Thursday 9:00 AM (car from Umass passes across Fearing unfettered on Lincoln Avenue.)Thank God almighty the "experiment" has ended. The barricades are coming down today although some will be left in place to aid the 250Th Parade on Sunday, but by Monday all traces of the stupidest thing this town has done (since purchasing a Golf Course over 20 years ago for $2.2 million that they could have had for free) will be a distant--malevolent--memory.
Lincoln Avenue: Umass is at your service!
Thursday 9:05 AM (no wonder it will not take long to move them.)#############################
From: amherstac@aol.com
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 2:19 PM
To: Mooring, Guilford
Subject: Lincoln Avenue blockade (yikes)
Hey Guilford,To: Mooring, Guilford
Subject: Lincoln Avenue blockade (yikes)
Are they still coming down (or should I say out) on Wednesday? If so about what time (and about how long does it take?)
Larry
Larry,
Yes. They will start coming down on Thursday AM and finish up on Monday. We are leaving the barriers that are blocking access to the UMass Lots until Monday to support the Parade on Sunday.
Once they start coming out it will be quick.
Guilford
Whatever benefits another neighborhood and does not benefit me personally is a detriment to me and a waste of government resources.
ReplyDeleteThat's today's operative principle of governance: you've got to look out for Number One.
One small step for obnoxious commuters, one giant leap for drunken Southwest students.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...so you just sit in your ornate house on Lincoln Avenue and bitch about traffic; never commuting by car to work, shop, or visit friends?
ReplyDeleteWhen you consider all the ridiculous things Larry Shaffer has done during his time in Amherst it takes a special something to the top of the bad list, but this one might be it!
ReplyDeleteThe idea that a neighborhood could demand public dollars to increase the value of their property at the expense of other streets and properties not too mention the safety issues it created on those streets, was the height of arrogance on behalf the neigborhood and ignorance on the part of Shaffer, who could not forsee the outrage such a decision would cause and the dangerous precedent it would create.
Guess what? The precedent has already been set. After spending 1.2 million to repair the bridge at the end of Woodside Dr. the town closed the street to traffic BOTH WAYS in response to resident's requests.
ReplyDeleteYeah, as a LONG, long time student of PR (Public Relations, not the island) I'm always amazed at some of the little things that so succinctly capture the public (self) interest and illuminate with a mega-candlepower-searchlight the flaws of an individual or bureaucratic system.
ReplyDeleteIn this case BOTH. Time for a seismic shift to a better, more professional government: Mayor/Council (and, unlike the last attempt, NO town manager.)
A position like Musante has as Finance Director or Adminstration and Finance Director that is a professional position to carry out policy as determined by the elected officials would be fine and probably necessary, however a Town Manager position in which the current manager chooses to use the position as a bully pulpit and create policy, does not belong in a new form of Town government. You could argue is not belong in our current form of government either.
ReplyDeleteThe residents should have protested loudly at the time of the Woodside closure. They did this time with Lincoln and that is why the closure was not continued.
ReplyDeleteTwo wrongs don't make a right.
ReplyDeleteAlthough former Select Board member Rob Kusner has a nerdy comeback about how many left's it takes (him being a lefty and all.)
After all the bitching is over:
ReplyDeleteJust what was the harm here? Is that what you choose to waste your precious heartbeats on the planet on? That some neighborhood got some attention from town government about an alleged traffic problem? (GASP) So what?
Earth to the local malcontents: we've got much bigger problems to worry about.
As a friend of mine warned me about any town's politics: the level of agitation is inversely proportional to the long-run importance of the issue.
I love how the Lincoln ave residents all chime in with "the what's the big deal? You people are all so small minded and have such small lives and that is why you made a big deal out of this." Of course that is the same holier than thou mentality that made them think they had the right to alter public ways for their pesonal gain and pleasure. Get this straight: Residents of Lincoln Ave have no right to force cars of the public roads onto other public streets. They bought the houses when the road had through traffic, now live with the consequences. Lincoln Ave residents you lost this because of your arrogance and your arrogance in defeat is actually a combination of the pathetic and the laughable.
ReplyDeleteThe harm hear is the increased traffic on Amity, Fearing, McClelean, Univesity, North Plesant, Crosby, etc. Those roads had too much traffic on them creating dangerous situations for all users of the roads and the residents, while Lincoln absolved themselves of all cars and created a gated community for themselves. Of course they wanted keycards so they could come and go as before.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem with frenzied backpedaling is that you risk falling down and getting hurt.
ReplyDeleteAnd, in Amherst, when you call 911 for an ambulance there may be a delay because the overstretched Fire Department has slipped beyond the breaking point.
You guys have a bizarre perspective. Be it Lincoln or Woodside, what we are talking about is neigborhoods standing up for themselves.
ReplyDelete"standing up for themselves"
ReplyDeleteIf you want a private road, buy a house on a private road. Don't assume it's your RIGHT to inconvenience all other people.
YOU ARE NOT VICTIMS....Just naive buyers.
It was 2001 and some nitwit in Texas bought a house on Lincoln Avenue - sight unseen - for a million dollars over the internet.
ReplyDeleteIt is now 2009 and the housing bubble has burst. Housing prices that doubled in the past decade haven't doubled again - in fact, they are dropping.
And now they want the town to bail them out. How about having the DPW print up some "Whites Only" signs so as to improve property values as well....
I hope someone goes and gets the names and home phone numbers of the Lincoln Avenue Miscreants and posts it somewhere.
ReplyDeleteEnough 2 AM phone calls will cure these twits...
Standing up for themselves? You bought houses on a road because of its location and now you want to make the neighborhood even more exclusive by privatizing it with public money. It amounts to rich elite snobs looking down on the working class and wanting to keep them out of their high class neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteAfter Larry Shaffer's contract expires, I hope this event will be ample proof that it's time to move to a mayor/city council form of government. There is no greater proof of Shaffer's incompetence than this act of cow-towing to his wealthy neighbors and turning their road into a private drive at great inconvenience and risk to the rest of the citizens of Amherst.
ReplyDeleteActually, while traffic on University, North Pleasant and Fearing Streets was greatly increased during this "experiment," it is misleading to say that traffic on Amity Street increased. It actually decreased because people couldn't access Lincoln or Sunset from Amity directly to the University.
ReplyDeleteI commuted to UMass all through the experiment and found traffic on Amity Street lighter than it had been in ten years.
Traffic was especially lighter in front of Larry Shaffer's house on lower Amity. I'm sure he enjoyed this added benefit.
Traffic was especially lighter in front of Larry Shaffer's house on lower Amity. I'm sure he enjoyed this added benefit.
ReplyDeleteNow we have the smoking gun that explains all of this...
Roofing tar and feather pillows anyone???
"Be it Lincoln or Woodside, what we are talking about is neigborhoods standing up for themselves."
ReplyDeleteYep, I am sure that is what the drunken college kids call it when they start winding the beer bottles at the cops....
They are not being antisocial miscreants, they are "standing up for themselves".....
Um, I don't remember those drunken students being the taxpayers and home owners. And they most certainly are not using legitimate channels to "stand up for themselves."
ReplyDeleteInteresting that there weren't any letters in the Bulletin about the barriers???
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show how precipitously they have fallen from power.
ReplyDelete"It was 2001 and some nitwit in Texas bought a house on Lincoln Avenue - sight unseen - for a million dollars over the internet."
ReplyDeleteEd, they bought it on a different section of Lincoln that runs from Rt. 9 to Amity. It's not on the street whee the barriers were. It's one of the big estates that are still worth more than one million.
"Ed, they bought it on a different section of Lincoln that runs from Rt. 9 to Amity. It's not on the street whee the barriers were. It's one of the big estates that are still worth more than one million."
ReplyDeleteClosing access to UMass from the northern section of Lincoln still significantly reduces traffic on the southern section of Lincoln. The rich (and apparently also stupid) folks on Lincoln got what they wanted.
They sure got everyone's attention. Now when speedbumps go in it will seem like a compromise.
ReplyDeleteThey sure got everyone's attention. Now when speedbumps go in it will seem like a compromise.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know what speed bumps do -- destroy C/V joints and tie rod ends.
Anyone know what happens when these fail? They come clean off and the front wheel can go in any direction it wants to.
Anyone know what happens next? (Car usually goes completely out of control.)
Anyone know what happens to small child on sidewalk when 4000-6000 vehicle comes barreling up onto sidewalk, out of control, and hits said small child?
Are these people truly stupid?
I think UMass should take it by eminent domain, cut down all the trees, and make it a 4-lane expressway straight to campus.
ReplyDeleteI think they should use Ed as a speed bump.
ReplyDelete