BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE–LU, WEDNESDAY SEPT. 2, 2020) — While the homeless languish in Springside Park at night and bums overrun downtown Pittsfield by day, Mayor Linda Tyer continues to hide. ServiceNet abruptly closed the homeless facility at St. Joseph’s High School on Maplewood Avenue months ago and […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE LU, MONDAY AUG. 31, 2020) — Even in Lands Unknown, word reaches THE PLANET of the hopelessness of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, those archetypal Pittsfield taxpayers. Once again, they face higher taxes, higher fees for lower service, and more incompetence. The latest example […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION (LU) AUG. 28-30, 2020) — Breona Taylor, George Floyd, Jacob Blake. All blacks. All done by cops. All “turning their lives around.” All an aftermath of “peaceful protests.” THE PLANET makes three points at the outset: 1.) None “deserved” to be […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 26, 2020) — THE PLANET has ventured to Lands Unknown (LU) for R&R, but we stay wired to events and happenings, from the insignificant nothings that make like miserable for Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski to the hurricanes and wildfires that, as […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 24, 2020) — With the Republican National Convention opening, and with this being Massachusetts, the Berkshires, with little chance of you finding media that share alternate views, THE PLANET presents this column, first published by July 24, 2020 on Town Hall website. It […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 21-3, 2020) — As is THE PLANET‘s custom, we do not comment extensively on a presidential campaign until the conventions are over and we’re into October, “the cruelest month” for its chance of turning tides and launching surprise. We pretend […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 19, 2020) — Money comes, money goes. That’s the insight provided by ServiceNet’s Jay Sachetti in NOT explaining why the homeless were kicked out of SJHS and left to rot in Springside Park. Funny that neither mayor Linda Tyer nor community development […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 17, 2020) — THE PLANET‘s Right Honorable Good Friends on the current Ocean’s 11 offer an eclectic mix of competence, incompetence, and the Admiral Stockdale’s “Who am I? Why am I here?” Competence? Two-and-a-half out of 11. That’s an average of .227. […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 14-6, 2020) — Time to clear out the notebook. THE PLANET GETS A HICKEY — We heard from our Right Honorable Good Friend Tom Hickey. The former council president and Gerry Doyle mentor took issue with Wednesday’s column. He writes: […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 12, 2020) — “Doyle vents ire on Valenti show.” So read the headline and story over six columns in a face a tad shy of Second Coming type. Date: Dec. 19, 2001. Mayor Doyle’s two-term tenure as mayor had less than three […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 10, 2020) — THE PLANET begins with a bulletin. We received word from a reliable source just as we went to press Sunday night that former mayor Gerry Doyle has died. We had not other details. Stay tuned. Now on with the regular […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 7-9, 2020) — The tragedy of dumping scores of homeless people into the waste bin of Springside Park, once the gem of Pittsfield’s fabulous parks system, serves as an allegory on the demise of the parks over the past generation […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY AUG. 5, 2020) — There they were, the Photo-Op Phonies, rushing in Monday to “help” the homeless at Springside Park. The Profiles-in-Courage included state sen. Adam Hinds, carrying a quart of spoiled milk; congressman Joe Kennedy III with two quarts of motor oil; […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY AUG. 3, 2020) — Jenn Smith’s feature in the Berkshire Eagle about homelessness in Springside Park had this revealing snippet: ServiceNet, according to the mayor’s office, now will be collecting any unclaimed items at the pavilion tables at the end of each day. The […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION JULY 31-AUG.2, 2020) — On Wednesday THE PLANET published a ServiceNet contract with the city of Pittsfield. It covered the previous fiscal year, FY20. ServiceNet’s $222,000+ CEO Susan Stubbs signed on Oct. 3, 2019, mayor Linda Tyer on Oct. 24. The pact […]
BY DAN VALENTI PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY (FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY JULY 29, 2020) — The yield of our followup on the firing of Helen Moon, late of D.A. Andrea Harrington’s office, can best be described as the holdings of a sprung bear trap entombed in Al Gore’s lock box and hidden in a […]
