A “COMMENTS” EXCHANGE DEFTLY ILLUMINATES THE DOWNTOWN DISASTER
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MoNDAY MARCH 22, 2026) — An enlightening sequence of communication in the Comments section here shed the Kleig lights on the fundamental problem with downtown Bitchfield. THE PLANET, of course, has been faithful in documenting verse-and-chapter the demise of center city as a shopping, business, and pedestrian draw.
SANITY MADE SIMPLE: Aphorisms, Epigrams, and Other Parsed Phrases, is available now at amazon.com or at any Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Just $14.95 for the paperback, $4.95 for the e-book. Your purchase will help support a Pittsfield-based small business.
The once-thriving North Street, which once looked like the corner of 47th Street and 5th Avenue in its bustling life, now resembles an empty wasteland, buffed sporadically in a manner that looks like crone Cher trying to still look like she’s 19. Good heavens, even the tacky Christmas “decorations” are still up. The sidewalks gape without people, save the “armies of the road” and the “children of the night.” The evidence tells us that it’s a place good, honest citizens avoid in droves.
Here’s the exchange featured on THE PLANET. It came in response to our previous column on the North Street business Brooklyn’s Best. City fathers and mothers, office holders and poseurs, take note:
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VENDETTA VALE
This is where the disconnect is [those blasting Brooklyn’s Best]. That reaction is coming from someone who hasn’t actually navigated commercial space downtown. Because if you had, you’d already understand what’s really happening here.
*These grants are not about the businesses.*
*They’re about the buildings.*
They’re about increasing property value, upgrading spaces, and strengthening the assets of the people who own them. The business is just the temporary occupant. The justification. The front-facing story that makes it sound like economic development instead of asset development.
And once you understand that, the whole picture shifts.
Suddenly it makes a lot more sense why certain properties keep getting improvements, why turnover doesn’t really matter, and why the same names keep circling back into the conversation.
It’s not confusing.
You’ve just been looking at it from the wrong side of the lease!
GRIFT ME THIS RESPONDS:
Of course. Some folk would call it corporate welfare. Washing each other’s hands is what some politicians excel at. Some think it is why some business owners contribute generously to political campaigns. they know it will come back tenfold and the evidence seems to overwhelmingly support this.
VALE RESPONDS:
Yes.
And it’s not just political campaigns. It’s the same playbook running through local nonprofits too, including DPI.
Let’s stop pretending DPI [Downtown Pittsfield Inc.] is some scrappy, small business driven organization. It’s not. It’s run by property owners, for property owners, under the polished disguise of “supporting downtown businesses.” That’s the part people don’t want to say out loud.
Because the second a small business owner actually speaks up, calls out what’s happening, or points to real patterns, the tone shifts fast. Suddenly you’re labeled difficult. Unprofessional. A problem for the community.
Berkshire Eagle isn’t having a slow news day, they were just following orders to help destroy the next victim.
And just like that, the doors start closing.
You’re removed from programs. Pushed off boards. Cut out of opportunities. And if that’s not enough, they work to damage your reputation so no one takes you seriously. Make you look unstable. Discredit you before you can even finish the sentence.
Meanwhile, what are they actually offering the businesses they claim to support?
Marketing. That’s it. And not even anything exclusive. Just recycled promotion through channels any business owner could run themselves with a phone and a few spare minutes.
So let’s call it what it is.
This isn’t about helping small businesses thrive. It’s about controlling the narrative, protecting property interests, and keeping anyone who challenges it quiet.
GIMME LESS RESPONDS:
Call it what it is indeed. These organizations receiving large doses of taxpayer monies actually suggest, encourage and help finance political campaigns in an effort to stack governments with friendly candidates, who will at some point be called upon to grease the gravy train wheels.
Many politicians do not just come out of the woodwork because they “want to give back to their community.” (an old Kerwood saying) They are groomed from the community by special interests based on their pliability and potential to follow a particular agenda which will in turn pave a path for a more lucrative career of their own. And that is why you sometimes see one, or a group of them vote for what seems like an absolutely asinine agenda item which defies common sense and is horrible for the taxpayer. And when this happens out in the open it outs them as, not a representative of the people who elected them but rather a tool of special interest agendas. i.e. someone who might push for an outrageous, money sucking, and completely unnecessary “ballpark” and financing it with monies from an already beleaguered taxpayer base.
A ballpark which assumedly the city will technically own and maintain, but behind the scenes be operated and controlled by a mysterious group from outside the area.
To be clear, there are many politicians who do run for office because they want a better city or state and work hard to move that agenda forward. And some go in with good intentions but get attracted to shiny objects held out before them and lose their way. But in the overall, the right intended ones are almost always in the minority and so the intended purpose of “representation” for those who elected them is wishful thinking and it shows every day in a spectacularly dysfunctional display for all those who are not too blinded to see.
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THE PLANET offers this type of discourse as an example of how citizen discourse can be a powerful diagnostic.
SANITY MADE SIMPLE: Aphorisms, Epigrams, and Other Parsed Phrases, is available now at amazon.com or at any Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Just $14.95 for the paperback, $4.95 for the e-book. Your purchase will help support a Pittsfield-based small business.
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“If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time” — Edith Wharton
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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North Street brings negative feelings to the people who live(d) in Pittsfield.
North Street is the prime definition of the PITTS.
North Street is a place that people avoid.
But it has: bike lanes, bums, bums a begging, bums a peeing and pooping, bumpouts, crackheads, craters, drug dealers, geriatric hippies protesting against America, vacant storefronts AND……… parking kiosks!
Thank God for the Raser family, Carr Hardware and it’s FREE parking lot. The only attraction left.
It used to have: England Brothers, Woolworths, Newberrys, Pittsfield Sporting Goods, 3-4 movie theaters, free nose in parking, all stores open late Thursday nights, The Rosa Restaurant, a pool hall, magnificent marble train/bus station 1 block away, ……
As Archie Bunker would say, “Those were the days “
I was driving down North the other day, and I was stopped at the red light in front of the new Allegrone-refurbished block and thought “well, that looks smart!” But my immediate next thought was, “who the Hell is going to move into those storefronts?” Looked across the street and saw a transient argument happening in the park and thought sheesh….this place is depressing. The amount of trash strewn about this City isn’t charming either. All the jaywalking riff-raff should be told to clean it up as a rent payment for hogging the bus shelters and park benches.
The majority of past and present Bitchfield political leaders and those with $kin in the game have done the same stupid stuff over and over and not because they think it’ll work but rather, they know if it doesn’t work they can loot and pillage the tax base over and over with little consequence for
themselves.
100%
Sarcasm
I spoke with the Kapanski’s.
They told me that they are thrilled with….
The 15 or so empty storefronts on North Street….
That Earl and the 2-Pete’s Pittsfield politics pounds people’s purses by spending tens of millions of dollars per fiscal year more than Pittsfield’s peer small city Westfield….
That Pittsfield’s Commercial tax rate is the 2nd highest in Massachusetts only behind Holyoke….
The Kapanski’s are over the Moon with anticipation for Mayor Peter Marchetti’s upcoming record-breaking fiscal year 2027 budget proposal….
They are so happy to never be able to retire with financial security in the name of Kufflink’s cooked books.
Sarcasm
When the multi big dig Wahconah Park is refurbished the new name for it will be
The Apartments…at Wahconah Park.
Ass Side….Planet? Can your intelligent ops look into the latest property assessments? My home when up over sixty thousand which has forced me to move because I cannot afford the tax.
Don’t raise taxes, just raise ASSessments!
Prop 2 1/2 be dammed!
Worth the read for those who may have missed it.
https://joehoft.com/is-taxation-without-representation-occurring-2026-
massive-school/
I read the historical essay that made a point of criticizing public education and local taxes. My thoughts on it are….
In the mid-1770’s, Massachusetts went bankrupt and asked the King of England for a bailout. The King refused, and instead, the King told Massachusetts to raise taxes. Massachusetts refused to raise taxes – the irony given that is the opposite of today’s one political (Democratic) party state of tax and spend to excess.
The Founders fought for Classical Liberalism, but at the same time, most of them owned Slaves themselves. Yet another historical IRONY, indeed.
If I – Jon Melle – went bankrupt, and asked the King of England for a bailout because nobody represents me, the Have NOT, in the government….
If I – Jon Melle – owned Slaves, but at the same time fought for Classical Liberalism….
Would it be as strange as all of the Prophets in The Bible and other religious documents alike who said that they talked with God Himself?
After years of being conspiratorially persecuted by Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior, among other abusive bullies, I have been called a Paranoid Schizophrenic man with disturbed emotions….
I, myself, am unable to make sense of my own life of 50.5 years, let alone the IRONIES of Government and Religion over time.
The colonies in general grew very poor due to attritional economic policy imposed upon them by the Crown. Royal objectives were attempting to adjust the colonies onto a plantation model imposed upon the Irish – complete subjugation and impoverishment.
Taxation from London was the least of concern, though most immediate and visible. Per Lord Gate’s letter in 1775, Royal London was concerned and worried about the individual colonists gaining wealth. In particular, their actually owning property and land enabled them to expand into the provinces of cities, thus feeding a love for liberty. His solution was to force people back to the coastal centers and reduce their wealth to make them weak and dependant.
Gate’s proposal was a fantasy, as he soon learned months after he penned it and was driven back to London with Adm Howe driven off to Halifax. So why were the colonists really financially desperate? The crown forbade intercolonial trade- only trade allowed was with London. You live in Delaware and want tobacco from Virginia – buy it from London. Trade with London was designed to tranfer precious mining from the colonies to London. So trade with London meant you had to pay for imports with Sterling or gold only. Colonists bought Royal paper currency with precious metal sourced here. The conversion rate was ruinous. The final nail was fishing restrictions and manufacturing restrictions. By the year of the War, it was illegal to manufacture almost as much as a hammer here, and mills and workshops were being forced to close. New Englanders in particular, were driven off the seas and barred from the cod fisheries. Even the food had to be bought from London Merchants.
So, the Royal response for a bailout was more than just a royal fuck-off: it may well have been the deliberate adding of weight on the pressing in full swing.
Now for the logic of your post: you preface your argument with the word “bailout”. That is a contemporary word used in your context. You describe the colonial complaint in terms of a high gambling banker who misjudged his market timing. Your reasoning blunders, and your argument, whatever it wanted to be, fails.
The Crown, since Cromwell, had been using the army to brutally suppress uprisings at home too. By the late sixteenth century, Great Britain was fully occupied. There was virtually NO land available for purchase, and housing was as scarce. Relocating people to the colonies was the nearly two century demographic policy to relieve stress brewing in the Isles. Never was it their intention to build a profitable civilization but rather to satisfy the needs and comfort of the Motherland.
You must read books, JM. Lots of them. It’s impossible to overdo it. Have someone read them to you when you are too busy doing other tasks. And watch more TV. Probably, you don’t watch enough.
Given your statements, I would demand that you watch episode one, season 1 Night of The Walking Dead. You are not permitted to skip parts. This is lesson one, and your first innoculation against those demons. Do this (walking Dead project), and more and easier things to watch shall follow.
Pittsfield’s increased assessments, fees for water and sewer, and possibly other budget revenue sources are NOT part of the Proposition 2.5 state law that places an arbitrary and artificial fiscal constraint on city spending.
In a little over 3 months from now on July 01, 2026, Pittsfield’s record-setting municipal budget will go into effect.
It will be UGLY! It will look even worse than Mayor Peter Marchetti’s BIG beer belly.
And this is when Pittsfield property tax payers need to peacefully protest….by just ignoring their tax bills for six months or until they are significantly modified downward.
Yes, they can threaten to charge 14 percent interest but if enough people do this eventually they will need to give up the malfeasance and tax appropriately or default. It is going to happen one way or the other because people cannot afford this. It is time for open rebellion if you ask me.
Not one fucking significant cut in 20 years. Escalating costs for a myriad of unnecessary things. How many city vehciles were there in 2015 and how many are there now? What was the vehicle insurance and maintenance costs then?
There seems to be minimal actual due diligence by city councilors on challenging the budget. An absolute refusal to do a forensic audit to look for waste and better management practices. No business with any chance for success operates like this. City halls default practice is to raise taxes every time which is both lazy and a shit slap in the faces of the body electorate.
Marchetti just bulled ahead with the 30 million dollar Waconah park reinvention without a proper referendum as is done in any normal community. And this is just ONE example of malfeasance. The federal congress has committees where they can subpoena people to come before them and make them answer questions as to what is going on and why. And ask for details. Pittsfield could use one of these. In fact, I seem to recall a time when the city treasurer would annually appear before the city council and answer questions. Why was this practice abandoned?
GRIFT
Yes, and Scanlon (who else) is in to stage the annual farce titled “Pittsfield Conducts an ‘Audit'”.
Scamlon response to the budget year after year. Your bond rating is stable and free cash is pretty good……bla bla bla.
Home Value Declines Spread, But Losses Since Last Sale Are Rare – Zillow Research
Strangely, some home evaluations seem way disparate to others of similar structures in nearby locations. I remember long time ago, I think it was Arlos, pointing out that some city officials seemed to have lower tax evaluations than their neighbors.
Property – City of Pittsfield, MA – MapGeo
I didn’t know a city councilor could be on a licensing board?
Dan. Check out the license board hearing. The officer is testifying, sloppy looking shirt out, wearing a side arm of some sort. Do it.
Donald Dump. Bitchfield Dump.
Ah yes, Matthew Hill. Hey Matty.
A loyal reader of The Planet. Nothing like a little taxpayer-funded downtime to catch up on the comment section and share a few laughs around the station. Community engagement, Pittsfield-style.
Now, depending on who you ask around the city, Hill has developed… let’s call it a reputation. Not exactly for hustle. Not exactly for precision. More of a “how is this still happening?” kind of legacy that people seem to whisper about but never formally address.
But here’s where it gets interesting.
In Pittsfield, performance doesn’t always seem to be the deciding factor in promotions. Sometimes it’s about timing. Sometimes it’s about relationships. And sometimes it’s about making sure the right people are in the right seats at the right moment… especially when retirement and benefits are just over the horizon.
Funny how that works too?
Because when you zoom out, it starts to look less like individual careers and more like a coordinated system. One hand washes the other. One promotion supports the next. And suddenly, a new captain and a new chief, among other new promotions or title changes have appeared.
But don’t worry.The clock is always ticking on these things. And eventually, even the most… generously supported careers reach their natural conclusion.
Until then, I suppose we all just keep watching the show.
The U.S. National Debt is over $39 trillion.
https://usdebtclock.org/
It will be paid off by Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Unicorns….
You voted for Trump. Maga is don…e
You don’t have to go that far right here we got almost a $500 million open bill. Cufflinks pays it off with nickels every year if that.
So. They’re trying a conspiracy theorty over the deadly airplane crash saying t s a was undermanned ? Horeshit. The fire truck should have been more cautious,also the driver couldn’t see an airplane as they, fire ( truck ) is crossing ?….
When you come to an intersection you look both ways before you would cross. Except maybe in Bitchfield.