BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURDAY FEB. 16, 2017) — It all ties together. That’s the notion of “interbeing.” It’s looking at a paper bag and seeing the sun that grew trees from which the paper was made. With that in mind, let THE PLANET show how interbeing works in Pittsfield.

The mayor’s office yesterday issued the following notice:

“As a reminder, property owners are required to clear sidewalks of snow and ice 24 hours after a snowstorm. Owners should use ice melt and sand as needed to ensure their sidewalks are maintained in a safe condition.   Code enforcement will be monitoring city streets to ensure clear pathways. Failure to do so may result in violation notices.   To report an obstructed sidewalk or for more information, please call the Health Department at 413-499-9411.”

This type of notice has become routine following a snowstorm, because so many property owners ignore it without consequence. That’s patently unfair to Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, who keep the sidewalks at their modest home clean and safe. Joe goes out there and does the hard work himself. Next year, he will pay to have it done because he’s getting along in years.

In either case, the Kapanskis get punished every time they break their backs or bank accounts to handle snow the deadbeats ignore. THE PLANET encourages everyone to report violations to the Health Department. We also encourage the city to start writing up citations with “demand due” notices.

Which leads to …

Painting of utility boxes. If you’ve been downtown to see the poorly executed art done the last time the city got this silly idea, you know more eyesore is the last thing Pittsfield needs. The utility-box art gave rise to a maladroit incompetence not seen since — oh, since Jason JIV McCandless last put in an honest day’s work at Mercer.

You’ve seen the electrical boxes: a black girl with fried eggs on her eyes, the Popcorn Wagon as a meth addict’s fancy, retarded  black smudges on orange day-glo … you get the idea.

“Art is always welcome in Pittsfield,” said Mayor Linda Tyer.

Art Ditmar? You bet, every time. Unskillful doodling? Not a drop. If the city truly wants creativity, how about painting the parking kiosks … with invisible ink.

Which leads to … The invisibility of mercurial meandering.

Today at 2 p.m., Mayor Tyer will escort Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito on a walking tour of North Street. Michael Knapik, director of the governor’s western mass. office, will tag along. Tyer will take the pair on a whitewashed stroll to the Onota Building, the Beacon Cinema, and Hotel On North. THE PLANET isn’t sure who is supposed to impress whom.

We commend the mayor for avoiding the sidewalks in front of Methuselah Bar & Grill, the side alley between the Central Block (Newberry’s) and Berkshire Bank (England Brothers), and the denizens of Intermodal Plaza. With luck, the three will get through their official destinations without too many shootings, stabbings, overdoses, beatings, pan handlers, drunks, meth addicts, chiselers, or critters babbling about flying pink teapots.

These are politicians. They are made of stern stuff.

Which leads to …

The whitewash perpetrated Monday night in the Herberg Middle School auditorium. The do-gooders were out in force to lecture Pittsfield citizens why it’s a great idea to welcome 50 Syrian refugees to Shire City. As promised, THE PLANET had our spies there, and we’ve been debriefing the intelligence. Our early  take? The meeting showed little difference from the first one held at the library.

Attendees were dealt the same stacked deck. The do-gooders — primarily Diedre Griffen for Jewish Family Services of Western Mass. (JFS) and Maxine Stein, CEO of JFS — told us how “optimistic” they are “that Pittsfield will become a refugee resettlement community.” This despite the fact that, once again, opponents of the move were not permitted to ask questions or actively participate.

Of course Griffen and Stein want to unload human cargo in Pittsfield. It is in their vested interest. But what about city residents and taxpayers?

• Is it in their interest to accept Syrians who won’t go through the legal immigration process?
• Is it in their interests to accept those fleeing a country the United States has put on hold because there is no way to safely vet the incoming?
• Is it in their best interests to have to pay for food, housing, EBT benefits, education, and the like when there is so much need already in a poor city getting poorer by the day? When their taxes are so high?

Griffen did fine hiding her spots until she uttered those words ALWAYS fatal to taxpayers: the resettlement, she said, would be a “public-private partnership.”

You know how that works out, don’t you, Mary Jane and Joe?

Yup. You get effed.

Every single time.

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“Seeing how there’s no other place around the place, I reckon’ this must be the place, I reckon’.” — Jerome “Curly” Howard

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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