. A recent series of connected articles in Scientific American and Nature have looked at population projections for American towns and cities in the year 2100, and the generalized numbers are not looking great for rural Massachusetts. In fact the list in the article published in Mass Live about the findings cites an overwhelming number of Franklin County municipalities at the top of the list for population decline. So we chat with the trio of legislators who penned a retort to that article about “Ghost Towns”, listing 11 ways we as a commonwealth could address the issues these articles brought up. State Senator Jo Comerford, and State Representatives Natalie Blais and Susannah Whipps outline some of their concerns from the list, which is starting to gain traction on Beacon Hill.