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FINALLY, EXCITING NEWS FOR PEDA: ‘THE HOTEL ON THE TOXIC SLOPE (HOTS)’

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BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, JULY 14-16, 2017) — THE PLANET has learned of a private investor, the Galloping Ghost, who has a great idea for the ghost-town PEDA property. He wants to put a ski resort built around Hill 78. That’s the monstrous mountain of the worst industrial toxins imaginable rising from the depths in PEDA’s vicinity.

How high the moon? Slightly higher than Hill 78. We’re not saying it’s tall, but the resort, to be called  Hotel on the Toxic Slope (HOTS), will offer Sherpa guides to those who wish to scale the summit. These will be from the same Sherpas who now guide winter visitors to “bustling” downtown Pittsfield over the slopes left at curbside after the snows of yesterday.

HOTS will offer rooms beginning at $500 a night. This includes hot and cold running water on each floor as well as a complimentary Pop Tart breakfast. Skeptics may claim HOTS won’t outdraw the Hotel on North (HON) foot traffic — mainly gang members, derelicts, and the drug trade — and thus miss out on the gun play there. The Galloping Ghost, however, plans to counteract that by offering an adjacent shooting range. Local public office holders (POH) will serve as targets for live gunfire.

Unlike The Beacon Cinema, Nuclea, Workshop Live, EV Worldwide and otherwise successful  “investments” of taxpayer dollars, HOTS will be built with private money.  The business plan excludes any participation from local officials, guaranteeing its success.  As for zoning regulations and environmental concerns for building on top of a pile of poison (POP), The Ghost cites precedent of grammar school next door to Hill 78. City officials still think that’s a great location for the POP.

HOTS promises to be the most exciting development for PEDA since Corydon Thurston showed up at the office one day to play solitaire for an hour. At PEDA, computer solitaire is considered “aggressive marketing” of the 52 acres,, centrally located, next to a lake, and with rail lines. PEDA has been around since 1998, since that fateful day when Gerry Doyle, Tom Hickey, and a disbarred lawyer named Murray de la Bowery met over the negotiating table with the top corporate lawyers employed by General Electric Company. Pittsfield took GE to the cleaners, hoodwinking GE into leaving the 52 acres full of poisons, still needing remediation by any company stupid enough to build there. Oh, and to add to the highway robbery, the city also made GE throw in $100 for “business development and tax relief.” As Pittsfield pols bragged, “We skinned them alive.”

The Galloping Ghost expects ground-breaking for HOTS to “immediately follow” the approval of a Walmart Superstore at PEDA.  The HOTS site plan includes skiing directly out of your room and into the new Walmart, a feature that shall be billed as “America’s Most Convenient Shopping.” Even the cynics have to admit it’s a step up from the current situation. In case you have forgotten, Pittsfield now has what Forbes magazine dubbed America’s worst Walmart.

THE PLANET contacted HON executives, asking them if they were concerned that HOTS will be taking away business. On the record, they had nothing to say. Off the record, they told us, “Business? What business?” They then confirmed plans to follow The Beacon’s lead, cutting capacity in half and calling it an “expansion.”

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“The quality of mercy is not strained” William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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Pat
Pat
7 years ago

Too funny Dan V. I wonder how well Sherpa guides are paid? With so few jobs in the area Sherpa guides could become a career path.

Shelly Liver
Shelly Liver
7 years ago

That’s almost as funny as the new tax hike.

Pat
Pat
Reply to  Shelly Liver
7 years ago

What tax hike? More tax hikes in Pittsfield? I just heard that the proposed GOP budget has no tax increases.

Two Cents
Two Cents
7 years ago

LMAO…But then I realized that this isn’t satire….It’s truth based in reality and a cruel reminder of how the emperor has no clothes mentality of local talk a lot but do nothing politicians have ruined a once beautiful community for generations to come. As the tee shirt in the old Pipe and Package on North Street once said…”Will the last one out of Pittsfield please turn-off the lights”

Larson E. Hall
Larson E. Hall
Reply to  Two Cents
7 years ago
Larson E. Hall
Larson E. Hall
7 years ago

Maybe Linda and Barry will hike to the summit.

Luce Ball
Luce Ball
7 years ago

Who’s Linda and Barry?

Trumped Up
Trumped Up
7 years ago

I believe she’s the Mayor?

Jonathan Melle
Jonathan Melle
7 years ago

Low-lights!

“[P]overty is on the rise, and many residents are considering leaving the area because it’s too expensive to live in.”

“[E]conomic growth in the four county region has been 3.3 percent since 2010. The U.S. average is 9 percent.”

“The highest amount of population loss in the region was in Berkshire County at 3.6 percent.”

“In some areas, including the cities of Pittsfield and North Adams, as many as one in five residents are living in poverty. The Berkshire County poverty rate is 12 percent, higher than any other areas in the region.”

Source” “Income inequality grows in the Berkshires”, By Tony Dobrowolski, The Berkshire Eagle, July 14, 2017.

P.S. (Sarcasm): Way to go “Good Old Boys”!

Pat
Pat
Reply to  Jonathan Melle
7 years ago

I just read this article in the BB. Shocking that they even printed it as they have refused to acknowledge how bad things are here for so long. It’s a scathing report of how far the Berkshires have gone downhill. The article is much longer than what Jonathan has printed above. The article is called “Income Inequality Grows in the Berkshires”, but that’s just progressive lingo for there aren’t any good paying jobs in this area.

Jonathan Melle
Jonathan Melle
Reply to  Pat
7 years ago

What does it all mean?

If you want to live in Pittsfield/North Adams, you have to be poor or near poverty. You rely on welfare and other social services programs to survive.

Or, you are wealthy, and all the bad news about Berkshire County’s depressed economy does not affect you.

But, if you want a full time, living wage job, you are screwed! You have to move away.

2112
2112
Reply to  Jonathan Melle
7 years ago

Well said, Jonathan.

mi
mi
Reply to  Jonathan Melle
7 years ago

So you are the exception, you moved away and are on a government subsidy, good for you.

Pat
Pat
Reply to  Jonathan Melle
7 years ago

Unless you know someone who knows someone or are related to someone who will give you a job. Nepotism is alive and well here in Berkshire County. In other words, the few well paying jobs that do exist don’t always go to those who need them most.

Spagirl
Spagirl
Reply to  Jonathan Melle
7 years ago

Thats exactly it.

Shakes His Head
Shakes His Head
Reply to  Spagirl
7 years ago

Typical conservative whining – I can’t get a good job because nobody likes me.

H
H
7 years ago

It’s TIME for the GENERAAL!!!’

The school committee
The school committee
7 years ago

If your young you must move away from the Berkshires.We are just 1 big nursing home from Williamstown to Stockbridge and the Red lion Inn is nothing more than an old age home with a great front porch,have you ever seen young people outside in a yard or park in Stockbridge

Wildi in the Street
Wildi in the Street
Reply to  The school committee
7 years ago

Love this site, Planet rocks!

mi
mi
7 years ago

It is TIME!

Pat
Pat
7 years ago

What is going on with all the missing teenage girls in Pittsfield? The latest 15 year old has been missing for 10 days. For the last few months it’s been one missing teenage girl after another. A few have been found, but not all.

Is there something more going on that the public should know about?

Mad Trapper
Mad Trapper
7 years ago

Dan, If they did a REAL cleanup, there was supposed to be 3 mountains of toxic sludge: Mts Doyle, Devillars, and Welch.

We only got one hill 78 and it’s not 1/10th of what GE promised to clean.

PEDA: Pissing Everyones Dollars Away

Mad Trapper
Mad Trapper
7 years ago

I forgot, more toxins in Silver Lake (STILL) than ANY superfund site in the USA. This from someone who worked on the faux “cleanup”

GE put a fabric carpet and some sand on that. Then Pissfield officials put a walkway around it and made it bucolic.

SisterGoldenHair
SisterGoldenHair
7 years ago

Pat,

They are probably runaways – tons of teenage girls runaway all the time.