LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: HOLD MAYOR ‘PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE’ FOR SNOW HAZARDS … THS PROJECT CONCERNS … PUBLIC MURAL DEFACED … plus … SEN. DOWNING’s OFFICE EXPLAINS WHY ELECTRIC RATES ARE SO HIGH
By DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, FEB. 17, 2015) — First, THE PLANET has some interesting letters to share from the mailbag. These were sent to us via e-mail, not posted, but for sharing, which we do in our periodic “Letters to the Editor” feature.
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Hold Mayor ‘Personally Responsible’ for Lousy Snow Handling
TO THE PLANET:
I want to see Mayor Bianchi held personally responsible for any loss of life, injury, or property damage resulting from any vehicular accidents caused by the horrible job the city has done maintaing its roads this winter. This has been a rough winter but only for the past month or so. Even then we have seen far worse in the city and with the roads in much better shape. Bianchi is acting like he knows he’s not going to be re-elected so he’s going to line his own pockets as much as he can and screw the people to the same level. There’s no need for the side streets to have turned into ice sheets due to lack of plowing and no sanding. May it weight on his conscience. — Fred L.
THE PLANET RESPONDS — Your complaint has been echoed countless times these past four weeks, when all the snow and cold came to stay. The mayor is in charge of all city departments and actions, and that includes snow handling. The buck, as well as the snow pile, stops there. Your logic is irrefutable. And it’s not just the side streets. Try going down the West Street hill toward Big Y and having to stop for a red light. Good luck. If the mayor runs for re-election, which we doubt, he will lose simply based on the snow job he’s given citizens this winter.
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School Project Causes Concern
TO THE PLANET:
Do you know if there’s a citizen’s petition circulating with a specific question concerning the Taconic project? I feel that getting these councilors to go on record stating their opinions as to whether or not the electorate should/may vote on the subject is fantastic but it does not guarantee that they will get to vote.
Absent a specific question e.g. “shall the councilors be instructed to vote against bond authorization xyz” “shall the councilors be instructed to authorize no more than x”,or “shall the councilors be instructed to vote against MSBA project # z”, the city council will control the question that is voted on, not those whom initiated the action.
A petition with a defined question with signatures attached would make it much more likely that you won’t be thrown a curve ball in the voting booth by asking the people to vote on an ambiguous question or something crafted with a sleight of hand. I live in Laneseborough and have no direct concerns in this project but am interested in how it plays out as we will have our tussles up here as plans for a project at MGRHS move along. — Tim
THE PLANET Responds: You raise some excellent points, Tim. To our knowledge, there is no citizen’s petition actively circulating at the moment. There has been an attempt at drafting one, and some isolated folks have talked a lot of talk, but there’s been precious little action. Apathy, thy name os the Pittsfield electorate. Good luck trying to reign in the Mount Greylock school department spendthrifts.
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Profit is Destroying Art
TO THE PLANET:
The owners of 1 Fenn Street have begun destroying a work of public art that has been enjoyed by the citizens of this community since it was created in 1985. The Painted Palace Public Mural was the first public mural to be painted in this community and now after thirty years it is being slowly destroyed.
Windows are being cut into the surface of the mural without any concern that they are being cut directly into the surface of a major work of public art which this community wants to preserve. I guess for the good old boys profit is more important than the quality of life in the downtown. So much for bringing the arts to the downtown….and right across the street from the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts…so
where is the office of cultural development on this one ? — Giacometti
THE PLANET Responds: Thank you for making us aware of the situation. THE PLANET can’t speak for the the Office of Cultural Development, but the publication of your letter will ensure that at least the office knows about what’s happening. THE PLANET invites the office to explain its position. From our perspective, while we don’t like to see the mural defaced, unless the lease expressly prohibits the action, the owners of the building would be within their rights. It’s not the Mona Lisa.
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Sen. Downing’s Office Explains Electricity Cost Spike
ED NOTE: The recent column THE PLANET wrote on the outrageous spike in electricity rates sparked much interest. One reader wrote to Sen. Ben Downing‘s office for an explanation. He received this response, which he wanted to share with THE PLANET and readers.
TO THE PLANET:
Dear (Name removed):
This Mayor rape the public is damn lucky there is no school yesterday and today. Those buses would be going nowhere. There have been several accidents at East and Newell Street. You should see that intersection this Morning.
COMMENT REDACTED. COMMENTS THAT DO NOT ADVANCE THE DISCUSSION AND/OR ARE OPENLY HOSTILE WHILE ADDING NOTHING OF VALUE WILL BE REDACTED. FURTHER SUCH COMMENTS WILL RESULT IN A BAN FROM THIS WEBSITE.
Dan you hopefully will redact this comment and send Allen back to topix where he came from and where he belongs. Its just plain rude trolling.
THE PLANET’s webmaster took care of it. Thanks for your concern. We aim to keep the comments section open and available but not let it sink into the sewer.
Another train explosion carrying oil, this time in West Virginia…yeah lets keep fighting the pipeline and relying on oil
For you to even use that term shows your intellect.
On Sunday Feb 15, the wife and I left church to go to a diner on Dalton Ave. Travel through Pittsfield was awful. But once we got to East Street where the state maintains the road…blacktop!!! We cut over Plastics Avenue to Dalton Avenue. … Sitting at the intersection waiting for the light. Dalton Avenue (left-Pittsfield maintained) was snow covered. Dalton Avenue (right-MA DOT maintained), it was blacktop. It appears that Pittsfield is not using any salt, and the argument that salt does not work below 20F does not take into account sunlight/heat retention on blacktop. Either that, or the state has found some new miracle road salt.
And this is the city that wants to spend on all these new projects, when there is never any money to maintain current buildings.
Sunday headline: Home sales down in Berkshire county. All my updates received on my Zillow notification for Pittsfield are about sales price decreases. I can’t wait for my meeting with the assessor’s office. Got my abatement application in by the deadline. Clerk told me they had a lot of applications, that’s why appointments are pushed out. Our home values are continuing to erode, but our valuation on the tax bills gets an annual cost of living increase. It stops now!!!
The Mayor is currently working on the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It will no doubt exceed $150 Million dollars for the first time in Pittsfield’s history.
What are people getting for all that money? Certainly not decent streets.
The city requires you to clear your walkways and obtain building permits for work you do to maintain your property.
Yet they excuse themselves for clearing roads and making them safe for the public and they excuse themselves for maintaining city owned property.
When will people say enough already?
The city of Pittsfield change their motto to:
Pittsfield, A Very expensive place to live.
The signs coming into Pittsfield should read:
Entering Pittsfield
Enter at your own risk.
Those who’d forseen what was coming have sold out, packed up and got out. Those awakening are in the process of doing so. Many retirees who paid there way and worked hard their whole life are trapped.
Dan,
Is there a way to find out how many properties are currently for sale in the city? I think that would be an interesting figure. A friend of mine is currently trying to sell and was given a very low market appraisal with his realtor saying there are too many houses for sale in the area and driving prices down. Who in their right mind would consider moving to Pittsfield and locking themselves into a 30+ year mortgage? Even if you could buy a home at well below its fair market value, Bianchi is making sure you will pay dearly for your move to the city.
According to Zillow, there are 54 foreclosed homes currently for sale in Pittsfield, and another 356 for sale NOT in foreclosue. Trulia lists 459 Pittsfield homes for sale. Neither of those include “by owner” listings. According to Suburban Stats’ which compiles and reports census data, there are 19,653 “homes” in Pittsfield, but that appears to include apartments…total households then. There are 11,871 “owner occupied homes,” which probably comes closer to quantifying actual housing stock. Census data seems to corroborate.
It seems that the new person in charge of the Highway Dept.has no clue what he is doing. He was hand picked by Bruce Collingwood. Also the same person involved with the water department’s overtime scandal a few years ago that JBlll uncovered. Do we remember when the Water superintendent and the Now new highway superintendent made three time’s their pay for about three years in a row. The water Super is gone, But his partner the NOW New Highway department superintendent. I would suspect that the NEW Highway superintendent and the other foreman’s pay has sky rocketed this year, after Peter Bruno retired.Check the sand pile at the City garage on West Housatonic St. IT”S EMPTY along with the sand piles for home owners also empty. The taxpayers pay for Safe streets and competent people to run winter operations in a professional manner. There have been accidents throughout the city for days now. I see City trucks driving around the city weekends, holidays but the roads are STILL A MESS, NO SAND OR SALT.What Is going on? what are we paying for ride rounds? Are they just spending the taxpayers money for nothing. Where do we get answers from? Does anyone even care anymore? WTF
People need to put their vote where their mouths are. Come November, place your vote…..
That is the key. Turnout must exceed 60%.
Remember what LOw Councilors said during the pay raise session. We need to keep our managers from leaving and compared to other municipality’s, we’re below salaries for our managers.
But isn’t that the way? this isn’t the first bump from our politicians. but it could one of the worst…Icy Roads..no Salt? Blame goes everywhere, from managers to the City Council and up to the Mayor!
The buck stops at the top of the heap. This No Good Mayor can pack his bags….the Voting Booth is going to take care of him…and a few more of his rubber stamps.
We can only hope for good candidates, viable outsiders with no ties to the Special Interest, to seek office.
Re: the above response from Ben Downing’s office:
I received the exact same, verbatim response when I wrote asking him to take action on this same issue. I wrote back saying I was “calling BS” on it. I have heard nothing further despite a couple of additional follow-ups. The simple fact is, someone here is lying. The letter says:
“The recent bill increases are attributable solely to increases in the Basic Service rates, which the DPU has no authority to regulate. Basic Service is the commodity (i.e., generation) portion of a customer’s electric bill. Unlike the distribution portion of the bill, the Department does not set the prices for Basic Service.”
However, the notice we received from the utility itself a couple of months ago, the one which notified us of the impending draconian increase, blamed it COMPLETELY on transmission/ distribution costs…NOT commodity costs. They said, plain and simple, that dur to lack of proper pipelines, transport costs were increasing dramatically.
That is decidedly NOT the commodity costs being passed theough. That is EXTORTION on their part to force us to allow a new pipeline. The state, and Ben Downing’s office by virtue of his committee oversight position, DO have control over that, but now they claim that is not the case. i HAVE the letter. I can prove the lie! Go to the MassRevolt FaceBook page, sign the petition intended for the Attorney General’s office. Write ALL your state and federal legislators, the Governor and the AG too. Take action on this one. This cannot stand!!
Pittsfield politics is very expensive. With all of the many tax hikes in Pittsfield politics, thousands of people have moved away. Pittsfield’s tax base is shrinking, while its spending is increasing. Jimmy Ruberto called all of his spending “Sacrifice”. Dan Bianchi is betting it all on a new Taconic High School. Pittsfield previous and current State Senators want a seat in U.S. Congress, but it never happened. Nuciforo wanted to be a U.S. House of Representative, while Ben Downing wanted to be a U.S. Senator on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Smitty Pignatelli is a career politician serving his 7th term in the State House of Representatives. None of these Good Old Boys have stopped the hike in electricity rates. Nuciforo is the son of a Judge, Downing is the son of a corrupt D.A., and Pignatelli is the son of a County Commissioner. If you are not related to one of these Good Old Boy network families, then you have a better chance of winning the lottery jackpot than finding a full time, living wage job in Pittsfield. As for John Barrett III, he left North Adams financially insolvent. But at least North Adams has Mass MoCA, while Pittsfield has PEDA.
Melissa Mazzeo wants all the sheep to huddle in the back room..before they face the next Council Meeting. But don’t make Mayor no show face the music. The excuses and bull shit are only going to add fuel to the fire storm that is rising from the Pittsfield Taxpayers.
No question, GIRL, that there is a rising discontent as well as a silent anger bordering on rage. The question is: What will be the spark that lights the match?
And by the way…failure to “handle snow” properly has cost many a mayor in NYC, and elsewhere. Their jobs! People remember that for some reason.
Replace Collingwood With Barrett
Sometimes when I watch the city Council meetings it appears that Melissa gets confused when it comes to certain protocol. Our city clerk Linda has the right answers for her. Food for thought maybe our city clerk Linda should run for mayor. I think she would make a fine mayor and she is well-liked.