BAD: Stacker's Downtown Amherst 3/10/12 10:45 AM
As Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe addressed a crowd of nearly 100 Free Tibet supporters (the good) crowds of college aged students twice that large gathered in line about 100 yards away waiting for Stackers and McMurphy's, two of Amherst's downtown less classy watering holes, to begin serving alcohol (the bad) at the "13th Annual Blarney Blowout."
GOOD: Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe addresses Free Tibet crowd 10:45 AM
Considering the lines peaked around 10:45 AM, things are going to get ugly before this weekend is done.
BAD: McMurphy's downtown Amherst 3/10/12 10:45 AM
BAD: Meanwhile, across the street...
UPDATE 4:00 PM ETOH (passed out drunk) male transported by AFD to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
UPDATE 5:15 PM Dressed in riot gear and toting pellet guns that fire pepper balls a half dozen officers broke up a large party of around 200 in the quad area of Townhouse Apartments on Meadow Street, near the location of the September 9 Meadow Street Riot.
UPDATE 4:00 PM ETOH (passed out drunk) male transported by AFD to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
41 Sunset Avenue 4:00 PM
APD made short work of dispersing the crowd, and these two did not seem to mind
Why on earth does the town allow bars to open at 9am? It's ridiculous. You couldn't walk the streets this afternoon in broad daylight without had some drunk dimwit falling on you. This must cost the town so much in police/fire, etc.
ReplyDeleteNo, they can't serve until 11:00 that's why there was such a l-o-n-g line at 10:45 AM. Although last year McMurphy's was allowed to open and serve at 10:00 AM for their "Kegs N Eggs" promotion; and back in the fall for "Homecoming Weekend".
ReplyDeleteApparently they got the message and did not have the nerve to go before the Select Board (who are the town's Liquor Commissioners) for special permission to open at 10:00 this year, otherwise that huge line you see would have formed at 9:45 AM.
Wow! Pictures of college kids drinking beer on a warm sunny spring day. Shocking! And in Amherst of all places. What do they think this is? A college town? Shocking. Absolutely shocking!! What ever happened to that nice, clean community like we had in the 70's. You know, when bars like Quicksilver and The Drake had folks drinking and smoking doobies out in front of them. Or better yet, places like Time Out, Barsie's and Delano's in the 80's. The good ole "happy hour" days when the lines were out in the street EVERY week. Not once or twice a year. The sad reality is that the students never change. Just the Amherst residents attitudes about the students change. But we should all try and cut these frustrated townies a little slack. The older and crankier you get, the more you like to bitch.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot the crackdown on drunk driving which started in 1980 by a California mother who lost her 13 year old daughter to one, and got really MADD. Her crusade has saved countless lives by forcing public officials to get serious.
ReplyDeleteShe may not have been all that old, but she certainly had the right to be "cranky"
Ah, the Quicksilver. Those were the days. But your comparison is almost apples-and-oranges. Students in the 70's and before were much mellower overall than today. Partying was just one of many facets of the college experience. Now for many (most?) partying is the sole reason for being at UMass or any other school. It is an extended obnoxious adolescence on mom and dads dime.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between '70's student partying and today's student partying.
ReplyDeleteYes, we had massive group streaking across the UMass campus way back when.
But I don't remember the vandalism and the violence directed at cops that we see today. There was all of this talk about love and world peace behind it.
Now it simply looks like alcohol for alcohol's sake. It has a frenzied, compulsive, "can you top this" quality to it that we did not see before.
I don't expect anyone from Generation Drunk to believe this, however.
Riot police invade a residential neighborhood to arrest those who live there.
ReplyDeleteSound way too much like Syria to me...
No arrests were made (3 tickets issued however).
ReplyDeleteA stunning three tickets. I am sure those fines I keep hearing about on the news are working well...
ReplyDeleteCorrection: at the APD briefing this morning it turns out the three individual were issued two $300 citations each ("Noise" and "Nuisance") or six tickets total.
ReplyDelete