BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 2015) — Picking up on yesterday’s topic of “revitalization,” mayoral candidate Linda Tyer held a moveable campaign event Tuesday. Cue Sammy Vincent and the orchestra: “A little traveling music, Sam!”

The Lovely Linda, the press release goes, “began a walk of Pittsfield’s downtown. … The walk is part of Tyer’s overall approach to leading the city — through listening, collaborating, and formulating action steps to make improvements.” What this means, exactly, and how it differs from mayor Dan Bianchi the release didn’t make clear.

Three Classes, And Guess Which One Is Forgotten?

It’s good to make like the Shelleys taking a walking tour of the lake district, but how does a downtown photo op convince the undecideds that Tyer understands and will address the hurt of  increasingly desperate citizens who have been pummeled by the lack of a functioning local economy and the rising cost of living in Pittsfield? That, too, the release didn’t make clear.

The neutral observer wonders less than a month from election day if Tyer is saving her best for last, because her performance thus far resembles nothing more than Peter Marchetti’s failed bid in 2011. Marchetti failed to engage Bianchi, hard, on the issues that are important NOT for The Suits, for whom Peter toiled, but average citizens struggling to make ends meet.

There are three classes of people in Pittsfield: The Haves, The Have Nots, and The Want Nots. The Haves make the money. They earn high-five and low-six figures working for the city, for “non-profits,” of for one of those “economic development” groups that create a fat one for the executive director, a snow job, and a con job. The Have Nots work two and three jobs in a tourist economy built on grant money, the arts, and public support of private industry. The Want Nots are the moochers who have moved into Pittsfield by the thousands. These bottom feeders have learned to scam the system for “free” benefits paid for by taxpayers. Welcome, drug dealers, gangs, welfare cheats, methadone surfers, and anyone else wanting a hand out rather than a hand up.

Walk This Way

“Inside” candidates take care of the Haves, support the Want Nots with politically correct social programs paid for with public money, and ignore the Have Nots.

And that’s what was off key about Tyer’s downtown walk, which began at the Colonial Theater.

“Starting our downtown walk in front of the Colonial Theater has significance for me,” Tyer said. “It’s a homecoming because this is where the downtown renaissance began.”

She actually used the word “renaissance.” Twice. Take it from THE PLANET.  We have yet to see Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael hanging out at the intermodal. Her use of the tired word “renaissance” to describe downtown perfectly captures her performance so far in Campaign ’15. She writes and talks in boilerplate, missing the opportunity staring her in the face to articulate a substantive difference between what she offers compared to the mayor. She has yet to do that. If she continues playing it safe but mentioning distinctions without differences, she will lose.

The Tyer press release states, “Art and culture have become mainstays in the City of Pittsfield connecting residents and visitors to attributes most commonly associated with ‘The Berkshires.’”

Visitors? Granted. Residents? Which ones except The Haves. The Have Nots can’t afford it. The Want Nots aren’t interested.

It’s still early enough in the campaign for Tyer (or Bianchi, for that matter) to say something to and for the bedraggled Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski. That being said, it’s late enough so that with each passing day it doesn’t happen, The Little Guys are getting that sinking feeling of deja vu all over again.

Unless Tyer starts catching fire by throwing some, it will be 2011 once more, with Tyer in the role of Peter Marchetti.

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“In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people — the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen.” — George Owell, opening line, “Shooting an Elephant,” (1950).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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