From The Local Buzz
By Greg Saulmon
Friday February 13, 2009

Here in the office, we try to keep tabs on the issues that are really driving discussion in the Pioneer Valley. A common thread among the issues that most frequently seem to pull people from online debate and conjecture and into actual civic engagement? Somebody trying to build something.

In almost any town you’ll find a plot of land that, all at once, represents several or all of the following: jobs; community; economic revitalization; short-sighted and visionless planning; a breakdown in the process of public discourse; environmental injustice; corporate greed.

So, my original plan: present a single gallery that toured a number of these contested developments, and that compared how the issues and the frame of the debate surrounding each appear to be influencing the outcomes. Instead, though, let’s work up to that. I’ll try to shoot one gallery each week to create a sense of each place; then, time willing, we’ll try to look at these in a little more detail.