Hobart Lane: A usual suspect
As Party House apologists are fond of pointing out, UMass is the largest employer in Amherst, thus making us a "company town," thus making disturbing behavior that disrupts neighborhood tranquility town wide mere collateral damage to be endured for the greater good.
Or something like that.
Last year Amherst police politely handed over to UMass the names of 652 students arrested for rowdy behavior : Noise, Nuisance House, Open Container, Unlicenses Kegs, Under aged Drinking.
Since UMass is only in session roughly seven months out of the year, that amounts to 23 arrests per week. Just this past semester APD made 105 arrests for Nuisance House violations alone.
Since Nuisance House tickets are issued to all tenants that can be found on the premises at the time of the disturbance, it usually amounts to three per incident which works out to 35 dwellings or two per week (usually on weekends.)
All the above statistics are reactionary. A neighbor calls 911 to complain about loud noise or other disruptive behavior and the police show up. By then things are already out of control.
UMass, our largest employer, needs to hire an Off Campus RA to proactively patrol the usual suspect streets and enforce the student code of conduct, which UMass now claims to apply to off campus behavior.
A combination between bar bouncer and Jr High School Principal in charge of behavior. The town recently hired a code enforcement building inspector to better police slumlords who specialize in high demand student rentals.
Since UMass provides the supply side, it's only fair they share in the oversight.
9 comments:
Now you are getting it Larry. Good to hear. Push for enforcement BEFORE it become a problem. Look at the police call last week in Amherst. Noise at a home. When they got there they found 100 cars parked in front of a house. That is a reaction not pro-action. They could have stopped that illegal and unsafe event long before it happened.
Everything in Amherst is a reaction. That is what happens in the socialist republic of Amherst. And that is why they will never change the drinking culture on campus and off.
Wow, I really like that off campus RA idea (thanks for attaching the story). Would it work here? Do you plan to ask the Select Board to ask for it?
I think I just did.
Even more important, the link to the story (and the idea itself) came from a prominent local landlord who is sick of a few bad apples (students and slumlords) giving the entire local rental industry a bad name while destroying neighborhoods in a town he grew up in.
Your town is pathetic! How do you expect your police force of 30 or 40, whatever it is, to be proactive? Surrounding towns, like mine have 80+ cops, and we have no where near the number of calls or arrests. Get real! Get use to the bullshit every weekend, move (like we did), or hire more cops so they can do more proactive work. Oh, p.s., we have a really nice state trooper living next door who was an Amherst officer before leaving for the state. He tells us he gets paid much more for doing a lot less.
A Total of 1,613 State Police officers made over $100,000 in 2011.
UConn has such a position and it works great.
on another UMass topic, interesting NY Times story today about UMass Football and its move to a higher conference. John Lombardi raises some excellent points at the end of the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/sports/ncaafootball/universities-chase-big-time-glory-in-fbs.html
Holiday break in Amherst...
Student houses have been abandoned-trash barrels/ recycling bins left at the street, tipped over in driveways or left overflowing in the yards. Garage doors left open, debris strewn throughout the yards (and I'm only speaking of East Pleasant St)
There needs to be rules (trash removal) and oversight- Absentee landlords are of no help!
UConn also has a totally different attitude towards students than the purgatorial cesspool does. Do not forget that...
And as to your concerns about the student housing, how many of those responsible aren't going to be students in the spring, in no small part due to the efforts of you and yours? Be glad it is only what you have and not malicious damage to your own property.
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