Cultural Divide in the Pioneer Valley (Springfield, Chicopee: wedding, high school, university)

[oihamad]

I am not a resident of Western Massachusetts but have read quite a bit about the different towns in the Pioneer Valley. I am interested in what the relationship is like between the intellectual and overwhelmingly liberal towns of the Pioneer Valley--Amherst and Northampton--and other towns in the Pioneer Valley which are Lower-Middle to Working Class and made up of Ethnic Whites of Irish/Polish/Franco-American descent as well as Yankees (Chicopee, Ware, Belchertown, Westfield, Southampton, Easthampton) which trended towards voting for Donald Trump in the last election; or minority-majority areas such as Holyoke and Springfield which are also heavily Democratic but very different culturally from Amherst and Northampton. How do the residents of these geographically proximate towns view each other given the demographic and political differences?

[Boston_Burbs]

Originally Posted by oihamad

I am not a resident of Western Massachusetts but have read quite a bit about the different towns in the Pioneer Valley. I am interested in what the relationship is like between the intellectual and overwhelmingly liberal towns of the Pioneer Valley--Amherst and Northampton--and other towns in the Pioneer Valley which are Lower-Middle to Working Class and made up of Ethnic Whites of Irish/Polish/Franco-American descent as well as Yankees (Chicopee, Ware, Belchertown, Westfield, Southampton, Easthampton) which trended towards voting for Donald Trump in the last election; or minority-majority areas such as Holyoke and Springfield which are also heavily Democratic but very different culturally from Amherst and Northampton. How do the residents of these geographically proximate towns view each other given the demographic and political differences?

Hampden county is very White Ethnic Catholic. Ludlow used to have 5! Catholic churches (Portuguese, Polish, French, Italian, and Ukrainian)

These areas were democrat to the core until the 1970s when the Democrats moved away from machine politics and alienated Catholic voters by being pro-choice. The rep from Springfield (Richard Neil) was pro-life for a well into the 1990s.

Hampden County was and still is a very working class area with quirks that you don't see in other parts of the state. We still have stag (men only) or jack and jill (co-ed) wedding fundraiser parties. Which apparently tacky but hey you get food, beer, raffle. Not a bad Friday night.

[oihamad]

Should have also mentioned that demographically, Pelham and Shutesbury have similar profiles to Amherst and NoHo but are obviously much smaller communities.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by oihamad

Should have also mentioned that demographically, Pelham and Shutesbury have similar profiles to Amherst and NoHo but are obviously much smaller communities.

(It's Northampton. Maybe it's NoHo if you're from NYC.)

[in_newengland]

Can't type very well on phone but until gentrification in the early/mid '80s Northampton was blue collar working class. Hadley was farms.

Today most of the action is in Hampshire County and Hampden County is considered dull and boring. Longmeadow & East Longmeadow, just residential, nothing much to do. Good for families though.

[oihamad]

Not really interested so much in the dynamics of living in these communities aka boring vs. happening/going-on as much as how residents of these towns/cities interact with and view each other. As in, do residents of Amherst and Northampton, which presumably includes a large portion of residents from Eastern Mass and other parts of the USA who moved here to attend or teach at one of the colleges look down on those from working-class towns with deep roots in the area, and on the contrary, do the residents of those towns resent those in Amherst and Northampton? The closest example I can think of would be the tension between Yale and New Haven. In my backyard, Duke University and Durham have a history of contentious relations with each other though that has been decreasing recently. Here though I am focusing more on the relationship of certain towns to others rather than college vs. host city.

[GeoffD]

You have a lot of preconceived notions that don’t align with reality. Northampton is a socioeconomically mixed town. You have Springfield professionals, college profs, new age milennials, and working class people all coexisting in the same community. Unlike the south, New England tends to be pretty tolerant to differences. Red Sox and Yankees fans getting along. Imagine that.

[oihamad]

You seem to have some preconceived notions as well. Really-The whole South is intolerant of differences? You should learn a little bit more about the South. I said in the original post that I've never lived in/been to Western Mass so I'm sorry if it contained broad generalizations. With that said, I think it's fair to say that Amherst and Northampton are politically on the extreme of one continuum (voting 80% or more for HRC) due to the presence of the liberal arts colleges and UMASS while Ware and Westfield which are nearby outright voted for Trump though not by the lopsided margins that Northampton and Amherst supported Clinton. Don't tell me there isn't some level of cultural difference between these towns. I don't need or want a snarky retort, just a clear answer to the original question.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by oihamad

You seem to have some preconceived notions as well. Really-The whole South is intolerant of differences? You should learn a little bit more about the South. I said in the original post that I've never lived in/been to Western Mass so I'm sorry if it contained broad generalizations. With that said, I think it's fair to say that Amherst and Northampton are politically on the extreme of one continuum (voting 80% or more for HRC) due to the presence of the liberal arts colleges and UMASS while Ware and Westfield which are nearby outright voted for Trump though not by the lopsided margins that Northampton and Amherst supported Clinton. Don't tell me there isn't some level of cultural difference between these towns. I don't need or want a snarky retort, just a clear answer to the original question.

Working class towns vote for Trump. College educated towns don't. Doesn't matter whether it's Western Mass or Tennessee or Cary NC. You can look at the US census data for percent with a bachelors degree or better and have very high correlation with populist politics. The biggest difference between New England and the South is religion. Church participation in New England is extremely low. Four of the New England states rank as the bottom 4 for church participation. I doubt you'll find a school system teaching creationism in New England.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Working class towns vote for Trump. College educated towns don't. Doesn't matter whether it's Western Mass or Tennessee or Cary NC. You can look at the US census data for percent with a bachelors degree or better and have very high correlation with populist politics. The biggest difference between New England and the South is religion. Church participation in New England is extremely low. Four of the New England states rank as the bottom 4 for church participation. I doubt you'll find a school system teaching creationism in New England.

Here we go again with the contradictions...


First you ramble on about how socioeconomically mixed Northampton is (yet SOO much more tolerant the "South"), to now imply that the "educated" towns vote for Hillary and that the whole USA is the same.


But once again, you would be wrong on all ends.


https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/massachusetts


I see many well educated towns there painted in red, and many high school dropout towns dark blue.


The 2016 presidential election was a referendum on economics, nothing else. People voted based on their personal circumstances. You could have two next door neighbors with identical education levels and salaries, yet one works in a field that has thrived under the Clinton/Bush/Obama economic model while the other has lost ground in the new economy. They will vote as such. There have been many winners and losers during that time frame. As has been well publicized, middle-income whites have lost the most ground (a good portion of which can be classified as blue collar). Many in the Happy Valley rely on higher education for their livelihood, a vocation that has been pretty well shielded from the economic black hole that is much of small town USA (just as the Berkshire towns populated by wealthy NY retirees are). It is a given they will vote for the status quo, over a "have not" town like Ware.