BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY JULY 6, 2017) — First, THE PLANET appreciates all who took on that most difficult question: Is there still such a thing as “the American Dream.” For the most part, commentators stayed on topic with insight and sense.

FOURTH TRASH — The Fourth came and went with perfect weather and a parade. It’s what happens after the parade that causes one to choke on the oatmeal. In a move that makes little sense, Pittsfield once again removed the trash receptacles along the parade route, relying on people’s sense of civic and personal responsibility. How did that workout?

Of course, that pales with news of the latest 4th shooting and murder. THE PLANET is on it. Our report comes tomorrow.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.

“Responsibility?” In a city that has lost its sense of self? In a city that does everything it can to make life on citizens more difficult (one of our favorites: only two parking spaces available on the west side of North Street between Union and Summer streets; Hotel on North (HON) takes up half a block with reserved parking, and the bumpouts rob the other half of half its spaces). Needless to say, Pittsfield officials don’t actually believe the call for civic pride will actually work. Councilman Pete White said so to a constituent in a text after the person had expressed her concern about the trashing of downtown that followed the parade. The parade left North Street looking like the city dump after a wind storm.

With the help of city sources, THE PLANET added up the cost of “no trash receptacles.”

1. City crews had to pick up and remove about 50 garbage receptacles.
2. The receptacles had to be truck and stored.
3. Following the parade, 20 city workers involving five vehicles worked about about 4 hours at time and a half to clean up after people. Cost to taxpayers for labor: $600 an hour.
4. The 50 receptacles had to be removed from storage and set back up.

The final “bill” for cleanup, absorbed by taxpayers and not the private “not for profit” Parade Committee: Conservativelt put at $5,000. That doesn’t include public safety officials “on call” before, during, and after the event.

THE NO-RENT BOOGIE — THE PLANET recently heard about a case all too typical of the rental scene in Pittsfield. A young woman with two kids and no husband (an abusive, coked-up boyfriend hardly qualifies) has stiffed her landlord for $3,000 in unpaid rent. The landlord, a good one, exhausted all good-will efforts and finally had to go to court. Several appearances led to an order for eviction. The woman ignored the eviction notice. After four days, sheriff’s deputies removed the contents of the apartment. The landlord, not the bum tenant, now has to store the tenant’s goods — at his expense — in a heated, secure, commercial storage facility at $300 a month. The items will sit there for six months unless the owner claims them. If not, the landlord has to auction off the contents.

The infestation of human scum into Pittsfield, propelled principally by the drug trade and overly generous “welfare” benefits (free rent, food, insurance, cell phones, and the like), has overwhelmed the courts, compromised the rental market, drained the public treasury, and inflicted a huge cost in quality of life for the good people of Pittsfield. Authorities stand by helpless as this plague of maggots ruin a once great city.  THE PLANET knows of one landlord with eight rental units. All are “rented” by single moms. They all have boyfriends living with them, illegally. All of them receive Section 8. Not one of them has a job. And yet, when the landlord has to go to court, HE is the bad guy.

Something’s incredibly screwed up about that.

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“Woke up this morning, got yourself a gun.” — Theme from The Sopranos.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The Ususal Disclaimer.