TOO MUCH TO ASK: A PARKING PLAN THAT WORKS
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 28, 2017) — Last Christmas season, as you may recall, the city of Pittsfield draped each new parking kiosk with a red or green plastic hood. The city pretended that Santa Claus visited, but we all know there isn’t a Santa. There isn’t even an Edmund Gwynn any longer, or Fred Gwynn for that matter. In fact, the kiosks, scheduled to be working in November, experienced “technical difficulties” that prevented their implementation. Already Tyer-ed of a series of embarrassments-disguised as triumphs involving public safety, public schools, and other areas of common market, Pittsfield put forth the fiction of an early Christmas gift of “free parking.” The sumbitches didn’t dare mention that the half-million-dollar meters went bust.
As we all knew, it didn’t take bringing back that bald retread of Deanna Ruffer to enjoy the experience of no-hassle parking for a month [ED. NOTE: Of course, when the touchy kiosks got well, the snows came. The cold played havoc with the software, and even many of the meters that were working couldn’t be accessed by bedraggled motorists because of the snow banks. Of course, that didn’t stop the city from greedily issuing tickets]. From this Keystone Kops disaster, however, the germ of an idea emerged. Try this one on for size:
- How about making free Christmas parking a permanent fixture?
Better yet, allow THE PLANET to share a tremendous idea that came after talking with one of downtown most conscientious (and successful) businessman:
- How about charging for parking only during the so-called “tourist” season? From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the blasted parking machines would be fed. The rest of the year, the parking would be free.
THE PLANET has long recommended the one thing Pittsfield has in recent memory never tried: free parking all year for everyone. It’s an experiment worth trying, betting on the increase in downtown business more than offsetting the lost revenue from the metering. As it is, the kerplunk kiosks will cost taxpayers at least $30,000 a year in loss, once the final totals crash land in the finance director’s office at city hall. That’s assuming the recurring software glitches do not appear with greater frequency, a “taken for granted” THE PLANET isn’t willing to accept. For some excuse never sufficiently backed by reason or logic, Pittsfield has resisted this Edison-like move. It likely will never come around to the sanity of making the experience of traveling downtown as least excruciating as possible.
We get that. Kinda. The second option above would seem a fair compromise. It would be easy to measure the economic impact of free parking from the nearly nine months from Memorial to Labor days, especially compared to the previous money-losing years. Implementing the move would require intelligence and a dash of boldness. THE PLANET realizes that may be asking too much from The H.M.S. Good Ship Lollipop, but we are romantic fools. We would rather call upon reverie from the gods rather than accept the status queer. Perhaps The Lovely Linda would agree?
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“Simplicity, it’s fine with me. My friends they do agree. … I saw you. You saw me, looking back at you” — Mick Valenti
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
The Usual Disclaimer.
The best one was the Wahconah side of B M C last winter watching, the old lady try to jump over the snow bank to use the Kiosk. She ended up walking back up Wahconah and around, back to the Kiosk on the other side of the snow bank.
Isn’t the city responsible for shoveling out the meter shacks (Kiosk)? If not how can they ticket you?
The old lady would have a good lawsuit against the suits in city hall.
Where was the Health Department during the snowstorm where the snow was piled up in front of the kiosks on Wahconah? Last year.
Will be interesting to see if the Kiosks, contributed to the Lantern Restaurant closing its doors.
Great question, RK. If the answer is yes, it will not surprise us.
The Lantern closed because the fire inspector went in there and found fault with the place. In order to comply with his demands the owner would have to spend 80k on upgrades. Being near retirement the owner said screw it. I’ll just close. Long live Pittsfield.
Your right MPGA but why did you have to ruin it for these two. Everybody hopes the kiosks and parking system fails and is the cause of more and more businesses to leave.
maybe the lantern should of changed its name to east side and all their faults might be overlooked by such inspectors,,,
Ron, Pap has been thinking of doing this for years, business has always been good. He’s in his mid sixties.
I’m gonna miss the smell.
Is it ttue that the main reason they want to fix up Tyler street is so they can line it with parking meters and collect a bonanza in fines? Is it?
And by the way Tyler street is an awesome place for a bicycle lane, what with all the traffic coming out of the side streets in a hurry. It is great if you own an ambulance company that is for sure.
It is the truth Dusty, that’s the main reason.
thanks i knew I could count on you for good info
I’ve seen at least five bicycles going the wrong way on the bike lanes?
You RACIST!!!
Those are just “directionally confused” minorities who have been discriminated against since the advent of traffic rules and laws. Nearly a century now.
Who are you to say what is right, or left?! And those poor souls that drive right down the middle? Their “rights”?
or they be from London where there is not one person in the whole country who knows enough to drive on the right side of the rode. after all these years they still have not figgered it out….must be Trump supporters
Hi Dan.
Here is a story that never generated any traction in the MSM; D- MO State Senator endorses assassination of our President.
Missouri Democratic State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal called for the assassination President Donald Trump last week in a Facebook post that stated: “I hope Trump is assassinated!” during an exchange with a left-wing activist who claimed a family relative was a Secret Service agent.
No outrage at this at all?
Trapped, do you think that she is the only one wishing for his demise?
There are no rules for the Dems. The media allows them to do and say pretty much anything.
Wish whatever you will. I wish the Hildebeast went to…..
This “woman” took several oaths, to uphold the constitution was one.
Sedition/treason, is a crime. Look it up.
BTW, think we’d be better off now with the Clinton Criminal Network back infesting the White House?
I mean they sold all our uranium to Russia, made the deal with the Koreans that got us where we are now with Nut Job having Nukes (thanks Willie boy) , and for that matter the China trade deals too. That carpetbagger witch spent over a month in China first weeks as Sec. of Treason under Obama.
I think you should look up the Federal laws. You are an idiot.
The only Pittsfield Employee with any balls is Randy Stein.
i believe in the candidate when I vote. I don’t vote Republican or Democrat, but there is not much to choose from lately, so I go..l…N O T A.
Can we agree on Re-Elect Nobody 2018?
Want happened to that blond chick that used to have the hots for you Mad? She lived off Churchill,hotsy totsy.
????
You are confused.
But send any Blond hotsy totsys my way.
; )
Write in none of the above for school committee and ward 6 city council because the ballot will feature baboons
Write me in.
I’m not votin.
Vote for me
Where can I get my NONE OF THE ABOVE baseball cap?
https://www.google.com/search?q=none+of+the+above+baseball+caps&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS729US730&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYu5LhkPvVAhXMLMAKHZZkAiYQ_AUICygC&biw=1242&bih=602&dpr=1.1
Elegant stitches first street makes everything
Curious to see who wins in ward races.
Ward 1’s up for grabs, most likely Moon. Incumbents are all locks in the six other wards. Persip wins the vacant at large seat and there are six folks running for school committee for six seats. No need to be curious any more. Now you know.
Moon already has lawn signs up so it’s obvious she has the $$. And the $$ almost always win.
The latest news in Pittsfield politics:
* The BMC nurses are not successfully negotiating with their well paid administrators; there is talk of a strike; there are comparisons between Pittsfield and North Adams’ hospitals
* Tyler Street is being revitalized after millions of dollars were spent on revitalizing North Street; Tyler Street is Pittsfield’s poorest neighborhood
* No one from Ward 6 is challenging incumbent city councilor John Krol; The School Committee is also uncontested; Linda Tyer will have to propose a new municipal budget next year with the city at its levy ceiling under Proposition 2.5; will there be more “free cash” next fiscal year?
* The Lantern restaurant on North Street is closing; it was an institution for many generations; the owner is retiring
* Downtown parking is a mess and operating at loss of tens of thousands of dollars
* PEDA is a joke at 19 years old; but, there is always next year for a Super WalMart store
* The cable company won’t play Patriots games in Berkshire County because they favor New York
* Jack Welch takes morning swims in Silver Lake, then he eats an early lunch at Teo’s hot dogs, then he sells PEDA to Fortune 500 companies, then he fishes in the Housatonic River at cooks his fresh catch dinner at Woods Hole in Lenox, then he retires for the evening in his apartment on the corner of North Street and Tyler Street
The apartment burned down years ago, Jack has since moved to Dower Square. Where the action is.
Consider, the cost of the kiosks, the 30k per year to maintain them, the cost to the city every month for the phone app, the cost of the cars that the parking monitors drive, how many people in the parking department? What is their total cost per year…including insurance, what the city kicks on for their retirement etc…..if you consider all of these costs are we really making anything? Or does this parking program break even or loose money?
and if the whole boondoggle kiosk program fails miserably there is no resale second hand value to these things. Take them to a museum or a dump…which ever is closer and if they go to the museum make sure there is a smiling picture of the mayor shaking hands with the consultant hanging overhead
The Pitt could convert the Meter Shacks to more low income housing.
Didn’t Donna Shivers have a show about 30 times reruns about how great the Kiosks were. The Generals daughter was on the show along with Frank and Turocy telling us how great they were.
It is ridiculous to think Pittsfield will support parking kiosks, when it cannot even sustain itself. Pittsfield is social services laden city. Majority of population is elderly. Then we have moochers and drug addicts. A percentage is upstanding, reliable, working citizens.
the good news is that somebody made a ton of money on these things and who knows maybe there was a kickback or two floating in the air.
I am kidding
No I am not
Follow the money. That key assumption has long been a staple in the investigative journalist’s toolbox and always has been a reliable assumption when trying to understand local policy, particularly of the questionable kind.
Yeah, all employed by the City.
While in my truck driving I tuned in for wtbr and could have sworn Stoogeon was saying something about the homo’s behind Wahconah Park? What the hell is that?
Anyone see the story where whored out Evangelist millionaire,Joel , wouldn’t let the environmental refugeses inTexas, into his mega Center,(believe it holds thousands) the reason,he didn’t want it dirtied up.
Selective outrage. Why didn’t the Houston MLB team open their stadium?
Once again a case of a social media troll making up a news story. He claimed the church posted it would not open to those displaced by the storm, which was inaccurate. Then he showed video he did of the outside of the building, showing no flooding in the parking lot.
The church posted that they had flooding inside the building, which they proved with video and pictures, but would open the second floor if the public shelters became full.
Thanks BULL for clarifying the story. The misinformation on social media that then crosses over into the so-called Mainstream Media has become prolific, like those blasted garden weeds that won’t quit.
Because they’re good this year.
Joel Osteen.
Jimmy Swaggart would have let them in.
Guess Trump is waiting until Jung does some destruction.
You make me feel so Jung.
You make me feel as though spring has sprung.
And every time I see you grin,
I’m such a happy individual.
The moment that you speak,
I want to go and play hide and seek.
I wanna go and bounce the moon,
Just like a toy balloon.
You and I
Are just like a couple of tots,
Running across a meadow
Pickin’ up lots of forget-me-nots.
You make me feel so Jung.
You make me feel there are songs to be sung,
Bells to be rung,
And a wonderful fling to be flung.
Ironic how one of the driest states in the union is under a sea of water.
The President is out golfing and is said to be being BriefEd on the goings on in the Southwest, while people are dying. Fly out there you bozo. America First.
Stop the lies. Trump has been planning this trip for days. He is in Austin, Texas today which is as close as his security team will allow. Progressives need to stop spreading lies during national disasters. Why are they constantly trying to score political points and using disasters to do it?
“Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job”
America is not Great when Jung lobs Missile after Missile against President Trumps orders! He’s no better than Obama with Russia.
Obama also provided all the money for North Korea to be able to afford all these weapons.
I hear Obama was flying over Houston in a blimp dropping buckets of water on the people trying to get out of the nursing homes. What a meany he is.
That wasn’t a blimp it was Rosie O’Donnell.
Why would any sovereign nation care what soon to be ex president orange moonbat has to say about anything?
Best night of the week for PCTV 16. It’s political night starting at 5:00 pm .
thanks Jay!
I think PVTV is in the mix tonight.
Always!
Do to severe Deocratic pressure,Joel Osteen has opened the doors to his Church. Severe pressure.
The mayor is excited about sending our chestnuts seeds to other parts of the country and restoring the pond at Springside park, for catching tadpoles. It will need money for a damn reconstruction, no pun intended, i assume. But the wading pool will not be coming back. As my parents recall, the pond was swampy and smelled back in the day! It had huge sewing needles which used to traverse the stinky pond, which dried up over the years, as they recall, it was a creepy water whole.
They might want to reconsider reconstruction or restoration, as I recall, the pond was a mosquito breeding nightmare.
Maybe we could start a mosquito breeding laboratory there to study the West Nile virus. Give it some of that GE in lieu of taxes money and get this economic engine off the ground. What are we waiting for? Is the Nuclea guy around to sell this thing to the politico?
Moon and the woman running in ward 2, who are good friends, were hand picked by Tyer. She is trying to stack the city council in her favor for voting on her issues.
does she need to stack the council? Is she having trouble getting every little thing she wants? Seems like more than a couple of ass kissers lurking on the council.
Is Krol mayor yet? Is he going to wait till this mayors term is over? He is drooling for the corner office
I was watching the Tyler Street hip happening tour of the gelato, and tatoo parlor,that was filled with dignitaries from the city with the Mayor. Didn’t see the Ward Councilor Morandi?