By Harold French

I keep hearing people say they want more development. These are the same people who are “concerned” about Global warming. You can’t have both. Every time someone develops a piece of land some more green space is lost. Build a house and pave the driveway and you have developed a heatsink to add to the warming.

We are all domed by the current state of high-cost housing. We have a great shortage of medical people. New medical providers can’t afford to buy a house here and set up a practice. Remember that you are not going to get an established doctor to drop his practice and start over here. We need newly minted doctors who can come and stay for years before retirement, but we can’t get them because of the cost of housing plus the cost of repaying student loans.

On a recent visit to Baystate Hospital, every person in the large waiting room was from Berkshire County. All had the same story. They couldn’t find a doctor in Berkshire County or didn’t trust the ones they found. They were concerned about the reputation of Berkshire Medical Center.