Pittsfield politics is still stuck in the 1950s

October 4, 2022

Hello blogger Dan Valenti,

I have followed my native hometown's Pittsfield politics for decades of my 47-year-old life.  The reason why people say Pittsfield politics is because unlike most communities who operate in the 21st century, Pittsfield politics still operates like the 1950s era Godfather movies with the 4 families who ran NYC's Mafia businesses.  Pittsfield is stuck in the past because the Good Old Boys - most of whom don't even actually live in Pittsfield anymore - still feel like they have to run the show.

Unfortunately for me, I experienced it all fist had prior to, during and after my dad, Bob, was a Berkshire County Commissioner (1997 - mid-2000).  The thing that really surprised me was that when people who lived outside of the Pittsfield area asked Luciforo what was really going on, Nuciforo lied to them by saying that he hopes everything will work out for me in my life, while Luciforo tried to put me in the late Berkshire County Sheriff Carmen Massimiano's Pittsfield jail during the Spring of 1998 and Summer of 1998, which was after Nuciforo filed multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad to try to destroy my dad's career and make my dad resign his elected position.

I read Ward 2 Pittsfield City Council Charles Ivar Kronick's letter to the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) on your blog.  My thoughts about it are that Charles Kronick may not (fully) realize how Pittsfield politics is run.  The group of provincial political insiders want all of the power, and there is no better way to have it all by fully controlling the city's spending.  Matt Kerwood is a puppet of the Good Old Boys, and he will try to pull the wool over the eyes of Charles Kronick and others like him by saying that the city needs Matt Kerwood's financial expertise, which is a joke given the real state of Pittsfield's finances.

The proverbial 4 families who still run Pittsfield politics like it is still the 1950s act differently outside of Pittsfield, which means they know damn well that they are no good.  I hope that Charles Kronick understands how the game is played in Pittsfield politics so that he won't be the next guy in a long line of good men and women to be persecuted by the Good Old Boys.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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To the editor: In the Sept. 27 City Council meeting, the mayor nominated Finance Director Matthew Kerwood to the Board of Assessors.

The conflict of interests in this appointment is evident, but what this appointment indicates is that the mayor and the appointee Kerwood both are engaging in profoundly poor judgment. The appointee currently oversees the city’s finance, treasurer’s and tax departments. Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 41, Section 24 prohibits assessors from serving as tax collectors. Beyond the law, there are best practices that state that financial, tax and treasurer are always separated. It is not that one person cannot perform all functions; it is generally that one ought not do so.

The separation of financial oversight, which is virtually mandated in private business, logically extends to governance of property owners and taxpayers generally. That director Kerwood is currently directing finance and treasury is an artifact that dates back to the prior administration and does not originate from him or the mayor. However, the mayor’s decision to now further conflate oversight of the tax department with the Board of Assessors is a terrible abuse of common sense, legal sense and financial sense. The problem now unfortunately extends to the appointee, Kerwood.

Charles Kronick, Pittsfield

The writer represents Ward 2 on the Pittsfield City Council

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October 6, 2022

Sarcasm: I conference called Mayor Linda Tyer and Matt Kerwood today.  I suggested that they use 10 percent of the money from their multimillion-dollar Slush Fund$ to help pay for Pittsfield's homelessness crisis.  I told the lovely Linda and Kufflinks that they cannot contact the Berkshire-based State Senator because Chrome Dome Adam Hinds recently resigned his position, but they still may contact Trippy Country Buffet about the record-setting billions upon billions of dollars in state surplus funds in Boston to help pay for Pittsfield's homelessness crisis.  I told the lovely Linda and Kufflinks that PAC Man Richie Neal could help them pay for Pittsfield's homelessness crisis if they could get him off of K Street.  I told the lovely Linda and Kufflinks that Maryland Markey could help keep the homeless stay warm this upcoming winter season by piping in all of his HOT AIR in the Swamp about the Democrat's Green New Deal.  I told the lovely Linda and Kufflinks that Elizabeth Warren could help them with Pittsfield's homelessness crisis, but she is nowhere to be found on Main Street.  I told the lovely Linda and Kufflinks that Joe Biden could help them with Pittsfield's homelessness crisis, but the Prez is too busy record spending the federal government into oblivion.  All of these millions, billions and trillions of government dollars, but none of it goes to the people who are most in need.  No wonder Pittsfield is failing to address its homelessness crisis; there is NO leadership from Pittsfield politics to BeaCON Hill to the Swamp!

Jonathan A. Melle

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October 9, 2022

Predictable Pittsfield politics is my absolute favorite political theater to follow.  Pittsfield taxpayers pay top dollar for the city's Level 5 public school district no one wants to send their kids to, including Trippy Country Buffet, along with inner-city Pittsfield's decades of high per capita violent crime, along with the city's notorious political corruption.

BeaCON Hill politics only does DISSERVICES to the people and taxpayers of Western Massachusetts.  The Berkshire delegation are all useless backbenchers who all get paid 6-figure public pay plus perks for doing nothing but rubber-stamping Boston's financial shell games that systemically underfund local government and public education.

Swamp politics is about wealthy Members of U.S. Congress endlessly mortgaging our country's future for the sole benefit of the Financial, Corporate and Ruling Elites, while the rest of us have to pound sand as we watch the middle-class systematically get decimated over the past 50 years.  The U.S. national debt recently surpassed the $31 trillion mark.  Where did all of the federal dollars go to?  We are paying hundreds of dollars more every month for the same items we paid for just one year ago.  It obviously did NOT go to us!

Global politics is the world calling out the so-called Green New Dealers such as Joe Biden and John Kerry for their two decades old vote for George W. Bush's invasion of oil-rich Iraq, but now Joe Biden is dealing with the Russian dictator Putin threatening a nuclear weapons war over his invasion of Ukraine, along with China's dictator Xi's threat to invade Taiwan.  Why was it O.K. for Joe Biden to vote for the U.S.' invasion of Iraq, but it is not O.K. for Putin to invade Ukraine, nor is it not O.K. for Xi to invade Taiwan?  Joe Biden should explain his hypocrisy to the world.

Jonathan A. Melle

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October 11, 2022

Two more days until October 13th, 2022, when Mayor Linda Tyer will host a public forum panel on the city's homelessness crisis.  Mayor Linda Tyer said that she will respond to misleading narratives about the issue.  She says she will explain the investments the city has been making to pay for the homeless population's needs.  Homelessness and panhandling are NOT attractive features of the distressed inner-city.  She said that she may be contacted be email: mayorsoffice@cityofpittsfield.org.  My question is: Why does Mayor Linda Tyer always sit on secretive multimillion-dollar Slush Fund$ instead of using the excess public money - at least in part - to lower municipal taxes and fees, as well as help the poor people who need the money the most?  It must be nice for Mayor Linda Tyer to live in a mansion in an exclusive Gated Community with a few feet of the Hancock border because she doesn't have to personally deal with the city's poverty and violent crime.

Jonathan A. Melle

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October 11, 2022

On Thursday, October 13th, 2022, Mayor Linda Tyer will host a public forum with a public panel of experts to address Pittsfield's homelessness crisis.  Please let us all know what the mayor and her panel of experts said at this upcoming event.  How did Pittsfield go from a working-class community of over 60,000 residents in the mid-20th Century era to an economically distressed and very unequal community of around 40,000 residents in the 2020s?  Who won and who lost during this transition period?  Who were the failed Pittsfield politicians who put the city into the proverbial ditch?  Is it a slap in the face of the low to moderate income people who live in Pittsfield to have Mayor Linda Tyer hosting this upcoming public forum on homelessness when she lives in a mansion in an exclusive Gated Community neighborhood within a few feet of the Hancock border past Berkshire Community College?  Is this another publicity stunt?

Jonathan A. Melle

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October 14, 2022

Pittsfield politics sad legacy of failed leadership:

* Over $41 million in Biden Buck$ given exclusively to Mayor Linda Tyer, who managed the financial windfall in secret and then spent the Biden Buck$ by filling the coffers of the special interests she has long favored

* Matt Kerwood's secretive multimillion-dollar Slush Fund$ and Creative Public Accounting schemes (Cooks the Books!)

* Annual fiscal year municipal budgets always increasing local spending by 5 percent every year going back 40 years (which was the start of the flawed Proposition 2.5 state law)

* Hundreds of millions of public dollars in municipal debts and other liabilities that will never be paid off in our lifetimes (Is Pittsfield really financially insolvent?; Answer: YES!)

* Level 5 public school district that charges its taxpayers top dollar for rock bottom results

* Marijuana cultivation buildings stinking up residential neighborhoods with no action taken by Mayor Linda Tyer

* A homelessness crisis that is making distressed dangerous downtown Pittsfield a place most people hope to avoid even worse than ever (if that is even possible)

* The still polluted 24-year-old PEDA debacle that has millions of dollars of always growing liabilities

* Pittsfield always being in the top ten cities in Massachusetts for violent crime, according to the FBI's annual reports

* London, NYC, & L.A. museums and upscale art galleries showing arts exhibits of Pittsfield (MA) that is billed as "A City in Decay"

* Pittsfield's failed "Ruberto Renaissance" arts mecca that was sarcastically compared to Paris, London, NYC and L.A. (only to be derided by these famous cities)

* Mayor Linda Tyer living in a mansion in a Gated Community, while she passes record high annual municipal budget that are crushing the fictional Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski household who are dealing with severe economic inequality in a distressed polluted postindustrial city

* The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle)'s favorable coverage of the failed political establishment that has ruled Pittsfield politics despite the decades of population loss and the lost living wage jobs that are not coming back, (Neutron) Jack (Welch), in our lifetimes

* Generations of systemic political corruption in state and local government that shuts out the common people from having a voice in their government

* Hell would freeze over if Jon Melle's political letters were published in the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle), if Jon Melle was ever able to find and retain a living wage job in Pittsfield, and if Jon Melle's political emails weren't blocked by the corrupt career politicians who only want everyone to kiss their dirty behinds out of fear of retribution

Jonathan A. Melle

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Letter: "Preponderance of panhandling is hurting Pittsfield"

The Berkshire Eagle, October 15, 2022

To the editor: This letter is in response to Berkshire Regional Housing Authority Executive Director Brad Gordon saying we should look away if we don’t like the panhandling we’ve seen get out of hand in this town. ("Mayor Linda Tyer says officials hear residents' complaints about panhandling in Pittsfield. But there's little they can do," Eagle, Oct. 14.)

I’ve worked in the heart of downtown for 13 years, and in the last three I’ve seen this increase personally. It is very hard to look away when these panhandlers follow me to my car or at the ATM. When I leave work on a daily basis, I am approached by people. Sometimes they bang on my car, and sometimes they yell at me. I work for a local family-owned deli, and I’ve lost many customers this year because of this issue. People don’t want to walk to our location anymore because they get harassed on the way in and out.

Looking away comes at a cost, and that cost is downtown and its businesses. I don’t feel safe coming to work in downtown Pittsfield anymore.

Gregory T. Sacchetti, Dalton

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October 15, 2022

Dangerous downtown Pittsfield features a crisis in homelessness, a crisis in panhandlers, a crisis violent crime, dozens of empty storefronts, social services alley, and an out-of-touch and unapproachable wealthy Mayor named Linda Tyer, who lives in a mansion in an elitist and exclusive Gated Community neighborhood within a few feet of the Hancock border, which is as far away from inner-city as possible while still living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

What is being done about it all? A useless public forum whereby Mayor Linda Tyer said that little can be done.

Jonathan A. Melle

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October 21, 2022

We live in an era of severe economic inequality that we have not experienced since the 1920s.  Pittsfield is one of the most economically unequal metro areas in the state of Massachusetts, as well as the nation.  There are little to no living wage jobs in postindustrial Pittsfield.  Mayor Linda Tyer lives in a mansion in a Gated Community within a few feet of the Hancock border.  Meanwhile, inner-city Pittsfield has multigenerational poverty households, which the Boston Federal Reserve did a grant-funded program study on a few years ago.  None of the Financial, Corporate and Ruling Elites give a damn about America's Rust Belt flyover metro areas such as Pittsfield.  There are huge swaths of our country that are in severe economic distress just like Pittsfield.  The homelessness crisis, the panhandling crisis, and the housing crisis are all the outcome of the 21st Century's failed political leadership.  Whatever happened to the elites investing in the people and the communities that the people in need of help call home?  Whatever happened to being a good man or a good woman and helping those who need the money the most?  Joe Biden has spent well over $10 trillion federal dollars per year, but the poor, low- and moderate-income people are worse off than before January 21st, 2021.  Where did all of the Biden Buck's money really go?  Why is Beacon Hill still sitting on billions upon billions of dollars in surplus state cash without passing an economic stimulus and economic development bill with tax relief for Senior Citizens, Veterans, and so on?  Why is Matt Kerwood sitting on his secretive multimillion-dollar Slush Fund$ without helping the people in Pittsfield who need the money the most?  It all makes me very frustrated, but I understand that nothing will ever change unless we stop voting for the same corrupt career politicians over and over again.

Jonathan A. Melle

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October 22, 2022

PITTSFIELD Politics Top Ten list of failed leadership:

1.  Having a Level 5 public school district that charges its taxpayers top dollar for rock bottom results.

2.  Always being a top ten city for violent crime in Massachusetts.

3.  Having a combined municipal operating and capital fiscal year 2023 budget of well over $200 million without any concern for the predicted 2023 economic recession.

4.  A Homelessness crisis, a panhandling crisis, and an affordable housing crisis (with Mayor Linda Tyer living in a mansion in a Gated Community within a few feet of the Hancock border).

5.  A continued loss in population and living wage jobs (a shrinking tax base); How about that Rolodex, Jimmy Ruberto?  I believe it was last sighted on the bottom of Silver Lake.

6.  Marijuana cultivation odors stinking up residential neighborhoods without any action taken by City Hall.

7.  A one political (Democratic) Party system that only serves the elites' special interests, while the fictional Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski have to pound sand.

8.  The 24-year-old polluted PEDA debacle that has millions of dollars in always increasing debts and other liabilities.  Why is PEDA still in existence at this point in time when it is clearly a financial failure?  Who will end up paying for PEDA's multimillion-dollar debts?

9.  Pittsfield's hundreds of millions of dollars in municipal public debts and other liabilities that are hidden from the taxpaying public via Matt Kerwood's Creative Accounting schemes of Mayor Linda Tyer's secretive and excessive multimillion-dollar Slush Fund$ and the questionable audits of Kufflink's Cooked Books.

10.  The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) always praising Pittsfield politics' failed leadership that put Pittsfield into the proverbial ditch over the past 40 years.

Jonathan A. Melle

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October 23, 2022

China is the world's second largest economy behind the USA.  China is the world's largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions; the USA is number two.  Combined, China and the USA account for a little less than 50 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.  Both China and the USA have massive militaries, which combined pollutes more greenhouse gas emissions than most of all of the world's other countries combined.

Hunter Biden allegedly money laundered somewhere around one billion U.S. Dollars from China (to fund the big guy Joe Biden, Hunter's crack cocaine and alcohol addictions, as well as Hunter's sex addiction to strippers and sex workers).  Hunter's father Joe Biden is sarcastically called Joe Xiden.

While Joe Xiden fights with the world's dictators (that is enriching the Financial, Corporate and Ruling Elites), China is buying a lot of cheap oil and natural gas supplies from the world's energy rich dictators, while millions of households in Europe are at risk of tragically freezing to death this upcoming Winter of 2022/2023.  In the USA, millions of households will go into debt heating their homes this upcoming Winter.  Both MBS and Putin shafted Joe Xiden by having OPEC cut its oil and natural gas supplies prior to the upcoming Winter.  (Don't you see what is going on here?  The world's dictators are telling Joe Xiden that if he is going to get his cut of the loot, then they will get their cut of the loot, too.)

Joe Xiden, billionaire John Forbes Kerry, Maryland Markey, and the other wealthy and powerful Swamp Democrat elites will still be spewing their HOT AIR about the Green New Deal nonsense, which belies the USA's status as the number one exporter of arms sales to the world - (the military industrial complex is the largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions out there).  (It would be like a heavy smoker telling you not to smoke.)

The only thing that will save our country from Joe Xiden will be the November 8th, 2022, midterm elections that will stop Joe Xiden from spending the federal government into financial oblivion, while we are all paying for his mismanagement.

Mayor Linda Tyer should stop already with her record high municipal budgets because there is a predicted economic recession in 2023.  When Joe Biden will no longer be able to spend well over $10 trillion federal dollars per year anymore in 2023, which means that federal aid to Pittsfield will dry up, and Pittsfield politics will have to live within its means or go bankrupt in 2023 or shortly thereafter.

I do not like how secretive Mayor Linda Tyer is with Pittsfield's municipal finances.  The taxpayers have a right to know about Matt Kerwood's Creative Accounting - Cooks the Books - schemes, multimillion-dollar Slush Fund$, hundreds of millions of dollars in public debts and other liabilities, and why Pittsfield always raises its spending by 5 percent every fiscal year over the past 40 years, which was when the flawed Proposition 2.5 state law went into effect.

Pittsfield's tax base has been shrinking over the past 50 years, while Pittsfield's spending has been increasing to record high levels, which is taking place in a distressed and severely economically unequal city.  I wouldn't want to pay top dollar to Mayor Linda Tyer in return for Pittsfield's Level 5 public school district, violent crime-filled inner-city streets, the heavily indebted polluted PEDA debacle, and Pittsfield's China-like one political (Democratic) party system of provincial political corruption.

Jonathan A. Melle

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November 1, 2022

I agree with blogger Dan Valenti that Mayor Linda Tyer has not produced change for the better in predictable Pittsfield politics, but how is that not surprising?  It has been decades after decades of provincial politicians with their barstools, aberrations, rolodexes, Montello's part-time mayor, and the secretive secretary of vibrant and dynamic Gated Communities.  I, myself, would not want to pay for a mayor who drives a Lexus luxury car to City Hall to and from her mansion in her elitist Gated Community neighborhood within a few feet from the Hancock border who now charges the Kapanski family over $200 million per fiscal year in return for Pittsfield's Level 5 public school district, Pittsfield always being in the top 10 cities in Massachusetts for violent crime, the heavily indebted PEDA debacle, a dangerous downtown called "Social Services Alley" with dozens of empty storefronts, and the economically distressed inner-city neighborhoods that surround North Street called "The Ring of Poverty", a corrupt state and local group of insider politicians who do nothing but DISSERVICES to the people and taxpayers, the systemic suppression of citizen activism through retribution, and decades of losses in population and living wage jobs - a shrinking tax base - with record high municipal spending - the worst of both worlds - that always increases by 5 percent per fiscal year over the past 40 years, which was the start of the flawed Proposition 2.5 state law.

Jonathan A. Melle

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November 7, 2022

Don Bolduc & Karoline Leavitt are pro-Trumper candidates.  I live in Annie Kuster's Congressional District, not in Chris Pappas' Congressional District.  Annie is being challenged by Robert Burns, who leans libertarian, meaning little to no government.  My vote tomorrow in Amherst, New Hampshire, will be in favor of Maggie Hassan & Annie Kuster.  It won't matter, however, because the Republican Party will probably win majority status in both chambers of the United States Congress.  Joe Biden will definitely be impeached sometime in 2023, but he will not be convicted in the U.S. Senate just like Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump (x2).  Joe Biden already hired impeachment Attorneys earlier this year of 2022.  Nothing will get done in the Swamp over the next two years.  The writing is on the wall in the Swamp.  For Pittsfield politics, Mayor Linda Tyer's federal funds will dry up in 2023, and there most likely be an economic recession, too, which means that the lovely Linda will have to live with her means for the first-time running the city (into the proverbial ditch).  That is my position and view on it all.

Jonathan A. Melle

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November 9, 2022

I wonder which one is the worst debacle in Pittsfield politics?  Is it the PEDA debacle that is still very polluted and has millions of dollars in always growing debts and other liabilities as the years pass us all by?  Is it Jimmy Ruberto's Rolodex that legend says is at the rock bottom of Silver Lake?  Is it Jimmy Ruberto's failed downtown Renaissance that he made the fictional Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski pay for?  Is it Nuciforo's carte blanche to stink up residential neighborhoods with his pot growing odors?  Is it Pittsfield's Level 5 public school district that over 650 students opt out of each and every academic year?  Is it Mayor Linda Tyer's over $200 million Pickleball budget that takes no account of the predicted upcoming economic recession in 2023?  Is it Matt Kerwood's secretive multimillion-dollar Slush Funds that should belong in local taxpayers' pockets.  Is it Pittsfield politics always increasing municipal spending by 5 percent each and every fiscal year going back the last 40 years, which was the beginning of the flawed Proposition 2.5 state law?  Is it Pittsfield always being in the top 10 cities in Massachusetts for violent crime, according to the FBI's annual reports going back decades?  Is it dangerous downtown Pittsfield's daily shootings, the over 1,000 gang members living in inner-city Pittsfield neighborhoods, and the dozens of empty storefronts on North Street?  Is it upscale art galleries and museums in London, U.K., NYC and L.A. hosting visual art exhibits of postindustrial Pittsfield which they entitle: "Pittsfield: A City in Decay"?

Jonathan A. Melle

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November 16, 2022

Hello blogger (on break) Dan Valenti,

Are you NOT surprised by predictable Pittsfield politics, under Gated Community Mayor Linda Tyer, raising municipal taxes by about $6.84 million more than the city raised in property tax last year?  That tax increase does not include the fee increases city taxpayers are paying to City Hall.

Next year, in 2023, there is an economic recession being predicted that will cause financial pain for Pittsfield politics and beyond, but that inconvenient fact does not factor into Pittsfield's excessive spending that always increases by 5 percent per fiscal year over the past 40 years, which was when the flawed Proposition 2.5 state law went into effect in Massachusetts.  Why is Proposition 2.5 still on the books when municipalities such as Pittsfield get away with "Cooking the Books"?

Then there are Matt "Kufflinks" Kerwood's secretive multimillion-dollar Slush Fund$ that should belong in the pockets of the city's taxpayers.  Mayor Linda Tyer is sitting on millions upon millions of excess dollars, yet she keeps passing record high municipal budgets year after year in Pittsfield politics.  If I still lived in our native hometown of Pittsfield, I would want my share of the excess taxpayer dollars for myself so that I could pay down my personal debts and save money for my future so that I would be financially secure in my life.  But in Pittsfield politics, it is the other way around with city taxpayers being kept in the dark about Matt Kerwood and Linda Tyer's multimillion-dollar Slush Fund$.

In closing, if there were a textbook on how NOT to run a municipality, it would be called: Pittsfield politics!

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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"With a growing tax levy, Pittsfield property taxes also will be on the rise. How much more will you pay?"

By Meg Britton-Mehlisch, The Berkshire Eagle, November 15, 2022

PITTSFIELD — In Pittsfield, average homeownership looks like a Cape-style house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a detached one-car garage. After a City Council vote Tuesday night, it also looks like a rising property tax bill.

The council voted 7-3 to accept a tax rate proposal from Mayor Linda Tyer that will help the city levy about $101.1 million over the course of the fiscal year — that’s about $6.84 million more than the city raised in property taxes last fiscal year.

For the average single-family home, with an assessed value of $248,100, the tax rate that comes with this levy will translate to $4,545.19 in property taxes. That translates to an increase of about $423 a year, or $35.29 a month, in property taxes.

Tyer's tax rate greenlit as Pittsfield council rejects using additional $1 million in free cash to reduce property tax bills

Taxpayers will see their tax bills rise even though the council accepted a lower tax rate than last fiscal year.

The proposal accepted by the council set the residential property tax rate at $18.32 per $1,000 in assessed value and the commercial property tax rate at $39.21 per $1,000 in assessed value. That’s a rate decrease of 24 cents per $1,000 for residential properties and 69 cents per $1,000 in assessed value for commercial properties over the fiscal 2022 rates.

But, given how much property values have increased, many residents will end up paying more in city property taxes this year than they did last year.

Over the course of the fiscal year, the total assessed value of the city’s single-family housing stock — some 11,314 properties — increased by 11.7 percent. The total assessed value of the city’s 825 commercial properties rose about 4.5 percent as well.

Three councilors — Charles Kronick, Karen Kalinowsky and Ken Warren — protested that the rising bottom line for Pittsfield taxpayers was more than many residents will be able to bear this year.

“Right now we are in a situation where people are paying more for oil, more for gas, more for food," Kalinowsky said. "I think we can do something for our residents.”

“We have to do something,” she added. “We need to start cutting back on non-essential things.”

Kronick proposed Pittsfield put $3 million of the city’s free cash — essentially the money collected by the city that’s left over and unrestricted from the prior fiscal year — toward the levy to reduce the amount the city would need to raise from taxpayers.

Tyer’s administration had already agreed to allocate $1 million in free cash toward reducing the levy during the budgeting process earlier this year. Tyer pushed back against the idea of using additional money from that account, saying it would “artificially” cover the city’s cost.

“Layering on large sums of free cash essentially causes a ripple effect in future years in that your budget has been artificially funded,” Tyer said. “At some point you won’t have free cash and at some point you’re not raising $3 million on the taxpayer — you’re going to be raising $10 million.”

The mayor said on top of being what she considered a short-sighted approach to municipal budgeting, putting additional money from free cash toward the levy would jeopardize her plan to ask the council to put free cash toward purchasing body cameras for the Pittsfield Police Department.

Tyer did not elaborate on how much she planned to use for that project.

Warren urged the city to “be creative” in its use of American Rescue Plan funds, saying the federal coronavirus aid could be put toward projects in ways that would reduce that the city’s overall operating budget.

Delayed but not deterred, Pittsfield City Council passes $188 million operating budget

Councilor Kevin Sherman said to him it appeared the administration had already followed that advice in using ARPA funds to cover the cost of upgrades to the city’s drinking water infrastructure instead of turning to water rates to cover the cost of those projects.

While many of the talking points from councilors opposing the tax levy — and by extension the property tax rate — covered familiar ground, this year Tyer had a unique retort.

Tyer reiterated to the council that the tax rate was intended to fund the budget approved by the council in June. The mayor reminded the council that the budget she proposed was lower than the one eventually approved by the council “because you asked us to put additional services into the budget.”

“I think we’ve done our part to be as fiscally responsible as possible and I think this evening is an opportunity for us to balance what’s needed in order to fund operations for the city of Pittsfield and protect our reserves,” Tyer said.

Pittsfield Tax Rate Drops, Tax Bills Rise for Fiscal 2023 / iBerkshires.com - The Berkshires online guide to events, news and Berkshire County community information.

Property taxes to increase for Pittsfield ratepayers in Fiscal Year 2023 | WAMC

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November 18, 2022

In Pittsfield politics, one has to be a Democrat to be elected.  But over the years/decades, there have been many state and local elected officials who only say that they are Democrats to get elected, but their respective public records are Republican.  So many of them have used elected office as a steppingstone to a more lucrative career in the public sector.  Some of the "All in the Family" for generations on end Mafia-like elected officials in Pittsfield politics do not even live in Pittsfield anymore, but they still use Pittsfield politics for their own ends.  Mayor Linda Tyer is not from Pittsfield, but she aligned herself with the Good Old Boys and Girls political network to advance her career in Pittsfield politics.  Other than possibly a few other good men and women in Pittsfield politics, the people and taxpayers of Pittsfield have no real representation in state and local government.  To be clear, the word Democracy in Pittsfield politics is met with retribution.

Jonathan A. Melle

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November 19, 2022

Hello Patrick Fennell,

Agreed.  There are probably a few well-meaning career politicians among all of the corrupt career politicians out there.  I support Charles Ivar Kronick in Pittsfield politics, as well as Joe Kelly Levasseur in Manchester (NH) politics because they always look out for the people and taxpayers.  I like them, too, because they have told me that they don't agree with my conclusions in my political writings and blog posts.  I support Mary E. Carey of Amherst (Mass.), who is my favorite journalist and blogger EVER!  I support blogger Dan Valenti's advocacy for the little guy who he calls the fictional Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski.  I support Alan Chartock's work at WAMC Northeast public radio along with his political columns.  I support the first woman Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington and her progressive political ideals.  Andrea Harrington graduated from Taconic High School in 1993; I graduated from Pittsfield High School in 1993, too.  I support you, Patrick Fennell, because you care about politics, the people and the taxpayers so much that you speak out against all of the political corruption in Berkshire County, Boston, the Swamp and beyond.  All of the people I support have very different political views, but I admire them because their hearts are in the right place.

The following are the corrupt career politicians I do NOT support:

1.  Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior aka Luciforo!  This 4-foot-tall piece of crap persecuted me since I was 20 years old during the Spring of 1996 when my dad, Bob, successfully campaigned for Berkshire County Commissioner (1997 - mid-2000).  Luciforo filed multiple state "ethics" complaints to multiple Massachusetts state agencies against my father from the Fall of 1997 to the Spring of 1998.  Luciforo tried to jail me from the Spring of 1998 through the Summer of 1998.  Luciforo allegedly illegally violated Massachusetts state "ethics" laws for 7 to 8 years from 1999 to 2006 when he double dipped as a Pittsfield State Senator who chaired the State Senate Finance Committee in Boston while also working as a Corporate Attorney for a Boston Law Firm named "Berman and Dowell" whereby he served as legal counsel for Boston area big banks and insurance companies.  Luciforo had to step down from his elected position as a Pittsfield State Senator because of his unethical and allegedly illegal corrupt political career.  In 2006, Luciforo strong-armed two woman named Sharon Henault and former one-term Pittsfield Mayor Sara Hathaway out of the state government election for Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds, where he served in his no show plum sinecure for the next six years from 2007 to 2012, while he plotted to oust then U.S. Congressman John W. Olver from his elected position in the U.S. House of Representatives.  In 2012, Olver retired due to redistricting, which left Luciforo to run against PAC Man Richie Neal, who defeated Luciforo by 40 percentage points in that year of 2012 primary election.  Five years later in 2017, Luciforo started his marijuana business which he named "Berkshire Roots".  The Boston Globe ran news stories and editorials about how Luciforo used his political connections in both Pittsfield and Boston to receive permits to sell his marijuana products to the public.  Nuciforo's "Berkshire Roots" pot growing buildings on Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield stink up residential neighborhoods with his pot growing odors, which Mayor Linda Tyer does nothing about despite the public outcry from residential taxpaying residents.  To this day (November 19th, 2022), Luciforo still has a law office in Boston's Financial District.  I have said over and over again that Nuciforo should have been disbarred and sent to prison for his allegedly illegal double dipping, but since he is not Martha Stewart or Elizabeth Holmes, Luciforo goes uncharged and unchecked.  It may have something to do with his billionaire political friend John Forbes Kerry, who during his 2004 presidential campaign had Nuciforo wear a matching tuxedo with him at an elitist fundraiser with the wealthy financial elites.

2. Smitty Pignatelli aka Shitty Pigpen.  Smitty Pignatelli writes lofty op-eds in Western Massachusetts newspapers, but his real public record over the past 20 years in Boston has been anything but lofty.  Since 2003, Smitty Pignatelli has openly spoke out and voted against Sunshine Laws rules reforms.  Smitty Pignatelli believes that Beacon Hill lawmakers should operate behind closed doors.  I told Smitty Pignatelli that if the people and news media were allowed to review Boston's cooked books then we would have a voice in state government instead of being lied to over and over again by the corrupt career politicians in Boston.  Smitty Pignatelli voted for his own 40 percent legislative pay raise in early-2017, which cost state taxpayers over $18 million.  Smitty Pignatelli has happily accepted countless public pay raises plus public perks, which have cost state taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.  Smitty Pignatelli - along with Maryland Markey - supports GE's proposal to put a third leaky landfill full of industrial chemical waste called PCBs inside of a watershed in the polluted Housatonic River in Lee over the outcry of the people who live in Lee and Lenoxdale.  Smitty Pignatelli voted for two Speakers of the State House named Tom Finneran and Sal DiMasi, who later became Convicted Felons.  Smitty Pignatelli blocks all of my political emails because he doesn't want me to tell him that when he writes his op-eds about Berkshire County's economically unequal and distressed economy with decades of population loss and the loss of hundreds of living wage jobs and businesses, he should look at himself in the proverbial mirror because he has been a State Representative for a very long time now.

3. Daniel E. Bosley aka the bureaucrat aka the greedy lobbyist.  Dan Bosley served as a State Representative in Boston for 24 years, and he is a greedy lobbyist in Boston and beyond.  Daniel Bosley sponsored the secretive rider called "The Bosley Amendment" many years ago on Beacon Hill that would have given Boston area big businesses billions of dollars in state tax breaks, which would have created a huge state budget deficit back then, but his inequitable legislation was quickly defeated back then.  Dan Bosley did not support then Governor Deval Patrick's casino gambling legislation because Dan Bosley wanted to protect the state lottery's bottom line.  Of course, the Massachusetts State Lottery is a multibillion-dollar per year (voluntary) regressive taxation operation that allows Beacon Hill lawmakers to give away billions of dollars in state tax breaks to wealthy Boston area big businesses so they can all enrich themselves at the public trough, while the working class gets screwed over.  Just like Smitty Pignatelli, Daniel Bosley voted for Tom Finneran and Sal DiMasi for Speakers of the State House many years ago.  I read on the blogs that Dan Bosley is said to collect two Massachusetts state pensions, plus public perks, plus his 6-figure per year salary as a registered lobbyist.  Beacon Hill lawmakers should pass a state law that says that state taxpayers may cut out the middleman and pay their state taxes directly to Dan Bosley instead of to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  It would be the most efficient way for Daniel Bosley to get his greedy hands on more of the loot from the state taxpayers. 

4. Frank Guinta.  When I lived in Manchester (NH) for 4 years from early-2005 to early-2009, I watched Frank Guinta be elected the mayor there for two terms.  He could not even pass a budget without the Board of Alderman rewriting the municipal budget.  He neglected the public schools to the point where there was public outcry from the parents and students.  In 2010, he successfully ran for U.S. Congress whereby the NH Union Leader later called him "A Goddamned Liar" because he illegally used somewhere around $381,000 of his parents' retirement money to illegally fund his political campaign.  When he successfully ran for U.S. Congress, Frank Guinta criticized one of his Republican Party candidate opponents for being a registered lobbyist.  After he was defeated by Carol Shea-Porter in 2016, Frank Guinta became, and he still is, a registered lobbyist on K Street.

5. Jimmy Ruberto.  I believe the worst decision I ever made in politics was supporting James M. Ruberto for Mayor of Pittsfield in 2003.  He ended up being a snake oil salesman on steroids.  Jimmy Ruberto promised the people and taxpayers of Pittsfield everything, but he delivered nothing during his eight years as mayor from 2004 - 2011.  While he was the mayor during the 2008 recession, which was the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression in the 1930s, Mayor Jimmy Ruberto never stopped taxing and spending the working-class residents out of their homes.  The so-called Ruberto Renaissance of dangerous downtown Pittsfield was a total failure that cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.  Despite all of the public money Jimmy Ruberto spent as Pittsfield's mayor, he never owned a home in Pittsfield, nor did he ever rent an apartment in Pittsfield.  He lived in his mother Edith's home the whole time, while his real home was in Naples, Florida, where he would go to for weeks at a time during his tenure as mayor.  A few years ago, Jimmy Ruberto purchased a $490,000 condo in upscale Lenox, but his full-time residence is in Florida.  Jimmy Ruberto still writes his useless Pittsfield politics letters to the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) from Naples, Florida.

6. Peter J. Larkin aka Lobbyist Larkin.  Peter Larkin was a Pittsfield State Representative who said he was a Democrat, but he was really a Republican.  Peter Larkin sold Pittsfield down the toilet by doing GE's bidding that made Pittsfield into GE's toxic waste dump.  Peter Larkin has cashed in as a registered lobbyist for GE and other big businesses to the tune of millions of dollars.  Peter Larkin is also married to a Medical Doctor who works in Worcester, and when he was a Pittsfield State Representative, Peter Larkin submitted allegedly fraudulent forms for travel per diem pay because he did not really live in Pittsfield back then.  Peter Larkin voted for Tom Finneran for Speaker of the State House.  Peter Larkin sponsored abstinence only sex education in public schools.  When I wrote to Peter Larkin about the issue, he never responded.  Peter Larkin yelled at me when I asked him to sign my nomination papers for Berkshire-based State Senator in early-2004 before I dropped out of the election back then.  Dan Bosley and Smitty Pignatelli also refused to sign my nomination papers back then, too.

7. Bill Clinton.  He is a twice over convicted Felon.  He turned the Oval Office into the Oral Orifice.  He has 26 flight logs on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet to pedo-island.  He settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with Paula Jones because when he was a Governor, he had his pants down in front of her whereby he expected Paula Jones to give him a blow job.  Bill Clinton should never have run for U.S. President.  It upsets me that only Ghislaine Maxwell sits in a country club-like prison in Florida, while the likes of Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew of the U.K., and an estimated 215 rich and powerful men go uncharged for the rape, sexual abuse and exploitation of woman as young as 14 years old.

8. Donald Trump.  He had neo-Nazis work for his presidential campaigns and in his presidential administration.  He did not condemn the hate march in Charlottesville, Virgina.  He incited the insurrection on Capitol Hill.  He is the racist leader of the White Nationalist Movement in the USA, which is also happening in Europe 100 years after Adolf Hitler rose to power in the 1920s.  He uses racist and sexist language to build his political base of bigots.  He divided our nation with toxic politics.  I will NEVER support Donald Trump in politics!

9. Joe Biden.  His son Hunter Biden allegedly illegally money laundered over $1.2 billion from China, along with millions of dollars from Ukraine and Russia.  Joe Biden and Hunter Biden ran a pay to play influence scheme that will lead to Joe Biden's impeachment in 2023, but he will not be convicted in the U.S. Senate just like Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump (x2).  Hunter Biden is a recovering crack cocaine addict and alcoholic.  Hunter Biden paid a lot of money to strippers and sex works.  A young woman stripper who is somewhere around half of Hunter Biden's age had a baby girl that was fathered by Hunter Biden.  Hunter Biden says that he has no memory of his young woman sexual partner.  Hunter Biden lied to a Judge by saying he wasn't the father of the baby girl, but a court-ordered paternity test proved otherwise, and now Hunter Biden is making retroactive child support payments.  Hunter Biden has at least 5 children by at least 3 women.  Hunter Biden is still under federal legal investigation for his alleged criminal activities.  Hunter Biden's connection to his father, the sitting U.S. President Joe Biden, will lead to scandal in 2023.  Yet, Joe Biden openly says that he is proud of his last surviving son, Hunter Biden.  If that is Joe Biden's judgment, then our country is in for a lot of hurt and trouble ahead.

10. Mike Pence.  For years, I have received countless political emails from homosexual public advocacy and women public advocacy political organization saying that Mike Pence's conservative religious political views are a direct threat to their wellbeing.  Mike Pence belongs in an evangelical Church instead of in the federal government.  Unlike Mike Pence, I believe that there should be a wall in between Church and State.  Furthermore, there are millions of people in the USA who are Jewish, Muslim and other religious faiths, along with people who are not religious, who have a voice in their government that is very different that how Mike Pence sees things in politics.  If Mike Pence practiced what he preached, then he should have spoken out about Donald Trump being married three times, openly cheating on all three of his wives, having fathered a baby girl named Tiffany out-of-wedlock, along with other Republican Party leaders such as Newt Gingrich being an adulterer who was married three times, too. 

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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Letter: "As a Pittsfield resident, I have some complaints"

The Berkshire Eagle, November 18, 2022

To the editor: Well, it seems as if Pittsfield is chasing New York state as a very expensive place to live.

Case in point, the recent article in The Berkshire Eagle reporting on the council-approved real estate tax hike comes at a bad time considering the inflation we are all facing nationwide. In addition, check out your latest water and sewer bills. Our water is metered, and we paid $19.60 for water, and we paid $35.99 for sewer. What could the city be doing with the sewage that costs almost twice as much than the water we drink? Don't forget that our water has to be treated before we drink it.

Lastly, what were the plows doing the other night? A "dry run"? That's right, the roads were wet but with no snow accumulation. More money spent at the taxpayers' expense. I can't imagine trying to plow North Street with all the bike lanes and markers. Maybe that's why the plows were out: practice.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

George P. Diehl, Pittsfield

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Letter: "Are the good old days gone in PIttsfield?"

The Berkshire Eagle, November 18, 2022

To the editor: I am amazed at the constant changes in the city I have called home for most of my life.

People no longer feel safe as crime is increasing. Downtown has lost so many businesses and is not user-friendly with the parking meters and ever-changing traffic patterns.

The carousel on Center Street is closed. What a shame that this monument to Pittsfield's past built by hours of labor and love to as a form of enjoyment sits idle and unused. What will become of this? My solution would be to use money from marijuana sales to fund acquisition of this community shrine so that all people would be able to enjoy its artistry and beauty. So many people united to make this a reality, and it sits stagnant on Center Street. How much longer will it last without heat? People came forward to do the carving and painting of the animals, and no one is able to enjoy it. I personally would rather see it at The Common or Pontoosuc Lake, but like so many undertakings in this city, a lot of talk and little action. Save this treasure and buy it so it can be used.

There is a lack of advertising for the annual Park of Honor, which is sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Pittsfield. They should have ads so that people could purchase flags and aid the scholarship fund. I know of 11 more flags that could have been purchased, but no one knew where to order them. I tried the website to no avail. I have always been impressed with this program, but the information was not current. As a result, it has become a smaller display year after year.

More stores close downtown, and fewer people go there. I have read we have a welcoming committee and other groups for downtown, but there is no incentive to move to North Street due to the bike lanes and problems with parking. Many people I know will not drive downtown as they think they it's a racetrack.

I am unsure what the solutions are, but let us fund something that benefits all rather than a select group. A focus should include the elderly, as we have a huge proportion of people in that category, and also act on helping the homeless. 

I guess the good old days are gone, but life was simpler and nicer than it is today.

James Armstrong, Pittsfield

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Letter: "Property tax hike and snow-clearing fines a double-whammy for some Pittsfield homeowners"

The Berkshire Eagle, December 7, 2022

To the editor: A recent front-page Eagle article reports Pittsfield property taxes are going up about $35 a month for the average homeowner. ("With a growing tax levy, Pittsfield property taxes also will be on the rise. How much more will you pay?," Eagle, Nov. 15.)

The next day's paper came with an article about the rules for clearing sidewalks in front of homes within 24 hours of a snowstorm to avoid being fined $25 to $100. ("Pittsfield residents will now get one warning to clear their snowy sidewalks before fines roll in. Here's a look at the rules," Eagle, Nov. 16.)

This is a heavy burden for the elderly on fixed incomes and those working two to three jobs just to make ends meet. The cost to hire someone to do it for you if you aren't able is an extra expense. Finding someone to do it is about impossible. When I was growing up, kids used to go door to door asking if they could shovel sidewalks and driveways after a snowstorm and get 25 to 50 cents for their efforts to raise spending money or help their parents.

With the cost of fuel to heat homes, gasoline to run your car and food going up, the last thing people need is to be threatened with fines. 

Let's hope no one has to make the choice of keeping warm or putting food on the table, let alone worry about where to get the money for fines to put in Pittsfield's coffer. 

Even in the "Dale," the sidewalks are cleared by the town.

Erika Hathaway, Lenox Dale

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December 16, 2022

In reply to my copying and pasting the New Hampshire Union Leader's editorial about the increase in serious auto accidents from impaired drivers high on marijuana, Dave Bubriski emailed me the following: "What happened to the pot revenue that was supposed to bail Pittsfield out? Guess it turned into cleptocurrency!"

The NH Union Leader pointed out that the most prevalent substance found in injured drivers in serious auto accidents was not alcohol but THC, the active ingredient found in marijuana.  Traffic deaths have increased substantially in recent years due to impaired drivers having THC in their blood.

Back to Pittsfield's Pot King - Luciforo - and the city's Pot Windfall, I wouldn't trust either Nuciforo or Pittsfield politics to make responsible public safety and financial decisions when it comes to the predatory pot industry in Pittsfield that is stinking up residential neighborhoods around Dalton Avenue's Berkshire Roots pot growing facilities.

Let us not forget that in 2006, then Pittsfield State Senator Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior had to step down from his elected position in Boston because he was allegedly illegally double dipping as the Chairman of the Massachusetts State Senate Finance Committee while at the same time working as a private Corporate Attorney for the Boston Law Firm Berman and Dowell serving Boston's big banks and insurance companies from 1999 to 2006.  Let us not forget that Nuciforo strong-armed two women - Sharon Henault and Sara Hathaway - out of the 2006 state government election for Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds whereby he spent the next 6 years (2007 - 2012) plotting to oust Congressman John W. Olver from his elected position, but due to redistricting in 2012, Olver did not run for reelection in 2012, which led to Nuciforo trying to oust PAC Man Richie Neal from Congress, but Nuciforo was called a Fringe Politician by the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) and Nuciforo went on to lose to Congressman Neal by 40 points in 2012.  Let us not forget that Nuciforo used his political connections in both Pittsfield and Boston alike to be one of the first ones to receive his marijuana permits over everyone else, and he has been cashing in on the predatory marijuana industry since 2017.  Nuciforo still has a law office in Boston's Financial District, too.

I have long said and written that Luciforo is corrupt and that he should have been convicted by a state or federal court of law for using the state government for his own allegedly illegal ends and that he should have been disbarred from being an Attorney and that he should have been sent to state prison for his allegedly illegal double dipping as a corrupt Massachusetts State Senator.  Nuciforo has no business owning Berkshire Roots because I believe that he should have been a long ago Convicted Felon and disgraced politician, but somehow Nuciforo was able to get away with it all.  Unbelievable!

Jonathan A. Melle

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December 17, 2022

It would not surprise me if all of the Pittsfield leaders have a stake in Berkshire Roots, but I do not know the inside scoop on Nuciforo's Pittsfield Pot Kingdom.  All of the information I have on Luciforo is from my negative experiences with Pittsfield's 4-foot-tall piece of crap in the form of a man, as well as the news stories and editorials about Nuciforo from Pittsfield points east to Boston.  For many years of my adult life of 47 years, I have spoken out, written and blogged about the spoiled son (of a bitch) of Pittsfield royal family.  Nuciforo's late father was a Pittsfield State Senator and then a Probate and Family Court Judge.  Nuciforo's late aunt was Pittsfield's first woman Mayor of Pittsfield (Sara Hathaway is the second; Linda Tyer is the third woman to sit on her fat ass in the corner office in Pittsfield City Hall).  Nuciforo's uncle Tom Wojtkowski was a Pittsfield State Representative many years ago.  Like Luciforo, most of his family were lawyers and politicians in Pittsfield.  Luciforo used his family name and connections to serve as a Pittsfield State Senator for 10 years from 1997 - 2006.  Most of the people who lived in Pittsfield whom I had spoken with many years ago disliked him, but they feared him due to Pittsfield politics use of retribution.  Luciforo persecuted me - Jon Melle - since the Spring of 1996 when I was only 20 years old, and he even tried to secretly have the Pittsfield Police Department arrest and jail me during the Spring of 1998 when I was 22 years old after Nuciforo secretly filed multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad, Bob, who was an elected Berkshire County Commissioner back then.  Similar to then Pittsfield State Representative Peter J. Larkin, Luciforo did not live in Pittsfield, but rather, Luciforo lived in Boston the entire time from when I first met him during the Spring of 1996 through the upcoming Winter of 2022/2023.  Luciforo has a reputation of being mean-spirited, and he is well known to mockingly laughs at the people he hurts in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  A lot of people over the years have been turned off by Luciforo's evil methods of doing business in Pittsfield politics.  When Luciforo ran against PAC Man Richie Neal in 2012, the Springfield Republican published an editorial that stated the Nuciforo is mean-spirited.  What the Hell did Luciforo think he would accomplish by mistreating so many people?  When I explain what he put me and my family through during and after my dad, Bob, was an elected Berkshire County Commissioner (1997 - mid-2000), the response I often receive is that while the unusual events in my life happened within the context of politics, that it was not politics, but rather, it was mean-spirited and unfair, and that someone such as myself should never have experienced all of what happened.  I strongly believe that Luciforo should have been disbarred for his allegedly illegal double dipping in Boston from 1999 - 2006, as well as been a long ago Convicted Felon for his corruption on Beacon Hill and Boston's Financial District's big banks and insurance companies.  Luciforo should be a disgraced politician, but instead, he is raking in millions of dollars as a state-legal/federally-illegal drug dealer of pot.  Moreover, Luciforo still has a law office in Boston's Financial District.  How does someone so corrupt and mean-spirited get away with so much?  Lastly, when I have acid reflux or bodily pain, I associated my unpleasant feelings with Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior because he is a disgusting man who was, is and always will be a big pain in the ASS!

Jonathan A. Melle

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December 23, 2022

To the Editor of the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle):

Ryan Salame blew the proverbial whistle against FTX, but that doesn't mean he did so in good faith to protect the cryptocurrency investors who lost an estimated $8 billion.  Whistleblowers often do so to cover their own behinds, get revenge against others, to advance their own interests, and the like.

The other issue that bothers me is that Pittsfield's Pot King named Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior (aka "Luciforo") has been a very controversial figure in both Berkshire County and Boston for a very long time, which I have written and blogged about for many years.  Why does "Luciforo" always get a pass, while so many others get the Dirty Bird's screws turned on them?

I still read the blogs and letters to the editor in Berkshire County, and many people are very upset with "Luciforo" on many different levels, including yours truly.  In closing, it seems to me that the Dirty Bird almost always protects "Luciforo", while everyone else gets the Eagle's knife twisted in their backs!

Jonathan A. Melle

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April 1, 2023

Re: Luciforo's Berkshire Roots Pot Kingdom is anti-Union

It is no surprise to me that Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior (aka Luciforo)'s Berkshire Roots Pot Kingdom in anti-Union.  When Luciforo was a Pittsfield State Senator from 1997 - 2006, the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) called him a fiscal conservative, despite his status as a Democrat.  Luciforo never lived in Pittsfield as a career turned disgraced politician, but he used his late-father's name and political status in Pittsfield to win state government elections in Pittsfield, despite Luciforo always living in Boston.

Luciforo had to resign from his seat as a Pittsfield State Senator in Boston in 2006 because he was allegedly illegally double dipping as the Chair of the State Senate Finance Committee while at the same time working as an Attorney for the law firm named "Berman and Dowell" in Boston whereby Luciforo served as legal counsel for Boston's big banks and insurance companies from 1999 - 2006.  I believe that Luciforo should have been indicted for public and financial crimes and sent to prison for his unethical actions, but that never happened.  But to this day in early-Spring 2023, Luciforo still has a law office in Boston's Financial District.

In 2006, there were two women - Sharon Henault and Sara Hathaway - running for the elected state government position of Middle Berkshire Registrar of Deeds, but Luciforo strong-armed the two women out of the campaign and anointed himself the next Registrar of Deeds from 2007 - 2012.  Once again, Luciforo faced little to no criticism for his sexist and strong-arm actions.

In 2012, Luciforo announced he was running for U.S. Congress against the then sitting Congressman, who is the now late-John W. Olver.  But after the redistricting in 2012, Olver retired due to Massachusetts losing one seat due to population loss.  Luciforo then faced off against Springfield Congressman Richard E. Neal, and Luciforo proved himself to be a fringe politician by losing to Richie Neal by 40 percentage points.

In 2017, Luciforo used his political connections in both Pittsfield and Boston alike to be one of the first people to receive a permit(s) to open a marijuana dispensary in Massachusetts.  Over the past 6 years, Luciforo built his Pittsfield Pot Kingdom on Dalton Avenue, as well as opened a marijuana dispensary in East Boston.  The nearby residential neighborhoods have protested Luciforo's Pittsfield Pot Kingdom because his marijuana growing buildings are causing unpleasant odors, but, once again, Luciforo never faces any consequences for his actions.

My personal story with Luciforo started in the Spring of 1996 when my father, Bob Melle, ran for Berkshire County Commissioner, and I met Luciforo for the first time when he was running for Pittsfield State Senator.  I was only 20 years old back then.  Ever since I first met Luciforo, he conspiratorially targeted me by having people harass, bully, and even threaten to physically assault me without leaving behind his own fingerprints.  Luciforo deployed his mean-spirited bullying agents against me for many years of my then young adult life.  Luciforo never once apologized to me for his actions, nor did anyone from his terrible and conspiratorial political network that spans from Pittsfield to Boston.  But why would he do so?  After all, Luciforo never faces any consequences for his actions.

From the Fall of 1997 through the Spring of 1998, Luciforo filed multiple state "Ethics" complaints against my dad, Bob, who was an elected Berkshire County Commissioner as well as an Assistant Chief Probation Officer in the Pittsfield District Courthouse back then.  Luciforo tried to force my dad, Bob, to resign his elected position and have the state fire my dad, Bob, from his state government job that he held since late-1970.  But that is not all.  On May 20th, 1998, Luciforo made secret plans with the Pittsfield Police Department to have me arrested by falsely alleging that I was making "veiled threats" against him.  Depsite Luciforo and my dad, Bob, having lines of communication together back then, my dad, Bob, found out about Luciforo's plot to jail me through his work and he told me to stay away from Luciforo.  Thankfully, my dad did not have to resign his elected position, get fired from his state goverment job, and I didn't have to go to jail back then.

Please understand that it was Luciforo who was the one who was threatening and hurting me.  During the Fall Foliage Parade in North Adams in 1997, Luciforo broke from his parade route and aggressively walked towards me with great hostility.  Sara Hathway was at his side, but she did not tell Luciforo to stop.  My Uncle, who lives in Saratoga Springs, NY, and my cousin, who lived in North Adams back, then stepped in front of me, which caused Luciforo to walk back to his parade route.  Earlier that year, during the Summer of 1997, Luciforo gave me a mean stare that was meant to intimidate and scare me during a gathering at the Pittsfield Courthouse for Judge Francis Spina's judicial promotion.  Of course, Luciforo had people in his political network bully me for years.

In the Spring of 1999, I finally finished K - 18 (1980 - 1999) when I graduated from UMass Amherst with a Master of Public Administration degree.  When I looked for employment, Luciforo blacklisted me from finding a job in Pittsfield, which is the city I grew up in.  But that is not all.  Luciforo had his political network conspiratorially spread vicious rumors against me for many years of my then young adult life.  After I talked with my best friend about someone recently putting his name on Planet Valenti's blog comment section and falsely signing my name to the posting, my best friend said that Luciforo's newest mudslinging against me is to have people write homophobic comments about me in response to my blog postings.  I am not a homosexual, but I believe in Human Rights for All and I am accepting of homosexuality.

But everything that I have written, am writing, and will write about Luciforo doesn't really matter because Luciforo always gets away with doing whatever the Hell he wants to do whether it be in politics, the law, his Pittsfield Pot Kingdom along with his East Boston Pot Shop, hurting people such as myself - Jon Melle - over the past 27 years and onwards, and so on and so forth.  Luciforo never faces any consequences for any and all of his actions.  Luciforo lives a charmed life.

My mom recently asked me why Luciforo has always hurt me for so many years/decades of my adult life.  I answered her by saying that at first I was Luciforo's bait to hurt my dad, Bob, who was active in Pittsfield politics many years ago.  But after my dad, Bob, retired, Luciforo has targeted me with his conspiratirial and mean-spirited politics.

When I talk to my mental health professionals about the Hell that Luciforo has put me through, I am told that I am a person and a Veteran who has faced "Unusual Events" in my life.  My response to the feedback is that I do not understand how and why Luciforo always gets away with his actions without any consequences.  How on Earth is Luciforo able to do all of what he has done over the years without any consequences?  It boggles my mind to no end!

Lastly, I was told by good people that every hurtful thing that Luciforo has put me through in my adult life has happened in the context of politics, but it was, is and will not really be about politics because Luciforo's actions were, are and will always be hurtful, conspiratorial and mean-spirited.

Jonathan A. Melle

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"Berkshire Roots employees are negotiating their first contract as a unionized workforce — and the cannabis industry is paying attention"

By Amanda Burke, The Berkshire Eagle, March 30, 2023

Just down the road from the center of Pittsfield's industrial past, a nascent labor effort is underway. 

About 25 Berkshire Roots growers and trimmers are in the process of negotiating their first-ever contract with the Pittsfield-based cannabis company. 

During the early months of the pandemic in 2020, the workers chose to join the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Approaching three years later, the company and the union have not yet settled on contract language.   

"We have made some progress, but the company is doing their best to drag things out," said Drew Weisse, a local organizer for UFCW 1459. Berkshire Roots "caused a lot of people who support the union to either quit, or make them feel like the company was just going keep strong-arming them."  

The chief executive of Berkshire Roots, James Winokur, declined to discuss how negotiations with the union are going, saying the company and the union agreed not to talk about the matter in the press. 

The unionized employees are negotiating for "basic labor protections," Weisse said, such as livable wages, benefits and standard procedures for grievances and discipline.

Depending on experience, a cultivation employee's starting wage at Berkshire Roots is about $15 to $17 an hour, which Winokur said is "competitive" for the industry.

Retail employees at Berkshire Roots' two locations in Pittsfield and East Boston are not unionized. 

Weisse said that knitted into cannabis culture is a propensity for activism, and that makes it fertile ground for labor campaigns. Younger workers, from the young millennial and Gen Z sets, are expressing the most interest in unionizing their shops. 

He said he is involved in other union organizing efforts in the Berkshire County cannabis industry, but declined to talk about specifics.

The Berkshire Roots labor campaign represents some of the early union activity in the county's industry, and it's taking root in a city that has been trying to navigate a post-industrial economy since General Electric shuttered its mammoth manufacturing operations. 

When advocates and industry pitched legal cannabis to skeptical local lawmakers, they promised the creation of jobs.

In New Jersey, the UFCW set out to make sure those jobs were good ones, said labor organizer Hugh Giordano, of UFCW Local 360. The union brought to the industry political might it lacked in the early aughts, he said, when cannabis was still far from the mainstream. 

When recreational cannabis was legalized in New Jersey in 2021, a union-backed provision was included in the law. As a prerequisite to receiving licenses, marijuana companies agree not to interfere with employees' efforts to unionize, Giordano said.

The result of such agreements, he said, is that employees don't feel pressured to decide whether or not support a union. Thus, he said, the relationship between unionizing workers and management is less hostile. 

"It sounds simplistic," Giordano said, "but for a union campaign to have a balanced, neutral approach, it's a big win for workers." 

A bill filed on Beacon Hill would establish a Labor Peace Agreement requirement in Massachusetts. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Lydia Edwards, D-Boston, said the provision would prevent companies from "harassing" workers who set out to join a union.

Like the New Jersey measure, her bill would condition cannabis licensure on companies' entering labor peace agreements, Edwards said, formalizing their commitment not to spread misinformation about labor unions or impede union elections, and to bargain in good faith if employees do vote to unionize. 

She called it a step toward fulfilling the promise of equity in legalized cannabis and repairing the harms done by the war on drugs. It's early in the legislative process, she said, and hearing on the bill has not yet been scheduled.

As the process moves ahead, she said she thinks she'll hear opponents of the labor provision begin to make themselves known, and anticipates they will say the measure is too costly. 

To that Edwards said, "I don't believe that workers that are paid a living wage are a financial burden on a successful business. If you can't do that, then I would say you don't have a successful business model." 

Unionizing can be a tough road for workers across industries, and cannabis is no exception. Maddi Woodhams was a union steward at the Milford grow facility for the multi-state cannabis operator, AYR Wellness, which does business as SIRA Naturals. She said there was a labor peace agreement, and the company recognized the union.

However, Woodhams said she felt the company failed to train managers about what they could and could not do under labor laws, and ultimately she said she believes she was targeted for completing the responsibilities she had as a union representative.  

She was disciplined twice for insubordination, and she disputes both accusations, which she said involved alleged violations of email protocol and best practices. By that point, she said the combination of shop steward and company employee had become too mentally taxing, so she left the job and the union.

"They were looking for reasons to get rid of me, because I was causing a lot of issues. I was standing up for people. I was doing my job as a steward," she said. "So I know for a fact that I was targeted."

The company has not responded to a request for a comment about Woodhams' accusations.

Woodhams said agencies are finally paying due attention to safety conditions at cannabis facilities. She points to the death of a worker at Trulieve in Holyoke as a turning point.

Lorna McMurray was 27when she died last year after becoming unable to breathe on the job. She packaged pre-rolled joints and suffered an asthma attack after inhaling cannabis dust. 

Although the company said it agreed to pay a fine of $14,502 after settling with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, it was not held directly responsible for McMurray's death.

Like other former mill cities, Pittsfield took a free-market approach to cannabis. The City Council paved the way for a maximum of three-dozen companies to make their homes within city limits, pining for vacant properties to be brought back onto the tax rolls. Pittsfield today has five cannabis retailers and six cultivation operations.

That approach has been a boon for city coffers. But at many Berkshire County dispensaries, wages for retail employees are about the same as those offered at traditional retailers, starting at or about a dollar or so above minimum wage. 

Cannabis companies are selling a mountain of recreational weed, posting a combined $4.13 billion in gross sales since operations began late 2018. Meg Sanders, the chief executive of one such cannabis company off the turnpike in Lee, Canna Provisions, which does not have an employee union, declined a request to discuss the issue of union labor. 

A few communities away in Pittsfield on Larch Street, Matthew Hamilton one day this winter was working at Bloom Brothers, scanning licenses of shoppers headed into the dispensary.

Hamilton said the company, owned by Nathan and Nicolas Girard, has excellent working conditions, with wages above others in the industry and a positive work environment that prevents employee turnover. While employees at some companies look to unionizing, Hamilton said that at Bloom Brothers labor conditions are good. 

"I would vote very strongly against [a union]," he said. "It's completely unnecessary."

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April 18, 2023

Hello blogger Dan Valenti,

I strongly disagree with your praise of Mayor Jimmy Ruberto (2004 - 2011), who you wrote served the City of Pittsfield, Massachusetts with "authenticity".  You are correct that his costly efforts to revitalize downtown Pittsfield failed.  People sarcastically wrote that "the Ruberto Renaissance" rivaled Paris, London, NYC and L.A.'s arts and cultural venues - more like their homeless shelters.  Jimmy Ruberto spent millions of public dollars on downtown arts and cultural venues, while Pittsfield lost hundreds of living wage jobs and thousands of residents moved away.

You criticize Mayor Sara Hathaway turned schoolmarm who was fired from her public-school teaching position but reinstated after litigation.  She deserves a lot of criticism, of course, but she was right in 2001 and again in 2003 that Jimmy Ruberto was a snake oil salesman.  We should have listened to Sara Hathaway's warnings about Jimmy Ruberto back then.  Moreover, many of Mayor Sara Hathaway's ideas and initiatives were coopted by Jimmy Ruberto back then.

Jimmy Ruberto used to say that he has a Rolodex that he would use to bring living wage jobs back to Pittsfield after GE pulled out of the city.  His Rolodex only had Good Old Boys in it, such as the disgraced: Angelo Stracuzzi, Carmen Massimiano, Jr., and Andrea Nuciforo, Jr., and the like.  While the worst economic recession since the Great Depression hit Pittsfield (and beyond) in 2008, Mayor Jimmy Ruberto still raised municipal taxes well above the rate of inflation.  The only economic growth in Pittsfield during Mayor Jimmy Ruberto's eight year tenure was the City of Pittsfield's spending.

Mayor Jimmy Ruberto's failure on PEDA is consistent with Gerry Doyle, Sara Hathway, Dan Bianchi and Linda Tyer's failures.  Polluted PEDA will turn 25 years old this upcoming Summer 2023, and it has millions of dollars in always growing debts and other liabilities.  If Mayor Jimmy Ruberto was any good as a public manager, he would have shut down PEDA and turned it over to the federal government as a Superfund site.  Why PEDA will turn 25 years old soon is beyond my comprehension of rational economics, but "this is Pittsfield".

Jimmy Ruberto never owned or rented a property to live in as a resident of Pittsfield.  He retired from his job as a Plastics Salesman in Texas in 2001 and moved into his mother, Edith's, home in Pittsfield in 2001.  Within two years, he put his mother, Edith, in a nursing home, and then he went onto oust Mayor Sara Hathaway in 2003.  When he was the Mayor of Pittsfield, he really lived in his upscale condo in Naples, Florida, where he would go for weeks at a time.  After his mother, Edith, and his wife, Ellen, passed away, Jimmy Ruberto ended up selling his mother's Pittsfield home, and he used the money to pay cash for an upscale condo in upper class Lenox, which is his second home.

Why am I frustrated by Jimmy Ruberto's legacy?  The answer is because he put the financial burden of his failed leadership in Pittsfield on the (shrinking) middle-class taxpayers, who used their limited financial resources to invest in their properties and city, while he did NOT do the same.  Mayor Jimmy Ruberto proved to be a snake oil salesman who promised to revitalize a distressed postindustrial city, but at the end of the day, he made Pittsfield even more distressed and expensive.  My most despised memory of Mayor Jimmy Ruberto was when he had "Luciforo" swear him into his third term in early-2008.  The best thing Jimmy Ruberto did for Pittsfield was move away from the city!

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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April 20, 2023

I respect you and always enjoy reading your posts, "ShirleyKnutz".  But I feel that what you wrote to/about me, Jon Melle, was a cheap shot because a lot of people know full well what happened to my political family in Pittsfield politics to the Boston Statehouse due to the disgraced double dipper (Boston's Financial District) State Senator turned Pot King's 27 years of persecution.  I am still trying to deal with my negative feelings towards politicians, especially in Pittsfield, Amherst (MA) where I attended UMass many years ago, and Boston's Statehouse, but I also have negative feelings about the Swamp.  I dislike career politicians because they are only about the Almighty Dollar and Power, and I feel like common people, such as Have Nots like Jon Melle, and distressed cities like my native hometown of Pittsfield (MA), receive only DISSERVICES from the financial, corporate and ruling elites.  Whatever happened to the government Investing in People?  Moreover, I feel like the state lottery SCAM and other (voluntary) regressive taxation schemes mock both Jon Melle and Pittsfield alike because it allows the elites to profit off public inequities.  To illustrate, there are registered lobbyists on Beacon Hill who make 7-figure salaries.  In the Swamp, K Street is bragging about the lobbyist firms record earnings.  Meanwhile, the common people and distressed cities - the Jon Melle's/Pittsfield's of the world - are paying well over $100 per week for the same goods and services than two to three years ago.  Jon Melle never stood a chance in Pittsfield, and Pittsfield politics' Good Old Boys made life difficult for me.  Jon Melle lives in New Hampshire, which is an openly financially conservative state, and I don't have to deal with Pittsfield politics anymore other than read about its downward spiral on Dan Valenti's blog.

Jonathan A. Melle

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April 26, 2023

Hello Rinaldo,

I read your letter about your public advocacy petition for the Pittsfield Police Department to have a city ordinance that mandates that the police intervene in a life-threatening use of force situation.  What I found was missing from your public advocacy was that when the PPD used deadly force against Miguel Estrella over one year ago, they wrote in their police report that he was not a person in distress under law.  Miguel Estrella was intoxicated and/or high, he was self-cutting himself with a knife, the police were called twice, he had a well-known history of mental illness and substance abuse, and so on.  How in the world does the PPD's Use of Force report stand when Miguel Estrella was, indeed, a person in distress under law?  Please address the existing law(s) on the Use of Force, too, when you publicly advocate for new laws on the matter.

I believe that the PPD, Mayor Linda Tyer's administration and the Berkshire County District Attorney's Office acted illegally by affirming the PPD's Use of Force report in the shooting to death of Miguel Estrella because the police report states that he was not a person in distress under law.  I request that you sue the city and D.A.'s Office on behalf of his family over this illegal action.  It should not be allowed to stand!

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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"A new ConvenientMD urgent care clinic is opening on Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield"

By Meg Britton-Mehlisch, The Berkshire Eagle, April 25, 2023

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect that Andrea Nuciforo Jr. is representing the new clinic. A previous version misspelled the attorney's name.

PITTSFIELD — A New England urgent care company has set its sights on the shuttered MedExpress building on Dalton Avenue, offering new hope for additional access to quick medical care in Pittsfield.

ConvenientMD Urgent Care LLC received unanimous approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals last week to place their signs directing patients back to the building at 999 Dalton Ave. The Portsmouth, N.H., based company is promising to provide walk-in service to patients every day between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Andrea Nuciforo Jr., the attorney who represented ConvenientMD before the ZBA, told the body the company expects to be able to see somewhere between 40 and 60 patients each day during those operating hours for a wide variety of ailments.

A website for the clinic lists lab services, X-rays, minor surgical procedures, flu and COVID testing, youth sports and camp physical and electrocardiograms, known as EKGs, on the menu of care “coming soon to Pittsfield.”

The Berkshire Eagle reached out to Nuciforo’s firm for a comment on when ConvenientMD will be opening its doors to the public and has yet to receive a response. When the clinic does begin taking patients, the number of urgent care facilities available to Pittsfield residents will again sit at two.

The West Virginia-based MedExpress opened its Dalton Avenue clinic in 2016, the same year that Berkshire Health Systems opened its own acute care center on East Street. When MedExpress announced to patients in August that it had made the “difficult decision” to close, the BHS Urgent Care became the only urgent care clinic in the city.

Nuciforo described the business model of ConvenientMD as an upgrade from MedExpress. He said the company’s clinics can “provide about 75 percent of the medical matters and medical solutions that might be available in an emergency room,” while “most urgent cares, including MedExpress, can do about 30 to 35 percent.”

An informational packet provided to the ZBA says that the typical co-pay for ConvenientMD clinics are a fraction of the size of typical emergency room bills. ConvenientMD said its patients typically pay somewhere between $25 and $80 per visit while hospital emergency department co-pays are typically somewhere between $200 and $300.

The attorney said patients won’t just notice a difference in care but the general experience of visiting the urgent care center.

“It feels a lot more like a Marriott or a Hyatt than it does a pharmacy clinic,” Nuciforo said.

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April 30, 2023

Angelo Stracuzzi was part of Pittsfield politics' Good Old Boys club that put the city into the ditch.  He was a big supporter of Jimmy Ruberto's 8 years as Mayor from 2004 - 2011.  Pittsfield's Good Old Boys club invested tens of millions of dollars in "Ruberto's Renaissance" that supposedly revitalized downtown Pittsfield into an arts and cultural center that would (sarcasm) rival Paris, London, NYC and L.A.  During and after Angelo Stracuzzi resigned in disgrace from running Greylock Federal Credit Union in 2010 and Jimmy Ruberto retired from Pittsfield politics at the end of 2011, large artistic photographs of downtown Pittsfield became the focus of art exhibits in upscale art galleries and museums in London, NYC and L.A. that was billed as "Pittsfield: A City in Decay".  The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) recently reported that North Street hosts 15 empty storefronts.  For decades, North Street was sarcastically called "Social Services Alley" by day and "The Shooting Gallery" after hours, and the distressed inner-city neighborhoods that surround downtown Pittsfield are sarcastically called "The Ring of Poverty".  Over 1,000 gang members now call inner-city Pittsfield home.  Greylock Federal Credit Union's CEO John Bissell is promoting Pittsfield politics' DIE policies under Mayor Linda Tyer, who herself lives in a mansion in a Gated Community within a few feet from the Hancock border.  Pittsfield's public schools are rated Level 5, Pittsfield is always listed in the top 10 cities by population in Massachusetts for Violent Crime by the FBI's annual reports, many young adults have to move away from Pittsfield because there are little to no living wage jobs for them in Pittsfield, and in return for all of these substandard outcomes, Pittsfield politics charges the fictional family called Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski top tax dollars to the tune of over $200 million per fiscal year in "Pickleball" spending.

Jonathan A. Melle

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