Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Not ready for prime time


So according to the Town Mangler’s only upload thus far this year on his ‘Amherst Town Manager’s blog’ (1/16/09): “The skating rink has been created at Kendrick Park and is ready for use. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see people skating in Kendrick Park.”

I had a variety of business uptown today--including parking in town center with my laptop to use the free wireless and catch President Obama’s speech (as I have no TV at home) and every time I passed by the “skating rink” it was empty. The “ice” does not look overly inviting.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is NOT "free" wireless. I, personally, pay $30 each and every month to subsidize it...

Call it what it truly is: wireless that is paid for by the UMass Students....

Anonymous said...

Fuck Ed.

All Umass students are subsidized by the Commonwealth, even one's who pay "full" tuition.

You can't seem to comment on anything (skating rinks, real estate taxes, water temperature)without bringing up UMass.

You might want to think about your lens on the world.

Anonymous said...

F*** Neil

Amherst is more subsidized by the Commonwealth than UMass students are. I don't know if the 28% state subsidy versus the largess would balance out or not, but I am fairly certain that if UMass paid its employees fair market rates instead of state wages, as it did in the 1950s, Amherst would be what it was in the 1950s.

All of the nonprofits and save-the-world dirty hippie stuff and the bicycle club/drug dens and everything else simply couldn't exist without 6000 people with really well paid jobs and 30,000 of the evil students spending borrowed money here.

And without UMass, Amherst would resemble Wichendon or Lyden.

Oh, and to truly upset Neil, let me mention UMass again. In most college towns, where the town invites the students to enjoy the town's recreational opportunities instead of openly hating them, the student volunteers on the fire department (often a fully volunteer department) "borrow" a fire truck and go out sometime after midnight on a really cold night and "practice" with a booster line.

Amazing how this never really costs anyone anything because the water in the truck needs to be changed from time to time, you need to start the trucks from time to time lest they not run when you need them, and it was student volunteers doing it.

Or we can do it the Amherst way...