A Better Location For The Berkshire Carousel?

Right from the beginning, there were many questions surrounding the decision to put the Berkshire Carousel at its current location on Center Street adjacent to the CVS Pharmacy in Pittsfield. Would it succeed or would it fail? While calling it a failure may be premature, it certainly has not done the amount of business that the organizers of this grand project had hoped.

The Berkshire Eagle reported in April that the carousel drew 35,000 riders in its first year, but just 6,000 in its second. That’s not the trend that founders Jim and Jackie Shulman were hoping for. If you drive by it on any given day, the activity there seems to be minimal.

Every so often a discussion starts up either around town or on social media regarding the future of the carousel. On Monday, Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer posted her thoughts on Facebook and expressed one idea that she has for the artful ride. In that post she basically asked the public what they think of the idea, which is to move the carousel to the front lawn at Wahconah park on Wahconah Street.

Here is Mayor Tyer’s post:

At the time of this article, the Mayor Tyer's post had 140 comments. There are likely to be a lot more as time goes on. The comments range from support for the idea to a slew of alternate ideas. What do you think? You can contribute to the conversation on Facebook, or feel free to leave your comment here to start a side conversation.