ON NUGGETS SPREAD ACROSS THE ROLLING LAWNS OF THE PUBLIC’S LOWER 40
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION DEC. 8-10, 2023) — Amidst the recalcitrance of trying times, we find nuggets spread across the rolling lawns of the public’s Lower 40.
Hence:
O Christmas Tree: THE PLANET, for one, likes the city’s permanent Christmas Tree planted in Park Square we hope for generations to come. Planting a tree means saving other mighty evergreens, allowing a literal measure of growth, and connecting today to what we hope will be many tomorrows.
Taster’s Choice: Mayor-elect Peter Marchetti scored with his announcements of corner-office staff. Catherine Van Bramer continues as director of Administrative Services. Brittany Walsh crosses Allen Street from the police department to become Marchetti’s second assistant. These are solid appointments. We’ve worked with both women, finding them cooperative, astute, and professional.
Pull Pin, Throw: Even with a compliant (complacent?) city council, Marchetti must deal with large systemic problems that continue to plague Picklefield. These include crime, the influx of undesirables, shrinking tax base, rising costs, and much more. THE PLANET‘s advice to our Right Honorable Good Friend: Make sure you toss the pineapple after you’ve pulled the pin.
Ya Never Know: Citizens have never seen Marchetti function in an executive capacity. Who knows? Maybe he stands The Peter Principle on its head and become the city’s best mayor since, since … who? … Chas. Hubbard? Jabez Peck? Walter Foxcroft Hawkins? Best mayor in our lifetime? Don Butler.
One Lump or Two?: The sudden rush by The Suits to throw $40 million into Wahconah Park, after years of crushing legit attempts to revitalize the ballpark (see “Bouton Plan”), has the redolence of a closed fish market. Street talk says the $$$ spent on this one will be rewards for (a) loyal service by the unions and (b) election payola. THE PLANET will be shocked, shocked, if the dough includes kickbacks — you know, going away presents — neatly hidden in the paperwork.
Where’s the Mirth?: Thistle and Mirth, on its last gasp after a recent stabbing, wrote this on social media: “As many of you know we had a violent incident invade our space on November 23, and we made the decision to close our doors due to the rise in criminal activity in Pittsfield nightlife.” The joint, in a haunted space on downtown West Street, is looking for donations so it can reopen. It can serve pizza, banjos, and hop scotch, but what makes it think crime’s going away? THE PLANET wishes them well.
Jumping’ For Joy: That’s what Picklefield Sochol dim-bulb Jumpin’ Joe Curtis is doing this Christmas season. The fools on the school committee, led by Sara “Miss Jane” Hathaway, gave JJ a new three-year deal at $185,220, plus perks and bennies. Behavior is out of control, costs skyrocketing, performance stinks, yet Miss Jane went on record saying Jumping’ Joe “deserves a higher salary.” Yea, and plump Miss Jane deserves a case of Twinkies and a romp in the hay with Dash Riprock.
Nothing There, Folks: New York AG Letitia James, a noted Donald Trump hater, got smacked down Thursday in Trump’s fraud trial. James claims Trump overvalued holdings to gain favorable loan terms. Those complaints lack merit, so testified NYU’s Prof. Eli Bartov, an accounting expert.
“My main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever for any accounting fraud,” Bartov said. “My analysis shows the statements of financial condition for all the years were not materially misstated.” Bartov’s testimony bolstered the defense’s contention that non-audited financial statements like Trump’s are unreliable. “You cannot use the raw numbers in the statements as the basis for making decisions,” Bartov said. “If you do that, you are likely to reach the wrong decision. … There is not a single reference to a specific provision of GAAP that was violated,” Bartov said, referring to accepted accounting principles. “If you allege there was an accounting violation, they have to tell us what provision was violated.”
Sad to see bad politics turned a courtroom into a Star Chamber. Prediction: A rigged court will ignore evidence and deliver a politicized verdict.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
———————————————————————
“Who ripped the blindfold off of Lady Justice? Give ya 10 guesses” — Sir Donald Turpentine, Knight of the Bath.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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When comparing cities and towns near us I was looking at the tax rates. You will never guess whose tax rates are very similar to Picklefields? I will give you some hints, This place has high crime, high houselessness, poor schools and a bum begging on every corner…any clue? Why of course it’s Holyoke. So if you want to see the direction Pittsfield is heading just look at Holyoke. If you look at the places that are thriving their taxes are always lower and the leaders are really leaders not someone in another ones pocket
The New York AG has already found Trump guilty of misstating property values. Guilty because of the difference in property value declared for taxes vs. collateral for loans. The current trial is just to determine how much the NY Trump organization will pay In penalties and compensation.
I thought juries determined guilt. AG’s as a general fact consider everybody to be waiting their turn to be found guilty.
It was jury-determined.
Bureaucrat determined, according to TSC
It’s a bench trial
Trump chose to wave the jury for a judge.Its legal term is fraud.Trump is guilty of fraud.
So profound.
The NY AG has a lot in common with AG Spitzer, shakedown artist extraordinaire.
The Attorneys General of New York has not shake down anyone.Trump is trying this on FOX viewer media
“The New York AG has already found Trump guilty of misstating property values…..”
That’s the new normal of the justice system in the Leftist way of thinking, guilty until proven innocent.
The corrupt NY AG said she was going to put POTUS Trump in jail before she was elected.
Too bad for leftists the evidence pop’s their balloon.
Ain’t so. Trump was found guilty by jury trial. They valued properties high for purposes of loan collateral, and low for purposes of taxation. That’s what FOX doesn’t tell you.
K
If every businessman and developer were to be persecuted for inflating the value of assets, there would be no development or business left to be conducted. The NYU professor’s judgment is the definitive word in Trump’s case.
Further, it makes an opinion illegal. Trying people for opinions and even having dirty thoughts forms a tyranny of bureaucrats.
Remove your head from the FOX silo for a moment and sample other offerings.
K: I find your insinuation that I let the Press and Media do my thinking offensive.
Forgive him as he’s a left wing lunatic
I don’t think he’s a LW lunatic. He speaks well for his part.
They don’t do your thinking but apparently they affect your thinking.
That is likewise insulting.
You are what you eat.
I have a big appetite and have devoured a lot.
When will you folks realize it is not the overvaluing that is the issue? It is the _difference_ in valuation for the _same_ property for taxation vs. determining loan collateral. That act is patently illegal.
That’s why I say you are influenced by FOX, because you, and Dan, and others, parrot the FOX overvaluation schpiel.
That’s ridiculous. Inflating property values is not the issue. The issue is undervaluing property values for the sake of taxation. That’s how they get RICO violators, that’s how they’ll get Hunter Biden, and that’s how they’ll get the NY Trump organization.
Ok, I then I can forgive your error.
If Marchetti’s bank was handling the loan he’d have one of his bitches check it out.
Yes, because the crimes were so obvious.
Since when does an AG determine guilt? I thought you claim to be educated?
Indeed. According to any AG in Amerika, everyone is guilty. Show me the man, I’ll make up a crime.
The truth coming out about the Trump indictments won’t stop the George Soros prosecutor from going after Trump. They all have a new favorite word “Dictator” to describe Trump ignoring their own authoritarian rule over the people. They are trying to get rid of using any type of gas in Massachusetts for heating cooking, etc. and want to use drying electricity to heat your homes. Very expensive also and they have no answer as to how low income and middle class will afford it, but their agenda must move forward even with people freezing in their homes.
For thee and not me Governor Whitless of Michigan put out a video over Thanksgiving cooking on a $10 G’s gas stove. Another azz clown leftist banning the use of gas for cooking and heating.
They have no idea how to produce the electricity. Solar panels are as efficient as unicorn flatulence
Maybe 30% efficient, an environmentally filthy as hell to manufacture, which is why all that glass is made on China not in USA.
10 years from now, there shall be an environmental crisis due to need to retire the panels that have a productive life of 25 years max.
Those panels are big business.
Since nobody mentioned it on The Planet yesterday, myself included, let’s remember the servicemen who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor 12/7/1941.
Another anniversary in our nations history is approaching the Dec 16th, The Boston Tea Party.
With the current rapid demise of the state of mASSachsetts and our nation into a 3rd world latrine, it might be time to revive The Sons of Liberty for Tea Party II.
Our current government no longer represents American citizens and acts as a despotic ruling class rather than serving in America’s best interests.
Sons of Liberty. Join the Project Appleseed. Make a difference.
Speaking of Pearl Harbor, I wish we had not helped kill all those people in Gaza. Cuz my guess is that Hamas and all the other mid east terrorist groups have got their maps out of all vulnerable places in America right now.
Now you can snicker and give me thumbs down if it makes you feel any better. But you had better get prepared cuz they are not going to let that go. They just aren’t.
How many of the 10+ MILLION CRIMINAL ALIENS Biden et al have let invade our country are terrorists? 12,000/day are coming in each and every day NOW!
That SOB and his Leftist handlers are treating these criminals better than Americans.
This is an invasion and I’d be happy with our military enforcing the border. Round them up and ship them home by rail or by boat.
TRAPPER
Even if only one/one hundredth of one percent are terrorists, that’s 12 a day and 5,880 a year. If it’s one-thousandth of one percent, that 588 a year or, for Biden’s term, 2,132 terrorists.
The number one threat to American residents is their domestic neighbor terrorist as proved on 1/6/2021 Dan.You are aware of this as a journalist .Don’t revise the facts as we lose our country to fascist because you deny the truth of Trump Bannon and the Heritage foundation.
So sad with how out of touch you are that you really believe Republicans are out to get Americans. Where are you getting this garbage? Tik-Tok and the far left media channels which sadly are the majority of the major media stations in this country. Except for Newsmax, the Blaze, and Fox which are the only news outlets telling the truth.
Chappy, loves PMSNBC
Misogynist.
That’s Mr..Sogynist to you Ms. lunatic.
Well, Pat, you believe Democrats are out to get Americans, don’t you?
Newsmax, the Blaze, and Fox tell partial truths. You need to sample more widely to fill out the picture.
Yeah, watch the Democrat controlled media.
Democrats want to control all Americans with their policies, but I don’t see them as Domestic terrorists which is what the far left is accusing Republicans of being. Terrorists kill people as we have seen recently in Israel.
What about those nasty moms who speak out at school committee meetings?
Where are they?? I spoke about PPS transgendering grammar school children. 5- 6 children misidentifying their gender in a class of 20. Where are the parents?
Cuckoo
Republicans let them in starting under Reagan to break unions to provide cheat abusive labor.You people have zero facts but have great reception on those tin foil Trump MAGA antenna hats
Why not just shoot them like DeSantis.
Biden/Leftists et al, has let it get that point. 12,000 NEW CRIMINALS/per DAY is an INVASION.
Kinder, how many will fit in YOUR HOUSE? 50? I’ll bet You can house and support 60!
Talk to me when you start adopting non-aborted babies.
Even Bidenites are getting nervous. It’s giving aid to the Palestinians and telling Israel to cool it. The Arab world is seething, and you know they won’t take much more of it.
Define ‘Arab world.’
Start with Gaza.
They’re a bunch of inbred 8th century goat molesters. They’re crazy at conception and Biden giving frozen assets to Iran funds the Arab insanity
I saw that on FOX entertainment
You were hoping to see the goats getting molested
Check this out
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_in_the_Middle_East
Agent 86, Gobsig, 12 gauge, Trapper and Ghost of George Wallace are one and the same.
Wallace was a democrat
K
While THE PLANET doesn’t reveal identities of our commentators, we can confirm that what you say is not true. That said, there are those who post under multiple IDs. Our systems limit the number of pseudonyms based on IP tags.
I didn’t say they were the same person. I said they are one & the same, which is true.
Agent 86, Gobsig, 12 gauge, Trapper and Ghost of George Wallace are one and the same.
We don’t want to see America, transformed into a 3rd world latrine, like Yourself.
Got some cots/bunk beds ready for the criminal aliens YOU will house? Food, TP, ………..
Talk to me when you start taking in non-aborted babies.
They are telling them to stop.
The Palestinians need our aid and help. It’s Hamas that needs to die.
Is that like good black friends you trust, and niggers?
You show your true self.
You know, I think Palestinians need the Euros and the Iranians to lay off them. Stop imposing gangsters on them and let them choose their leaders themselves.
Biden let’s in 12 thousand people a day over the Mexican border. He gives pallets of cash to Iran. He cuts domestic energy production. Iran makes more oil money. Iran funds terrorists with crooked Joe’s help.
Liberals, they do that.
Biden has screwed Americans with the 10 MILLION + criminals , he’/LEFTISTS have LET invade. No screening, at all.
“might be time to revive The Sons of Liberty for Tea Party II.”
Project Appleseed. It is the answer. The only answer.
I like the little tree.
Aren’t you special!
Really? Marchetti is not the Answer.
What is the question?
Ricardo’s new apprentice looked scared to death at the cc meeting?
Letter: “Pittsfield’s new City Council has work cut out for it on downtown issues”
The Berkshire Eagle, December 7, 2023
To the editor: I recently heard that Westfield received a grant from the state government to help them revitalize their downtown area.
I am not sure if anyone has applied from Pittsfield, but I certainly hope so. Out downtown needs a life rather than the present hangout for people. We need shops, businesses, etc., that give one a purpose to head downtown. It will be interesting to see what the new City Council and Mayor-elect Peter Marchetti will do to solve this blight in our city.
An open policy of what is being considered should be reported in the paper as to monies available and for what use it is being spent. Right now, our “gateway city” has theater and some amenities, but they are mainly for the tourists; many locals have not visited these, as I see few locals at the cultural venues I have attended.
More housing downtown (like the White Terrace Apartments and the Wright building) are nice, but many other businesses are given incentives and then they leave town. Obviously the apartments will be rented, but how expensive will they be? What jobs are available here to allow people to stay and be able to pay these rents?
What entertainment is affordable for families? A carousel sits unused, and the city does not fund a request. It’s been said before, but move the carousel to Pontoosuc Lake where there was one for years when I was younger.
The restoration of Wahconah Park is fine and desperately needed, but where will the $30 million come from?
The streets are filthy and like a washboard. We don’t need speed bumps as potholes control the speed. We paved Valentine Road and then dug it up and patched it unevenly.
Nobody wants their taxes raised, but no one gets a clear answer to where cannabis money or COVID funds are allotted. Taxes always go up and services dwindle.
I have no solutions but will watch this “new” council take over. Good luck — you will need it, as this task will be monumental.
Jim Armstrong, Pittsfield
NEW council….same as the old council. Self serving puppets doing exactly as they are instructed while reciprocally feathering their own nests.
Mama Cass Costa will save us.
Hunter Biden was hit with 9 new indictments due to tax fraud allegations. His father is 81 and he is running for a second term whereby Joe Biden would be 82 to 86 years old from 2025 to early-2029. Donald Trump faces a little less than 100 indictments. Let us not forget that Bill Clinton is a twice convicted Felon for Perjury and Suborning Perjury in the Paula Jones Sexual Harassment case whereby she entered a room where the Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton had his penis pointed at her because he wanted her to giver her a blow job in a would be (wood be) job interview. Bill Clinton ended up settling with Paula Jones for a little less than $1 million. Bill Clinton’s name is on 26 flight logs on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet.
In Pittsfield politics, Peter Marchetti’s name is listed in Victoria May’s federal lawsuit in Springfield (Massachusetts) versus Pittsfield Co-op Bank whereby she alleges he called her A BITCH as a bank employee whose employment was later terminated. Let us not forget that former Mayor Sara Hathaway sued the City of Pittsfield and she walked away with an undisclosed financial settlement during Mayor Montello’s administration. Sara Hathaway’s former political boss Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior is currently suing the City of Pittsfield for $440,000 plus unspecified damages over his Pittsfield Pot Kingdom named Berkshire Roots’ HCAs fees to Mayor Gated Community’s administration, who Nuciforo accuses Mayor Linda Tyer of acting in BAD FAITH, but Nuciforo is the DISGRACED former State Senator because he was allegedly illegally double dipping as the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee while at the same time serving as an Attorney for Boston’s big banks and insurance companies in the mid-2000s.
You’ll post that, but in the next post talk about how Trump marginalizes (far-left current catch phrase) group of people without a shred of proof.
Like I said to TSC a few posts ago, get off MSDNC and go on Twitter (X) and see how black people in NYC and Chicago, feel about the D’s favoring illegal aliens over them. Especially now that welfare benefits are getting cut because of the illegals.
How about D-led cities kicking US Veterans out of hotels in favor of illegal aliens JM? Let me guess, Trump did it?
The optics of this city are horrible. The optics of North Street are main gateway to the city are atrocious. The optics to most of our needle, trash ridden, homeless encampment Parks is sickening.
Then we have this pathetic little tree in park Square. One leg lift from a golden retriever and it could be done for.
Sorry Dan, but the optics suck big time one this one. But hey no real surprise
“One leg lift from a golden retriever and it could be done for.” JD, you have the line of the month!!
Park Square pee tree.
Feel bad for the houseless and panhandlers around Park Square, going to be difficult for them to take a leak or dump behind that tree, not that it won’t stop them. Then again, at least the tree will be fertilized. The City Administration constantly neglects all of our parks and lakes so it might be a good thing.
The joke is The Mayor said she picked the little tree because it is sustainable. What she could have done is get the big tree, which is donated, and then plant five new trees to take the place of the 1 tree. That’s sustainability. The Wee Tree will take 25 years to reach 20ft., if it even survives the winter.
CAT
Surviving the winter. Great point. With the ineptness of Ricky Rumpus and his “direction,” that remains a legitimate concern. Trees, like any other plant life, need care and attention. In short, maintenance. Since when has Picklefield properly maintained its infrastructure?
Well really now. Since when do you water trees? Mine all fend for themselves.
SIR CHAZ
The point is that a young tree, newly planted, needs care. Part of that care is “do no harm.” Salt, for instance.
You always water a transplanted tree.
Thanks, K.
Dan let’s place bets on that tree then.
For a few days, and then they are on their own. I come from a tradition of not mollycoddling trees. We grow our trees tough.
When newly transplanted… root system needs time to get established
Root system? Nonsense. It’s just roots. Dump some gallons day one. Done. It’s a tree. It knows what to do.
She picked the little tree because it is sustainable? Wish she could have applied that logic to her ballooning budget that is crippling middle income and senior taxpayers. But she is tucked away in her warm little bungalow at the bottom of the mountain, far from the real issues of the common man, so why would she give a rats ass? She does not. She is all about Linda and her Kardashian lifestyle dancing a little jig every time she hands a special interest parasite more hard earned taxpayer money.
Krol should have hired that psychic he had on his show, maybe she would have told him there was no chance of him ever being mayor.
She has no way of knowing she’s only a psychic. I used to be a psychic, when it was convenient.
Did the psychic tell John Krol about Jimmy Ruberto’s Rolodex?
The psychic recommends KY Jelly
He has two psychic’s he works with. Thats the funny part of all of this.
I guess that’s why he was so shocked by the election results. It was not what he “was hearing”
wow. Allegrone asking for over $300,000 from the CPA funds???? lets have another vote about this crap. come on man. lets just give all the rich developers extra money to fund their lavish lifestyles. freaking ridiculous
My water sewer rate went up 150 a quarter. As far as the tax rate budget? The budget is to high period. Stop comparing the tax rate to Lenox. Totally different dynamic.
lol. When did I do that??? Are you drinking ?
Thistl is just appealing to the voices above.
Agree, Not only is Allegrone asking for $350,000. of the tax payers money, they will be getting a large city tax break. Also will be get State and Federal money for there project. I find it funny that they moved their business to Lenox, got to give them credit for that. Time to get rid of the Preservative Tax, we already pay enough.
Why wouldn’t he ask? The people here have been bitching about his building for years. He must figure if the Valenti crowd is bitching its a good time to ask.
True WW.
Leave no special interest behind.
Is that how your wife, Flat Tyer, got fleeced by AJ Enchill and Shirley Edgerton, simply for being black?
An all-expense paid African trip for family and friends, non-existent company (BBEC), and we can’t forget your Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) Loans.
Like Dirty Barry stated above, when it’s NOT your money, WHY NOT ask for some?
And Barry knows from experience. What was the figure he raked in for his Covid prize money? City and Fed was it? Maybe state? Untaxable?
Prime example of how Pittsfield mayor and council work hand in hand with special interests. The business s that need tax breaks or CPA money the least are the ones hogging it all.
One BIG FAIL and FU to the taxpayers. What it amounts to is that the taxpayers are subsidizing big business with back room political dealing going on. this is NOT going to change with Marchetti.
Get out if you can!
I think that if you could see the portfolios of the people and foundations receiving CPA money you would see most of them are worth millions of dollars. The ones needing it the least.
But the city HAS offered money to help some people fix their homes up as well. But the applications are not that easy and they want all kinds of personal financial information, and you must be pretty much low income (so low that you would not really be able to afford a home in the first place)
Do all these millionaire recipients have to provide detailed financial information as well? Or do they just have to belong to a country club of wealthy political donors?
State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli has voted against transparency legislation in Boston for the past a little less than 21 years now.
https://www.wcvb.com/article/editorial-december-8-2023-beacon-hill-transparency/46066493#
It is far past time that State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli is voted OUT of elected office!
The partisan judge will be scorned, upon appeal.
The good thing is with every fixed corrupt case, America gets a step closer to eliminating absolute immunity.
The last foul trait of the monarchy, we sent packing in 1776.
Fraud by the court, is the most dangerous crime perpetrated in our country.
TB: Nice, interesting…
“The last foul trait of the monarchy, we sent packing in 1776.”
It’s not clear when we sent the monarchy packing to me. 1764? 1775? 1776? 1815? Remember, the Crown kept our fishing fleet off the New England fisheries and otherwise conspired against us long past the War.
The essence of the Americans’ beef with the monarchy was not the Monarch. Hatred towards the Monarch was the final but not universal evolution of the Revolutionary Movement that began 4/19/’75. The complaint centered upon the following:
Foreign bureaucrats (tax collectors, governors, judges, prosecutors, trade regulators) sent by Britain to ‘manage’ the colonies. Their function was to encompass colonists in tight quarters, separate colonies into non-trading neighbors, and to direct the flow of capital from the colonies to Great Britain. (Colonists had to convert pounds to gold and silver to trade with GB.
Religious Oppression
Look what we have today. Not much different as then. We are moving from a Nation of Americans to a nation of Whigs and Tories. We have to resist that trend because whigs and tories cannot interface.
Actor celebrity Bill Murry thanks Pete Marchetti for spending 40 million on the new Stadium at Wahconah park.I would not want my 1st term as mayor to start with this boondoggle and a 9% tax increase.Cities are dying across this country because of decisions like this.Logic says tighten your budget and cut taxes.The 16 million dollar biobuilding has 10 cars parked there in a field of tumbleweed and poison dust.Pittsfied taxes are double that of Lenox Ma.Marchetti can continue the insanity or consolidate schools.
This is the mayor Valenti touted as favorite in December of 22.
You had supported PM on his Wahconah Park policy. It doesn’t serve the School Committee’s interests to reduce the School budget. The savings would be redirected to more pet projects, building proposals, etc…
The bottom line is that, that mega bloated school budget generates the votes needed to keep the current cabal in power. The two go hand in hand like peas and carrots. One hand washes the other. One cannot survive without the other.
“One cannot survive without the other.”
I believe that they will do just fine with any bedfellows who want to share their mattress.
Hopefully bedbugs…………. and lots of them
“I need to know how fast a tolerance for the lactose of human kindness might spread—how long it might take for the generosity haplotype to run through the race and fit us out with a new, stunning skill.”
Richard Powers – ‘Generosity’
You strike me as a kind man.
The kind you should avoid
Agent 99 and I do understand youse guys.
You and Hymie the democrat robot.
86, you’re not supposed to swallow the absorbo pill. Now lift the cone of silence so you know what you’re talking about.
Edit, DANNY, really?
Dan, In this article your choice for best mayor in our lifetime is Don Butler. Don is a good choice. Jimmy Ruberto would have been a good choice, too. Park Square through traffic is a vast improvement over all traffic around the park that always created traffic jams and lengthy waits to circle around the park. Thank Jimmy for this improvement. One more on this list should be remembered as one whose great leadership could have made a vast improvement in Pittsfield’s future. That person is former mayor Paul Brindle. Paul wanted the former failed Lanesboro mall to be built on a section of North and West Streets. This was the mall developers first choice too. Well, this is Pittsfield, and a handful of North Street Pittsfield businesses helped kill the downtown mall plan. The mall located in Lanesboro, and you know what happened there. Now it is as dead as North Street.
Great choices, CHUCK. Jimmy is in that elite group, and so is Paul Brindle. Paul wasn’t scared of running against the special interests when it came to the mall and even a downtown pedestrian walkway, with north-south traffic diverted via First Street and Church. Jimmy had a plan, a vision, and achieved it wit the arts. True, the arts approach didn’t work out, but it was worth a shot. Jim left the city far better that the city he inherited from Miss Jane Hathaway. In her two years, Miss Jane brought a screeching mess of dysfunction. A policy wonk in way over her head.
I disagree with your – blogger Dan Valenti’s – praises for Jimmy Ruberto. He never owned a home, nor did he ever rent an apartment in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, but he got away with serving as Pittsfield’s Mayor for 8 years from 2004- 2011. His backers were all of the Good Old Boys – Carmen Massimiano, Jr., Angelo Stracuzzi, Cliff Nilan, Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior, the late Mayor Gerry Doyle – who all disgraced themselves in Pittsfield politics. During Rolodex’s tenure, Pittsfield always had VIOLENT CRIME, LEVEL 5 public schools, excessive municipal spending, the indebted and polluted PEDA debacle (that is now 25 years old in 2023), a few short years of downtown revitalization along with tens of millions of public dollars spent on North Street (for what exactly?), thousands of people fleeing “The Pitts”, hundreds of living wage job losses, but to be fair, the brutal 2008 economic recession had a lot to do with it, several “ethics” complaints, and his long stays in Naples, Florida where he always really lived.
As much as I am unhappy with Aberration/Schoolmarm Sara Hathaway in Pittsfield politics, she was 100 percent correct when she warned us about the snake oil salesman Jimmy Ruberto in the early-2000’s. Sara Hathaway always stood up to Jimmy Ruberto, especially when he supported the Berkshire Museum’s selling of its historic artwork, including two paintings donated by Norman Rockwell himself. Sara Hathaway still lives in Pittsfield, while Jimmy Ruberto is a part-time resident of upscale Lenox (and a full-time resident of Florida).
Jimmy Ruberto appears to think that he is too great to live in Pittsfield. His ego must be even bigger than Smitty Pignatelli’s deluded view of himself. If Jimmy Ruberto is in an elite group, then Pittsfield hit ROCK BOTTOM many years ago, but Pittsfield’s downward spiral will continue with The Gavel: Mayor Peter Marchetti….
If the G-man was elected mayor in 2015 this year‘s budget would be down 32 to 34% from 2015. A 7% reduction in every department each year hell or Highwater and in well cities these re ductions would have been met. Everycommunity that is falling apart is due to massive overspending by crooked school debts.We must reign in exorbitant school spending here in Pittsfield or we face a takeover by the state. Actually we should pray for this to happen as it might be the only way to save Pittsfield.
The arts approach really didn’t fail. It accrued long-standing benefits to the Pitt, even if the paper mache cows were ridiculous.
Will Marchetti be a paper mache mayor?
Well he is a paper mache council president so odds are that he will be.
Came down North street about 6 AM the other day. that is more cars than you normally see even in the daytime. Must have been at LEAST 50 cars parked along it. Now why would that be? I had read a couple of years ago that the long term plan for North street was to make it basically a green-space with overlooking condominiums with the condominiums generating high income for investors.
And as one knows many of those condos have been built along the way from one end to the other. One of the biggest hurdles was parking. The only viable way was to redesign the roadway so that condo owners could park right in front of their homes. And the first effort was to create a lane on the curb with a bicycle path on the outside of it and cut down to one lane for traffic. It appears they are still trying to work out the bugs but it looks like the condo owners are now allowed to park, at least overnight, in front of their properties.
Worldwide would know more about this so I hope he chimes in.
Brilliant
It’s true. After work hours, there’s no traffic, but parking is maxxed.
Your last two lines aptly describe our last two female mayors, if of course they still identify as such?
Jane Hathaway-policy wonk way over her head.
Flat Tyer-admin clerk WAY OVER her head.
Flat has to rely on Mr. PPP to do the cities financial bidding. And you see how that’s gone.
Thought it was Charlie who mixed the mall?
What about Sarah Half Wit?
Tyer,Doyle,Hathaway.
Let’s not leave out Evan Dobelle.
Agreed. EV brought a jolt of fresh energy back in the 70s. Young and forward-looking. Kennedy-esque.
Dobelle was never anything but a larcenous hack, Dan.
https://www.ctpublic.org/education/2014-08-01/state-report-highly-critical-of-ex-westfield-state-president
Predictable response. The subject was Best Mayors in Pittsfield history. Ev Dobelle was a one of the best.
You are a Trump and Gaetani apologist. You have no credibility whatsoever. Both Trump and Gaetani are petty tyrants. How you’ve allowed yourself to get co-opted by toxic populism is reprehensible. You are rooting for Hamas. WTF?
Good gawd. And Hawaii said the same thing about Mcgarret when he left 5-O
Hey, McGarrett never lost a case.
Book em, Dan-O.
Are the choices Marchetti’s or Tyer’s?
They have worked together like they were sharing the same oxygen mask for the last eight years. Tyer still needs Marchettis unbridled fealty to push her special interest agenda through. He COULD rise up and represent the taxpayers as he said in his oath of office that he would but Las Vegas odds are zero that he will do the right thing. They are also zero that when the Peter/Peter machine comes under its own power, that things will be any different.
Get out if you can.
Mr. MARCHETTI, are you listening?
ES: Before we get comfortable complaining, some soul searching is needed. Everyone has a soul, but finding it is tough work.
Where were the taxpayers asking for their interests to be respected last May? Except for Mr. Blumin and Gaetani, I don’t recall any showing up to the budget hearings demanding spending reform. Further, each hearing I proposed cuts to salary bonuses – not a huge amount but it represented the lowest hanging fruit. And yet, not a single taxpayer supported me there either. And finally, those who do speak up – Kinnas, Blumin, Gaetani are harassed, bullied, and slandered by press weasels. Still, the ‘taxpayers’ stay quiet and sulk. Why? Where is the decency to preserve what remains of human dignity? Back in the day, when we knew who we were, we would not let the Press demolish us.
Do the People of Pittsfield want to be known as “a people who know what they are about”?
This has been going on quite awhile Charles. Chris Connell tried in vain as well.
There has never been a good council either, ever. Especially these fruit bats.
So, what is it that you do to actually change things except whine online?
Failure belongs to the taxpayers, not Connell.
Thistldownz: I mispoke. I’d rather say that Connell gave you a model of how to behave and how to argue on City Council. Anyone who draws papers as his student will succeed.
Charles thanks for the kind words. I’ve always stated that the city of pittsfield’s greatest impediment is the people themselves.on my show and at city hall I always try to bring facts forward that will benefit the tax and ratepayers but my words fall upon deaf ears.even 90% of the posters on this blog have no decency to even give a little thanks to we who go above and beyond to try to help our tax and rate payers of the city of pittsfield. If you Charles and Alex and Terry and I decide to throw in the towel, it will be a sad day for the tax and rate payers of this city. I repeat you all must become involved personally and stand up and be seen and heard at CC meetings and let the vitriol you spew here on the planet fall directly on the mayor and city councils ears and DEMAND that they start caring about all of us and not just the high paid gobsigs of the 4 major departments which make up the rule of this city. If you don’t get involved then don’t complain when the same old same old comes from city hall unchallenged. Become part of the solution and stop being part of the problems. Charles Alex Dan Terry thanks for your never ending support of the Mary Jane and Joe kapanski’s of this city. We MUST keep up the good fight or we are going to loose our tax base citizens who will have to move to higher ground just to keep their heads above water. Talkng of water and sewer rates, You haven’t seen nothing yet. You are on the hook for 173million dollars which may be the straw that breaks the camels back.them and increased property taxes will take their toll on many in this city. In conclusion get off your f—-Es and bring your gripes to city hall in person at a CC meeting
Sir, for what it’s worth, I voted for you, as I have other times too, but other than that, I have given up. I am moving out of Shittsfield.
Shield please hold on little longer. I’m working on something that will mKe things better for everyone. I hope it will come to fruition. We need your type person to stay in pittsfield and help us fight these miscreants politicians
Ok, I will personally stick around to see what you’ve got up your sleeve.
Why did you threaten to shoot a City employee? Why did you post a fabricated letter from Colin Powell when you last ran for office?
All this ties directly to Mad Trappers invoking Sons Of Liberty. A son and Daughter of Liberty will stand up for another.
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/archives/gaetani-found-guilty-nets-more-than-2-years-probation/article_95e37de5-aaca-5202-a0d4-e2b825368f49.html
Meh.
Well said.
Good words, my friend.
Charles, you accomplished absolutely nothing on the City Council. The only reason you ran was to get your name in the paper.
What paper? We have a paper? Help me out anybody. What is this poor fruitloop talking about?
Charles your opinion of the BB newspaper is exactly my position also
The CC hasn’t seen the likes of you since Peter arlos. I don’t think anyone would disagree.this mosquito who tries to downplay us from time to time is a low down sniveling coward who doesn’t even deserve mention except to say he is immaterial and very ignorant. He would never spew the hate he does under his real name. In life we have to tolerate known idiots but pay them no attention as no one else does either. This miscreant is the lowest of the low sitting at the bottom of the barrel who tries to bring others down to his level because he can’t rise to any level other than the bottom. He is notorious on the planet for spewing hate and innuendo and is jealous of others who are accomplished such as you and me whom he seems to target
Charles I think I speak for many on this board in saying you will be greatly missed when you are no longer on the council
Thanks for having similar goals that I also exhibit and best of luck to you and Annie in your new home in VT. I will miss you greatly.your friend. Craig
Thanks Craig. We’re going to miss you. As for the patient above, heorshe is due for a celestial ass whipping when Mr. Menken catches up with her. Two rules on life: 1 Do not steal a man’s hat. 2 Do not play with a man’s name.