!!BREAKING!! BERKSHIRE BANK DOWNTOWN; POLICE NAB SUSPECT … WANTED: 25 STRONG-STOMACHED SUCKERS FOR BITCHFIELD’s ‘CITIZENS ACADEMY’
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
ADD 1 TUESDAY AFTERNOON: THE PLANET received this from the Pittsfield Police Department:
On Monday July 21st 2025 at approximately 9:03am officers and investigators with the Pittsfield Police Department (PPD) responded to Berkshire Bank located at 66 West Street for a report of an armed robbery. No injuries were reported. The suspect reportedly passed a note to a teller, brandished a knife, and fled the bank with an amount of cash. The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of 38-year-old Pittsfield resident
James Scales IV who is charged with Armed Robbery While Masked. Additional charges may be forthcoming and Scales is expected to be arraigned in Berkshire District Court on Tuesday July 22.
The investigation and subsequent arrest were completed by members of the PPD’s patrol division, detective bureau, and crime scene services. Additionally, the PPD would like to commend the bank employees and civilian witnesses who remained calm during the incident. The employees and witnesses were able to provide important information that became pertinent to the investigation.
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(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY JULY 21, 2025) — You have until Friday.
For what?
To become Bitchfield’s answer to THE PLANET‘s coveted designation of Supercitizen.
Here is the press release from Mayor Lumpy’s office. It’s from one of the Lumpettes. We publish it in full.
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Applications are now being accepted for the City of Pittsfield’s Citizens Academy, which will begin in mid-August.
The Citizens Academy, a 12-week program, is designed to help community members understand the operations of local government. Participants will gain awareness on the various functions of city departments within municipal government, tour designated locations, and engage in breakout activities. Attendees also will learn more about service opportunities available within local government.
“We have seen continuous growth of this academy throughout the years and over 100 community members who have participated to date,” said Catherine VanBramer, director of administrative services. “Community engagement is a vital part of my role with the city, and it is my hope that we encourage more members of our community to actively participate in their government. I look forward to welcoming a new class for the seventh year of the academy.”
Class size will be limited to 25 participants. The sessions will be held on Thursday evenings between August 14 and November 6. The sessions will be held 6-8 p.m. at various locations throughout the city. During the sessions, participants will interact with department heads and other city staff to learn about the day-to-day operations, tour various workspaces, and participate in breakout activities.
To be eligible for the Citizens Academy, applicants must be at least 18, live or work in Pittsfield, and be able to attend each of the 12-week sessions to the best of their ability.
Upon completion of the program, participants will receive a certificate and be publicly recognized for their participation.
Program details are available on the city’s website: Citizens Academy | Pittsfield, MA
- To apply online, view the Citizens Academy online application.
- To apply via mail, view the Citizens Academy mail-in application.
- Paper copies are also available in the Mayor’s Office at City Hall, 70 Allen Street.
Applications are due by 4 p.m. Friday, July 25. For additional information, please contact the Mayor’s Office at (413) 499-9322 or email cvanbramer@cityofpittsfield.org.
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THE PLANET has been hired as a “consultant” to Bitchfield. We have recommended and the city agrees to the following:
- “To help community members understand the operations of local government,” as Van Bramer puts it, academeticians will receive instruction in breakout sessions on:
- The Art and Science of Bribery
- How to Put the “Kick” Back in Kickbacks
- Communication: How To Use Many Words To Say Nothing
- Retribution: An Administration’s Best Friend
- Nepotism Has Its Rewards
- Governing Through Fear
- Smoke and Mirrors: The Art of Obfuscation
- Visits to offices and departments.
- At DPW, watch the commissioner figure out new ways to wreck city streets.
- Finance, watch Kufflinks Kerwood uses the bowties he once wore to predict the city’s financial future: More spending, higher taxes, reduced services.
- At the school department, see the new superintendent work on her Didn’t Earn It quilt.
- At the water department, watch the intricacies of water-boarding taxpayers.
- At community development, stare as a carpetbagger receives TIFs.
Those “100 community who have participated to date” can be found in psyche wards through New England. What they learned sent them past the point of no return.
In the listing of eligibility requirements, Van Bramer for got to include the following:
- Applicants must sign a NDA
- They cannot ask any “tough questions”
- They must submit to and fail a drug test.
As Lumpette writes: Upon completion of the program, participants will receive a certificate and be publicly recognized for their participation. They will then be taken to the parking lot where once stood the Palace Theater (torn down for no good reason) and shot twice through the head at close range with a 9mm Glock.
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“Nuts” — Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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The Citizens Academy could find out why Pittsfield’s operating budget costs over $62 million per fiscal year more than Westfield”s operating budget.
They could find out if it would be Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy who would pay off Pittsfield’s close to $1 billion in municipal debts plus other liabilities.
They could count the number of empty storefronts and social services agencies on North Street.
They could learn about the Level 5 public schools, the Group 11 students, the Synthetic School Committee, the no show City Council, and the Mayor of BITCHFIELD.
They could learn who put the PITTS in Pittsfield politics.
Maybe you should sign up for the Citizen’s Academy. Oh that’s right, you don’t live in Pittsfield and you don’t work. Cuckoo patrol.
Lets not talk about the Trump tapes and sex trafficking charges that are ahead unless they get burried.Even the MAGAs are breaking ranks learning for the qst time that the deep state are the Oligarchs with pure wealth to get what they desire on the backs of the working man…Trump/Miller/ Bannon were never your guys
Let’s talk about Sotero, Biden, H-Beast, Clapper, Comey, Brennan, Brazille, Strozk, Mueller, J6 Committee et al…………facing treason charges. For the Russian “collusion” hoax.
Treason has no statue of limitations, and is a capitol offense. It’s not over until the H-Beast swings……..
HBeast, turnsout, spent most of her term as Sec. State heavily tranquilized to suppress uncontrolled raging, aggression, and exuberance (excessive cheerfulness). Probaly on orders of Bill.
Maybe she has a mental illness defense?
Westfield is not spending 30 million on a baseball field.
I emailed Catherine and asked her if I attended the Citizens Academy successfully, will it give the proper security clearance to read over the Bitchfield Pubic Scohol Comites report.
I did read the flyer and this year’s guest speakers are top-notch, if I say so myself:
*Dirty Barry Clairmont-will speak about how to properly patrol a parking lot, free it of junkies, whores, and other dregs of society.
*Linda “Flat” Tyer-Clairmont–will explain to the citizens her philosophy of “what’s good for me, is not for ye.” Flood the area with bums, junkies, and the mentally ill from the Boston-area, and then kick back and reap the benefits of “grant money” and watch it all from a do-nothing $100k a year at BCC.
**A racists double-feature bonanza, DEI Chief Michael “OB” Obasohan and black teacher recruiter/African tour guide, Shirley Edgerton, will speak about fleecing gullible, older white liberals, into giving them money, simply for being black. No more, no less.
*BBEC boss AJ Enchill, will speak to the crowd about being a black man with a small dry-cleaning business, but because he was a black man during the Linda “Flat” Tyer-Clairmont administration, has now received over $1,000,000 in taxpayer money, to NOT CREATE ONE JOB FOR NON-FAMILY/FRIEND.
*Tricia Farley-Country Buffet (d-illegal aliens)-will address the crowd about the benefits of giving illegal aliens drivers licenses, because they are scared of getting arrested by the police for being in our country illegally.
*Da Dancin’ Dean, aka-Lady’z Man, Lavonte Wiggins, will powder the donuts with his “special sugar,” and then provide a heart pounding dance lesson for attendees.
***Don’t forget to check under your chairs***
A few select chairs, will have a taped picture of former PHS principal Alison Sheppard, and her “Sheppard’s Pie,” that only a few male PHS received from her.
MARK
You’re on fire today!
Dan. I cannot believe the voter apathy in this community. Do you really think the city wants to spend money on the homeless?
Why do you think they make it unaffordable? Another item. Why isn’t there an uproar over the current increases in the property tax. My bank thinks the city is crazy and more crazy is the lack of public pushback ?
IA
Yup. I think in this case, the apathy is more of a “why bother,” which itself is an understandable recognition of defeat. The entrenched politicians and the special interests have an iron-clad grip on the electoral process. Essentially, the elections are not free ones. They are completely controlled, which is a form of rigging.
I agree, the entrenched politicians have a lock on Pittsfield politics. Here’s the problem. They are mediocre people of average (we hope) intelligence. Long time Pittsfield residents who know better are letting it go because their children are educated elsewhere and do not return to Pittsfield for a career. Does anyone interested in long term Pittsfield’s economic health care about this? Does not look like it.
Well said, AWAY.
Pretty soon it will the rich and the homeless will be all that is left.
Many are just quietly packing up and leaving. The out of control tax increases with no end in sight, coupled with atrocious schools is enough to drive a family away. And it is the ones who have taken the time to actually evaluate their futures if they stay who are bailing. The word is out that Pittsfield is devouring itself from the inside out and the future is for those who have been given tax breaks or whose incomes are well over a hundred thousand per year. There are those who are feasting and those who are being feasted on. Which one are you?
And many of the homes they are leaving are being bought up by immigrants who were in a hurry to find a home and did not take the time to seriously evaluate what they were getting themselves into. But in the last year even many of them have discovered their mistake and have also put their homes up for sale as well. They realized they had walked into a trap.
In my soon to be released book, SCAVENGERS and CARRION I detail how life in Pittsfield works as related to the law of the jungle and where the average Joe fits into it.
Get Out if You Can
MEAN
I’ll be buying a copy of your new book!
Mark, if you don’ t mind I would like to add to your curriculum. Definitely need to offer a class led by Ricardo Morales on how to royally screw-up streets and traffic flow in the City. The class will also show how the Administration tries to secretly cover-ups these screw-up with the thought process that taxpayers are completely stupid and can’t comprehend how the City is spending big bucks trying to rectify their mistake.
The class could include a field trip to California Avenue which is now going through their 3rd year of attempting the repairs. It would give Ricardo a chance to visit the mess he made for at least the 10th time. This class trip would also have a bonus teaching street decorating. So many streets are decorated with orange cones and barrels. California Avenue is not showing an exhibit of 34 orange cones in front of 14 houses. It’s quite enlightening,
My question: why isn’t the course broadcasted and archived for the public?
Because gatekeeping. People who cannot pass a CORI check might watch, and for some reason even though they paid their debt to society, denying access to participating in our civic life is still a collateral consequence for alumni of the the American prison system.
Gatekeeping.
Re TIFS
With the exotic range of property collateral Electromag application, United Aircrat Tech, PathogenX, the city could form a Museum of Bad Ideas (MoBI) curating recovered artifacts in the new Wahconah Stadium. A fitting place to stick it.
BERK EAGLE, RE: CITY SUIT AGAINST ‘MADOFFS’ WITH THE TIFFS.
“Sinicon Plastics, the Dalton-based company that had previously been reported to be UAT’s manufacturer, did not respond to questions about whether the company had indeed manufactured clamps for United Aircraft Technologies or whether the partnership is still active.
If the suit is successful, Grierson said the city could seize the mold as a way to recover the funds.
Asked whether the mold itself holds any value, he said “we won’t know that until we engage in some discovery.”
“I’m not even sure if the mold exists,” he said. “This is all based on representations of the company. We’ve seen that it doesn’t seem that they were truthful in a lot of the things that they were saying.”
(Try not to guffaw.)
Coakley pocketing $110,000/year for this kind of “development”. That money will never be recovered either.
“Not even sure the mold exists”
Some oversight that.
GE fund earmarks must pass through 3 levels of city government and yet con men walk away with the cash without any accountability. Sums up the competence of city officials in a nut shell.
Kerwood could come before the city council and list all those bushiness s that have received bailouts in the last 20 years if he was so inclined. He is not so inclined, because many of these business s have received and continue to receive extensions going on for over a decade. And the really sad part of it is is that many these business s are and were doing quite well and did not need any subsidies to begin with and they were not the reason they either came to or stayed in the area.
Another sad part of this special interest giveaway is that much of the benefits they receive are the result of higher property taxes on the backs of senior citizens hanging onto their family homes by their fingernails. And it is really kind of sad that ruling politicians would support that.
Chaz
You forgot Nuclea and the watermelon farmer guy….
Seems there’s lots of missing assets….
Tom
7/22/25 @1:15 pm
A wonderful museum. Stainless steel espresso/vacuum pots of Electroshit, cubicles and desktops of nuclear, and a hungry curator would find so much more. Fermentation tanks too
Chaz
So it’s a septic tank, with windows? To observe money decomposing, into elites pockets!
Or is that the next big investment, in green technology? Seems Moran Healey is all about composting grants- to political friends.
My only question is, where does the cash go?
Most of these grants, programs and causes , are just local USAID fraud.
Look at all the money, IBEW received in exchange for democratic votes , via solar , wind scam. Locally electricity bills have tripled- to keep democrats vote counts up, at expense of taxpayers.
Carter did same with teachers and police unions ( look at MSP 13 ) who now are so protected, theft , fraud and rape of minors- isn’t prosecutable, not to mention fire able or pension revoking.
Unions are a license to steal, they are killing, the golden goose.
Ever see a lone electric company truck at a diner?
Ever see them leave in under 2 hours?
They are so spoiled and protected , they don’t even hide their , with their detail of police.
Tom
7/23/25@11:30
Participants will gain awareness on the various functions of city departments within municipal government, tour designated locations, and engage in breakout activities. :
Of course the participants won’t be allowed to tour the Back Room Department and be allowed to take part in the breakout activities where the envelopes are opened.
Not yet, not yet…
Cloaked schooling and cultivation of future Pittsfield political puppets. From the “participants” gosibs can check out and analyze those with personalities and moral weakness s to find those most optimal for grooming to be future councilors and department heads.
FOX is working overtime hoping MAGAs get redirected to the non story of Obama recieving the FBI report of Trumps and Maniforts relationship with Putin….All Republicans went to Moscow in the famous 4th of July gathering.
Bank robbery yesterday?
Stabbings, shootings and arson as well. As much as the mayor would like tourists to believe it is NOT all rainbows in his city regardless of how many flags he may fly.
You forgot the armed robbery in broad daylight in Downtown Pittsfield this week.
You mean a sitting President attempting to rig an election by strong arming the intelligence community into creating a fake narrative about his party’s political rival is not a “Threat to Democracy”
What FOX said
Barry is going to be up on treason charges soon TSC.
But where is the utopia Fat Gut Tommy and Clown shoes Shagrue promised 2 years ago? Same Shi$t hole it’s always been worse I reckon
Because The alternative Barbalunga or Harrington. Dan Trans just explained it to you. Lumpy or Krol. Dizzy or anyone is just wrong.
The Cesspool of Pittsfield is worse..More crime, more beggars, more crackheads, these two have done ZERO!!!!!
Trump felon regime is full of crime
The last Leftist Junta, who were ousted Nov 2024 by American voters, were traitors.
Letting in countless millions of illegals, many of them dregs and human scum, to wreak havoc and drain the public treasury in the US and particularly in the “sanctuary state” of Massachusetts. Right Gov. Healey?
Tom Homan should visit Healey and Boston Mayor Wu.
They both are claiming fiscal poverty for Citizens, while bankrolling CRIMINAL ALIENS.
Andrea Harrington is vindicated!
No she is not. Railroaded good men on trumped up charges and false evidence.
Wait what? Who is the good men or man you speak of? In Pittsfield I doubt it
I can name two. She persecuted people throughout Berkshire County.
Even just one is too much.
And… Who?
^^^^^ Is a product of Soros seed money for corrupt DAs
July 21, 2025
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
The only way for us to bring change for the better in Pittsfield politics is to write posts on blogs and social media, and speak out in public.
The career politicians are there for life. To illustrate, even when a Massachusetts State Representative retires, he or she never actually leaves Boston’s corrupt and secretive Statehouse. Greedy lobbyist Dan Bosley still goes there to shakedown the special interests and donate money to the career politicians’ campaign coffers in return for their votes on favored legislation that is stuffed into secretive mega-bills.
The facts on Pittsfield are:
1. Pittsfield spends over $62 million more per fiscal year than the similar sized Westfield. Why doesn’t anyone except for me – Jon Melle – question this fact?
2. The Big 3 Unions – Police, Fire, and School – always win, while the common taxpayers always lose. They are the vested interests that turn Pittsfield institutions into failed public schools, a dangerous downtown, an impoverished inner-city, and large losses in population, small businesses and living wage jobs.
3. The state and local politicians – past and present – live in big, beautiful homes, while inner-city Pittsfield is distressed. I know of 3 of them who live in close to million dollar mansions in Pittsfield’s elitist Gated Community west of Berkshire Community College near the border with Hancock. One is a former Pittsfield Mayor (2016 – 2023) who works at Berkshire Community College and is married to a millionaire Certified Public Accountant and former City Councilor, and the other is a millionaire, disgraced former Pittsfield State Senator who co-founded the Berkshire Roots marijuana business back in 2017.
4. One has either be related to the incestuous-like network of the low gene pool Pittsfield families or has to bend over to always kiss their dirty behinds to find gainful employment in Pittsfield. If one opposes any of them, he or she is finished in Pittsfield, and they usually move away from Pittsfield, which is a usually a blessing for them.
5. Pittsfield uses “Perverse Incentives” to profit off its large population of Underclass residents, especially with the Level 5, Group 11 public school district, whereby the city government receives tens of millions of dollars per fiscal year in state administered, federal aid funds that the city converts into so-called FREE CASH, among other questionable financial management secretive shell games.
6. The Berkshire Eagle is in bed with the state and local political establishment. If one writes or speaks the truth about them, then the Eagle blacklists him or her from publishing their opinion pieces. I – Jon Melle – have been blacklisted by the Eagle for over 21 years now. It is my badge of HONOR!
7. Blogger Dan Valenti lives in Stockbridge, but he covers Pittsfield politics in the name of the little guy who he calls the fictional Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski hard-working-class, taxpaying, homeowners family. But Valenti doesn’t always publishing my side of the story when it comes to posts on his blog in favor of Nuciforo.
8. The Pittsfield School Committee allegedly covered up multiple alleged scandals at my Alma Mater Pittsfield High School (PHS), (Jon Melle, Class of 1993), with the $156,000 law firm’s investigation that was already investigated by Pittsfield. Sara Hathaway behaved unprofessionally towards a young woman PHS student who publicly spoke out about the alleged scandals at PHS by chuckling and saying to her: You kids with your anxieties. Dr. Bill Cameron called blogger Dan Valenti: Synthetic.
9. GE screwed Pittsfield on many levels. The capped PCBs, which are industrial chemicals, are grossly insufficient in containing Pittsfield’s pollution that causes brain damage and cancer in human beings. Capped landfills are time-limited, which means that they eventually fail as time progresses forward. Allendale Elementary School abuts Hill 78, which is large capped landfill full of GE’s PCBs. Decades later, the 2000 Consent Decree still stands in Pittsfield, which is a big INJUSTICE!
10. Pittsfield has close to $1 billion in municipal debt plus other unfunded liabilities. The city’s financial management is built on “a House of Cards”. The city plays financial shell games with the state in Boston, and vice versa The taxpayers don’t matter to City Hall (and up). The city always spends 5 percent more than the previous fiscal year. Many people are financially illiterate. Most people don’t understand how Pittsfield cooks its books. It goes over many people’s heads, but into their pocketbooks.
Jon Melle
JM: your point about Westfiwld is good. Bitchfield likewise spends similar scale more than Fitchburg. It’s not really a city or a town. It’s a financial pass-through piece of business run by a cult.
Speak out? And end up like super citizen or Renaldo, or rob tulley.
You mean Rob Tuttle?
Tuttle. He wasn’t that bad a C C .
I agree. Rob Tuttle was bold, refreshing, and totally for the people.
Sage called him a punk on your show.thirty year# ago.
Wasn’t he replaced by the purple sage?
Just dumb dems being dems
So Bitch Slapped held another drag show. My question is do they hold an entertainment license to be able to hold these events? I highly doubt it and I’m sure she will scream to high heaven if the city goes after her but what makes her different than any other business holding live entertainment??
Here’s a link to the freak show:
Facebook
Unfortunately after viewing some footage of the “Show “ they will not be in violation. That my friend is not entertainment.
Another shoooting last night.
Dan. Another set fire the other night and a couple shootings these past weeks. A bank robbery recently,masked ? Where’s lumpy on this? Maybe we need more cops on the ground. No defunding .
CUMBEE
Where’s Lumpy on anything?
He’s with Wimpy, begging for hamburgers, and He’ll pay you back Tuesday…….
He’s with Wimpy, begging for hamburgers, and He’ll pay you back Tuesday…… With taxpayers money somehow.
Was the fat lady singing at the end of bitchslap, oops witchslap drag show
Before you embarrass yourself further, maybe do a little research before running your mouth. You clearly don’t understand what actually requires an entertainment license in this city — but hey, don’t let facts get in the way of your little tantrum about drag shows.
What you do have is a problem with queer joy, and it’s showing.
So unless you’re planning to call out every flower arrangement class, silent reading group, poetry reading, crochet circles or kids’ magic show in town with the same energy — sit down, moron. Your selective outrage is tired, transparent, and frankly, pathetic.
So you compare childrens’ content to drag shows?
Were you dropped on your head? A permit requires specific criteria — not your personal comfort level with the content. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s not valid or factual. And that’s the only thing you pulled from everything that was said? You’re just doubling down on your ignorance and proving you know absolutely nothing about entertainment. Drag has existed in every form of entertainment for centuries — literally invented by men, by the way, because men insisted on controlling the narrative and barring women from the stage. If you’re this upset about it, maybe gather your fellow men and hold a meeting on how to stop being so controlling, hateful, sensitive, and painfully fragile. That might actually help.
You rage on.
My question stands. You consider drag shows entertainment equivalent to children’s entertainment? Context: Entertainment, generally, is regulated speech.
Trump: There is NO LIST.
Trump: There will be NO VOTE in U.S. Congress until September [2025].
Trump: I have over 1-month to “COOK the BOOKS” on my long-term friendship with Jeffrey Epstein’s and his network of alleged sexual deviants and predators, alleged rapists, etc.
Bill Clinton and the like are counting on you, Trump, to make this scandal go away.
I hope that Ghislaine Maxwell will be safe because a number of other people like her are now deceased under questionable circumstances.
This situation in the Swamp looks similar to Pittsfield’s version of the mid-1980’s framing of Bernard Baran (deceased at 49; since 2014) by the St. Joe High School Alumni Good Old Boys’ network of alleged sexual deviants, along with BOYS Club Camp Counselor Carmen Massimiano, Jr. (PHS Class of 1962; deceased since 2020 at the age of 75).
My advice to Trump: Don’t “tell them that Angelo sent you”.
JM with all this time on your hands that us working taxpayers are funding wouldn’t you think it would be smart to investigate a little more before writing? Epstein was arrested, charged and put in prison during Trumps first term….don’t you think if there was any evidence of Trump doing illegal acts they would have come out? Funny how the Democrats when they were running the US into the ground never said a peep about Epstein, were they hoping it was going to go away or were they creating another hoax to pull over the gullible lying liberals and propaganda rags that fill the air waves and newstands?
A
It doesn’t look good, my friend.
I always enjoy reading your posts.
Doesn’t really look like anything.
The guy probably paid his cellmate to off him.
Trump is a walking personal problem and a King
Who’s playing the Jeff Daniel’s part? Mele seems more like Jim Carrey.
Trump is Your personal problem and he’s popping all your fantasy bubbles.
TDS I believe you meant to type “personnel” problem just an fyi
Conant & Warren have no opponents. Apathy reigns!
I’m leaving town – this is a dying city. Look at the failing city schools, retail closures, out of control crime, lackluster leaders.
Pittsfield in the rear view mirror!
What do you mean? Isn’t America great again!?
America doing just fine, now that we got rid of Bumbles. Pittsfield not so much.
Hulkster dead. 71. Don’t piss on his grave fritz.
What’s you gonna do when hulkamania runs over you.
R I P Ozzie and Hulkster,great performers both and will be missed.
It’s so cute when you all pretend it’s only Pittsfield.
Apathy is right. It wasn’t too long ago that Pittsfield folks had a ton of weirdos to choose from.
Herberg to house grades 5 & 6 and Reid to house grades 7 & 8 students. This is the entire city that is designed to educate all Pittsfield children. One city school for grades 5&6 and one city school for grades 7&8. OK, I understand anyone not growing up in Pittsfield to think this is progress. Pittsfield knowledgeable elected officials should know better. Most of our school year is cold and wintry weather. See the problem? Our elected officials do not. It is over and done with, but it won’t be long before you elected officials recognize the stupidity of your thinking and vote to approve this anti-children decision.
AWAY, do you know of any School District using this approach? Why does Pittsfield need to reinvent the wheel. Lenox and Mt. Greylock have the 7&8 in their High School buildings. Lenox and Greylock are also considered the top High Schools in Western Ma. Did they even look into that option? 7&8 graders would get AP opportunities and Vocational opportunities too. I think they’re trying to save jobs.
According to AI (MS Co pilot):
Pittsfield, Massachusetts has a crime rate lower than the national average, according to Nextdoor data. While some residents express concerns about speeding and property damage, overall, Pittsfield is considered a safe place to live.
How about housing cost? Again AI says:
The median home value in Pittsfield, MA is around $306,166, with prices increasing by 4.8% over the past year. The average rent is around $1,467 per month, but can range from $785 to $4,000. Housing costs in Pittsfield are generally lower than the state average, but higher than the national average.
Well what about cost of living?
Cost of Living: The overall cost of living in Pittsfield, MA is 2.5% higher than the national average.
No so bad but taxes have to be a burden..yes finally a problem:
Taxes in Pittsfield, MA can be a significant factor in the overall cost of living,Compared to the national average, the tax burden in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is considered higher, primarily due to property taxes and overall cost of living.
So I don’t live there but grew up there. Lots of whining but not a lot of facts..
I probably would participate in the Citizen’s Academy if only to figure out how to do stuff that needs to be done.
The Citizens Academy is just what you’ve explained. Pay your taxes and vote d and keep your mouth shut.
You would be an asset to Pittsfield. But that may not work so well for the failed political establishment that ran the postindustrial city into the ditch.
2 observations.
1) Scanlon city auditors state the city needs to levy a tax to fund $500 million OPEB liability. Therefore, the low tax picture you cite is illusory. There shall be a major hit as periodic draws from Free Cash won’t make a dent.
2) Analogous to comparing filthy smelly Roach Motel charging similar rate to adjacent Fancy Hotel. Price the same, but quality and value count too.