5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
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Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
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FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
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5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
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5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
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5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
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[EAGLE WATCH] Paper runs over pedestrians
10.11.06
Once again, in "Pedestrians must play it safe," the Berkshire Eagle has editorialized against the rights of way of pedestrians in favor of automotive drivers who fail to yield to human beings in crosswalks.
Another near-fatal wounding of a walker in downtown Pittsfield (that most unfriendly of pedestrian cities) sparked an Eagle In Brief editorial blasting pedestrians for being "careless."
"They frequently step into [crosswalks] without checking oncoming traffic or paying any heed," writes the unsigned editorialist.
Excuse me, but don't pedestrians in crosswalks have the right of way over drivers? Isn't the onus on the DRIVER to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk?
Apparently, this doesn't matter. "Whether pedestrians are in the right or in the wrong," writes the editorialist, "they must be responsible for their own safety."
Oh really? Since when? What are safety laws for if not to protect us from threats to our safety, such as occupational hazards, unsafe food, dangerous toys, and wayward drivers?
In a society such as ours, where the responsibility for individual's safety has pretty much been totally turned over to the state and the courts (hence, warnings on paper cups of coffee that "Contents may burn," etc.), why should pedestrians who are actually exercising their rights as well as exercising and thereby contributing to the public good by contributing to the environment be the only group singled out not only to bear full responsibility for their safety, but EVEN WHEN THEY'RE IN THE RIGHT to, in a sense, be WRONG, according to the pedestrian-hating paper?
Maybe the folks over at 75 South Church Street ought to get out of their ivory tower of a former paper mill, walk up the hill to North Street (leave your car in the parking lot just this once), and see what it's like trying to navigate downtown Pittsfield's maze of dangerous intersections and boulevard-wide main streets on foot.
If Pittsfield is ever truly going to see a downtown revival, efforts MUST be made to make the city more pedestrian friendly. A good start would be for the civic community to support and enforce pedestrian rights -- and to penalize drivers who speed through the downtown and fail to yield the RIGHT OF WAY to pedestrians.
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