BY DAN VALENTI

Cultural Plan is an acronym for Money Funnel. As in, “our Cultural Plan will funnel taxpayer dollars to special interest venues few if any of which will benefit the residents paying for it out of their hard earned dollars. Dollars that will be taken away from those needed to support themselves and their families.

Pittsfield could slash its tax rate by 50 percent if it cut unnecessary spending. But property taxes have become a slush fund for city bigwigs who love to party on others peoples money.

The hypocrisy of the Democrats never fails to amaze. As they obsess over the flying of the LGBT flag and equity and diversity, they never mention the antisemitism that has overtaken their party. That a New York mayoral candidate is in favor of the intifada. The Democrats are all supporting Mamdani. His supporters are products of the school system that has pushed communism and antisemitism. The danger of this bigotry by the left in this country and across the world is never addressed because they want everyone to believe they are so fair and care so much about human rights. This is why they continually try to reinforce this to the public with the LGBT flag flying and diversity and equity. They are hoping their supporters ignore their dark side of intolerance.

Mayor Lumpy, CC prez Wimpy White, and the rest of the Bitchfield GOBSIG’s better start focusing on real issues that people are complaining about or lose funding.

President Trump is signing an EO ordering cities to use federal funds for rehab and treatment centers and remove them from the streets or lose federal funding. No more using federal funds for “affordable housing,” which is nothing more than the latest democRAT money grift.

Tossing endless amounts of money at a problem with no solution to the problem, doesn’t solve the problem. It only fattens the wallets of those involved.

https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1948459263564656756

I did find that Berkshires Tomorrow, is just the Berkshire Regional Planning Commision (BRPC) renamed.

https://berkshireplanning.org/about/berkshires-tomorrow/

If your life depended on selling a product or you would die, but the catch is, the BBEC, Downtown Inc, and Berkshires Tomorrow, are the group in charge of pitching and selling that product. How much faith would you have that your life would continue on with this stellar group of “business leaders?”

No, me either.

July 25, 2025

Hello blogger Dan Valenti,

High rents constrain the working-class residents’ limited budgets in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

One of the reasons why rents are so high in Pittsfield in relation to the working-class’ incomes is because:

Pittsfield’s city budget spends over $62 million per fiscal year more than its similar sized small city counterpart Westfield’s city budget.

Who does the op-ed writer thinks the landlords in Pittsfield turn to when they have to pay the city government’s excessively high local taxes and fees?

Answer: The working-class renters in Pittsfield.

Then there are the small businesses who have to pay for Pittsfield’s endless spending sprees when they pay their local taxes and fees.

Who does the op-ed writer thinks the small business owners in Pittsfield turn to when they have to pay the city government’s high taxes and fees?

Answer: The diminished customers who shop in downtown Pittsfield’s stores, and dine at the restaurants.

The answers to downtown Pittsfield’s woes are obvious:

1. Put a roof over the homeless residents’ heads.

2. Provide targeted assistance to help the Underclass residents get out of poverty.

3. Cut the city’s spending to close to that of Westfield’s spending levels.

4. STOP Mayor Peter Marchett’s “War against the Underclass” residents who panhandle and/or are homeless once and for all.

5. Build affordable housing in Pittsfield, and invest in transportation focused on the working-class residents so that they are able to get to and from their places of employment.

Best wishes,

Jon Melle

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“Pittsfield needs to look beyond camping ordinance to bring North Street back to life”
By Mitchell Chapman, Op-Ed, The Berkshire Eagle, July 25, 2025

PITTSFIELD — What will it take to revitalize North Street?

That question has been top of mind amid the debate over a proposed ordinance that would ban people from sleeping on public property. It comes at the behest of store owners, who claim that visible homelessness is hurting their businesses and has left Pittsfield lagging behind other cities and towns in the region.

“We just want to be a player,” Evan Valenti of Steven Valenti’s Clothing for Men said.

However, banning people from sleeping on North Street won’t reignite it. That’s because such an ordinance won’t fix the limitations of North Street. People need a reason to visit downtown; this doesn’t give them one.

An engine for downtown
Why should people come to North Street? That’s the most important question the city needs to answer.

Right now, restaurants and mostly niche small businesses that struggle to attract casual shoppers line North Street. But it wasn’t always that way.

North Street once was a center of commerce decades ago, when legendary establishments like England Bros. anchored it. But it failed to adapt to changing times, particularly the city’s big box boom, which, since the 1980s, drove shoppers away from the region’s Main Streets and into strip malls.

It’s too late to put the genie back in the lamp for big retail. But like other large cities in the region, Pittsfield can work with it. That means accommodating both niche shops and larger businesses, like department stores, downtown — some of which might be chains, though the street’s growth is limited by the amount and size of the empty storefronts available on and near it.

Local businesses might bristle at this concept. But national retailers are proven drivers of traffic, which the street needs, and small businesses are already competing with them. Regardless, North Street needs an engine to stimulate economic activity.

Shaping growth
Next, North Street needs to shape its growth. This is where city design comes in. Once people are downtown, they need to stay there.

In order to facilitate that, North Street needs to be safe, comfortable and interesting — three tenets that are hallmarks of great downtowns.

North Street is undergoing a redesign in which it’s trying to get the right balance of pedestrian, bicycle and car traffic, which is important for its safety. But it also has to be a pleasant place with plenty of amenities like public bathrooms and benches. The city has made progress with the former this month, but its number of benches are still few and far in between, with several blocks lacking any.

Reducing the amount of concrete along the street and adding plants and greenspaces could make the street more welcoming. Adding trees can cool it down by mitigating heat islands. Maintaining the city’s long-neglected brick facade crosswalks and overall aesthetics is important, too — North Street should be not only functional but beautiful.

Good design and proper signage can ensure that parking is plentiful, simple to locate and a driver of foot traffic downtown. People should be incentivized to leave their cars behind and enjoy themselves.

Housing
Housing is a key ingredient to not only North Street but the city’s success. Pittsfield needs people to be able to live and work here — as well as have sufficient disposable income.

According to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 55 percent of Pittsfield renters are cost-burdened (paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing), compared to 31 percent of homeowners. That’s a significant population downtown can only tap into sparingly. High rents also correlate with a recent increase in homelessness in the city.

Pittsfield will add more than 100 new units by December, some of which will be along North Street. However, the city needs 2,035 new units over a decade to ease its housing crisis. Addressing that demand is a necessary step to bring the street back to life.

What can the city do?
All of that is easier said than done, but there are doable steps the city can take to make it a reality.

First, it can supercharge its economic development Red Carpet Team by increasing its membership, resources and mission. The team can serve as a critical link to connect owners of empty storefronts downtown with prospective businesses of all sizes. It can also provide concrete action items for City Hall by identifying further incentives it can offer to lure businesses to the city, local barriers to doing business (like restrictive zoning and inefficient permitting) and areas where other metro areas in the region are outcompeting Pittsfield.

Zoning reform can clear the way for duplexes and other types of housing. The city also can explore ways to bridge housing prices for existing units, like offering incentives to landlords who rent affordably through its affordable housing trust.

Banning people from sleeping on public property will only get North Street so far. Pittsfield needs to pour its energy into bringing people to North Street — not pushing them away.

Mitchell Chapman is The Eagle’s night news editor.

Only in the City of Bitchfield. A dog owner gets shot because his dog pees on a lawn. Yet the City Administration allows houseless folks to pee and poop in the doorways and sidewalks of businesses on North Street. The panhandlers can just stand on the median strips and just relieve themselves, in their pants like the woman on East and First Street. She can even puff on a cigarette while soiling herself. Where does she get the money for the cigs?