BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 7, 2015) — If Tyler Street was an early 1960s game show, it would be Password.

Lauren Bacall, left; Alan Ludden, center; Jack Palance, right, on PASSWORD. The password is “Revitalization.”

In Password, the word on the screen would be flashed for “those viewing at home” and the studio audience. It would be hidden from the players. The announcer, Johnny Olson, would whisper, “And the password is ‘REVITALIZATION.’

Yes, the Tyler Street area is next in line. It’s on the city’s “revitalization priority list.”

Lord help us all.

 Suits Tell Citizens What’s Good for Them

Not long ago, what the city calls “stakeholders” began a planning process expected to take up the better part of a year. Stakeholders? We call them The Suits. Who’s paying? You are via MassDevelopment, one of those dreaded “quasi-public” agencies.

The meeting included the mayor, the city planner,  Anne Hayes of MassDevelopment, and Diane Marcella, head of the Tyler Street Business Group, who, according to the press accounts, “could barely contain her enthusiasm for the resources being directed at her neighborhood instead of just North Street.”

How Do You Know It’s Halloween?

One of the developments mentioned was Tyler Street as the new location for the Halloween Parade. The only problem is, how can one tell if its Halloween? A walk down Tyler during the day reveals sidewalks empty except for spillovers from the walking dead one finds downtown most afternoons. By night, the “creepy crawlies” come out. In the past two months, Tyler Street has seen numerous break-ins, shootings, a murder, and two mysterious deaths.

During the meeting, no one mentioned Toxic Hills. No, it isn’t a new condo development. Rather, the hills are five large mounds of dirt-like material hiding in plain site off the Tyler Street extension by Woodlawn Avenue, opposite where GE’s iconic Building 42 used to stand. The mounds are covered by plastic tarps. So what’s the big deal?

Could it be industrial toxins?

According to residents in the area, work had begun this summer to remove the mounds, but it came to a halt when workers began getting sick. According to a sources, the workers were not wearing hazmat suits or any other protective gear, just typical work clothes.

Shortly after digging into the material, workers took ill. With what remains unclear.  A Berkshire Medical Center source told THE PLANET it was “a rash-like” illness, with shortness of breath. It appears that after workers “stirred up” the material, it unleashed something that didn’t agree with human health.

Those mounds have been there for years, residents say. What’s in that dirt? How toxic is it? Is it an airborne pollutant? Why hasn’t the public been notified? Is there a health hazard?

The City’s Dirtiest Secret

Before THE PLANET left the area, we looked over the remains of Building 42’s massive foundation. In the distance, Silver Lake reflected jewels of sunlight. The Golden Dome of PHS gleamed. Green treetops dotted the vista, hiding roadways, traffic, and the boulevard. It looked like a paradisal site for a new company.

Then reality hit. What company wants to build atop un-remediated soil?  Three mayors (Hathaway, Ruberto, and Bianchi) have had to play the dead hand left to them by the inadequate terms of the GE Consent Decree, which left the city with polluted land and GE getting off with pennies on the dollar.

“Revitalization” as PR, propaganda, and a political ploy works great, as we have seen in the downtown. However, with each passing day, week, month, and year of inactivity at the PEDA site, it appears the city’s dirtiest secret lies there, summed up by the haunting question: What’s in the ground?

Is that a fair campaign question?

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“Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself.” — St. Francis de Sales, Golden Counsels, (1610).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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