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IllustriousAd3838 OP t1_isudhjl wrote

Well, that's why I'm asking... Furthest west I've lived in Mass was Lawrence. I've also lived in Portland Maine and Cape Cod where this is an issue.

Pittsfield is in news all the time for drug field crimes, and since that's fairly close to the area I'm considering I'm curious as to how much of that leeches out

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individual_328 t1_isv2wpp wrote

I suspect answer for you is that you would feel unsafe in most of northern Berkshire county. Note that you would not be actually be unsafe. But even in the nicer towns and best neighborhoods, you'd need to go into Pittsfield or North Adams to get groceries and stuff. You would see people panhandling, maybe a run down building. You'd know that there are homeless encampments out there, somewhere, too close for comfort. If you think there are problems on the Cape or in Portland, you certainly aren't going to like driving down Tyler St.

Now if you go to south county, you will likely feel very safe. Everything is quaint and idyllic looking. All the bad stuff will (allegedly) be up north, far away. You can even cultivate a hyper-local disdain for the less-than inhabitants of Lee and Housatonic.

Note that you will not actually be any safer in south county. You might even be less safe. People seem to get run over in Great Barrington pretty frequently. You're much further away from the region's only real hospital if you have a medical emergency. I can assure you there is plenty of opiate addiction there too, just like everywhere else. But you will feel safe.

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8bitAdventures t1_isuniq7 wrote

Almost all of those crimes in Pittsfield happen in a few specific neighborhoods.

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