BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2016) — How desperate is PEDA? The 52-acre dead-zone in the center of the city wants to settle for a Super Walmart, a far cry from the big talk that heralded the signing of the Consent Decree with GE in 1998. Then, the PEDA site was to become Pittsfield’s new manufacturing center, catering to the high-tech sector. Pittsfield went through that shell game earlier with Dan Fox Drive. The city promised the Drive would be Pittsfield’s version of the Route 128 Tech Corridor and Silicon Valley. It ended up with a supermarket, a derelict time-share, and an empty National Archives. Oh, and a lot of ledge and weeds.

Mayor Linda Tyer has chosen not to sit on the PEDA board. We congratulate her, for she has actually kept a campaign promise. That’s as rare for politicians as for a shadow to hang over a dream that you choose not to chase. She had nominated three new persons to the PEDA board, including former city councilors Barry Clairmont and Churchill Cotton.

Clairmont we totally get. And no, it matters not a speck of French dust that Tyer and Clairmont are, as they say, “an item.”  THE PLANET says let us find love when and where we can on this cold earth, full as it is with chilling sounds and birds that do not rest on the bare thorn’s breast. God bless them.

Clairmont, an accountant, works policy in a deliberate, factual manner. We have found him fair and honest, which is more than we can say for most. But Cotton? At that we must wonder. As a councilor, he was silent and compliant. On the PEDA board, we anticipate that he will add more sleeping powder to a group long lost in a civic coma, from whose depths no motions move.

$85 Grand, for What, Exactly?

Serenity on the lake, with the stylish Mountain One on the far shore. (PHOTO: Courtesy of PEDA).

Ah, PEDA, beneath the foundations of your empty acres, we wonder: What have you been doing since 1998, notwithstanding the stylish Mountain One building on East Street? When we went to your website, the most “recent” press release was dated June 5, 2014.

1998! More than 18 years later, and we are still waiting. Eighteen years of Tom Hickey, Bill Hines, and Corydon Thurston as executive directors? Hickey overlorded the demolition, Hines gave it his best, but why in the beauty of spirit is Thurston still there? What has he accomplished besides next to nothing? What has he done to earn his $80,000 a year plus bennies? As always, THE PLANET remains ever at the ready to correct the record. PLANET TO CORYDON: If this figure is incorrect, please send us a copy of your contract, which is, by the way, a public document.

And Corydon, what of your hours? PEDA sources say you are “almost never” at the office. Who keeps tabs  on you? Can you provide us with notarized time sheets? Where is the accountability? Tell us: How many hours a week do you actually work to develop the PEDA site? Two? Four? Do you even hit double digits? We hear not, but of course, if that is not true, please inform us. THE PLANET shall be most accommodating and eager to print your side.

Corydon, what are you but the baffled look of dread, another rip-off of the good people of Pittsfield, who have trusted far too long, far too often. We ask in earnest. Please let us know. Level with us. Tell us that the reason nothing is happening at the PEDA site besides the relocation of Walmart. Is it because underneath the foundations of those razed buildings rests vast oceans industrial toxins?  Is it something else?  Tell us. We will gratefully stand corrected.

Another Shuffler?

Are you proving to be another shuffler, the kind who come into Pittsfield hustling the usual cliches about “renaissance,” “economic engines,” and “strategic initiatives?” We ask you what you’ve done of worth, and you answer not. You have cast the completeness of darkness in absence, for you are rarely on site, we hear. Your business is up north.  Does it trouble you to have such a strong hand in providing the city its dismal economic fate?

PEDA is one more example of the type of colossal failure apathy has made the norm in the once-great-but-now-derelict city of Pittsfield. It’s a pity. There we have 52 prime acres, next to a lake, with rail adjacent. In most other places, 18 years after the fact, such a site would be brimming with numbers, wealth, and fulfillment. All Pittsfield gets is a shadow that almost always signifies death.

———————————————————————————————-

The downside of being a con artist is that it’s hard to con, especially when the biggest lies you tell are to yourself. — Anon.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The views expressed in the comment section or opinions published within the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not those of PLANET VALENTI or endorsed in any way by PLANET VALENTI; this website reserves the right to remove any comment which violates its Rules of Conduct, and it is not liable for the consequences of any posted comment as provided in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and PLANET VALENTI’s terms of service.