And so it begins: Friday afternoon delivery to Stacker's. My Anon photo contributor tells me there were at least three dozen kegs that came off this one truck.
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APD checking up on Stackers 10:55 AM Saturday morning
Hide the women and children, the 2013 Blarney Blowout has begun! And, unfortunately, the weather is fine.
Yeah, sounds like I'm writing a song.
I don't wake up this early for class but ill sure wake up this early to drink #blarneyblowout
— Tim Collins (@m0hawk_f0_sH0) March 9, 2013
Crowd waiting at The Pub much larger than Stackers or McMurphy's 10:30 AM
Amherst Town Center 1:30 PM Post Office Bus Stop
North Pleasant Street just outside Town Center
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4:00 PM
Townhouse Apartments Meadow Street North Amherst 
Townhouse Quad area starting to look like Woodstock (including the mud)
Couple thousand students cram into the Quad area Townhouse Apartments
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5:00 PM
And we just knew this was gonna happen. Amherst and State Police, including a K-9 unit break up the party. Rather quickly.
Somebody is going to have a major clean up tomorrow
How many cop cars do you count? This was shot just after Amherst and State PD broke up the party.
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The Morning After
Why is it okay to connect and celebrate Irishness and drunkeness? Should the bars have a Native American blowout drinking day too? What is up with this?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wonder how the town would react if they did some juvenile promotion like this on Martin Luther King Day.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the young lady in the 2nd tweet gets the irony of her cap and tweet title. She's wasted in more than one way.
ReplyDeleteHaving been there I say this with no judgement, just regret and sadness at the waste of precious time.
Yeah, having been there myself (although not nearly as cute as her) I have to agree.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we dodged a bullet, getting out of town this morning. Our neighbors were up at 9:30 doing keg-stands on the porch, wearing daisy dukes. Didn't quite make me puke, but I knew what was coming.
ReplyDeleteI see this as more an indictment of UMass. A student won't get into trouble for doing nothing -- but will get into trouble for things that they ought not to.
ReplyDeleteReal education includes not only the right to disagree with a professor but to challenge a professor on something. Respectfully, yes, but to challenge something the professor says and to ask him/her/it to defend what he/she/it has just said, particularly if it is an opinion.
But at UMass, a student who does this will instead be sent to ACT and likely put onto the "watch list" of "potentially dangerous" students. That's bad enough, but worse often happens.
So why not get drunk out of your mind? It makes it a lot easier to accept all the garbage and to mindlessly parrot back stuff you completely disagree with.
If these kids were actually being intellectually challenged -- I am not talking "busywork" but were presented with information that genuinely interested them and/or that they wanted to learn as a clear means to something else (e.g. the part's diagram of my snowblower so I can get it working) -- if their social needs were being met -- they wouldn't WANT to be drunk all day.
Young men often ask me to give my opinion of their girlfriends and I have a simple question I ask instead: "Is she someone whom you would prefer to be with sober?"
And I will ask the same thing here: Is UMass a place where -- if given the choice -- you would prefer to be sober? The answer clearly is no -- and that says a lot about UMass....
i don't think young people get the idea of social media and how it affects them...how future employers can see things like this girl's tweet......young people have always celebrated but not advertised it......
ReplyDeleteThe town is not promoting this. Private businesses are. Don't like it get your picket sign.
ReplyDeleteOh my god! The first sunny spring Saturday and kids living in a COLLEGETOWN are drinking! What has this world come to?
ReplyDelete1. It's not the first time and it definitely won't be the last.
2. Where were you 10, 15, 25 plus years ago. Ask any veteran cop. It was really nuts then. Then again, that's when you were drinking and you didn't give a damn.
3.BTW... Don't you have kids? Seems to me that a nice hike or a bike ride on a beautiful day like today would be more constructive than your childlike whining about the EVIL students.
4. Maybe it's time to move to Hadley a bitch about the malls and fast food joints. Oh wait, some of them like Chili's, Applebee's, etc. serve booze. Steer clear you freakin' hypocrite.
5.Try to keep in mind that 95% or more of these so called drunken UMass vermin will eventually graduate and move on with their lives. This trash will very soon become part of the our society and business community.
6.Sad to say some, like yourself, may down the road may struggle with alcoholism. But as statistics show the vast majority of these kids leave the partying college life behind. Too bad you couldn't.
7. In short.... Lighten Up Francis!
You see, anon, that's what this is all about. Larry doesn't want to see his kid suffer because there's not an ambulance available for her because kids drink to excess at the university. That's it. No other grudges he can't let go of, no, he's not a chronic malcontent... all of this blogging about the college kids is simply a proactive attempt to save his kid's life. And time well spent, I say.
ReplyDeleteYou're a good dad, Larry.
Does the University/UMass Police take any steps to discourage these types of events? I was on North Pleasant early this afternoon on campus and there was a steady stream of students walking by to parties downtown and elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteMy buddy told me there were only 3 Umass cops there but a lot of amherst and State cops
ReplyDeleteTax dollars at work! Gotta love it!
ReplyDeleteI am so proud of my State University, it's only March, I cannot wait until April and May. That is the way to represent. Amherst and UMass you must be so proud.
ReplyDeleteSarcasm requires its own special font.
ReplyDeleteTo UMass students:
ReplyDeleteThey told me that you weren't fit to eat with pigs, but I told them that you were!
This video footage is of nothing. Where is the attack except in your imagination? I want my money back.
ReplyDeleteI was at the Hanger a 12:15pm to get lunch and watch the Bruins (I'm 35) no college kids there. It was busy but typical Saturday afternoon low key Hanger crowd. It was a calculated plan to avoid amateur hour uptown.
ReplyDeleteTypo. Hot copy. "Attract." Fixed. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAt least APD are earning there money and want to leave your contact info on the page or email me so my lawyer can call you about using my information without my consent.
ReplyDeleteI believe you mean "their" money.
ReplyDeleteYou hit the publish button, you have made it public.
Dear god that girl in the tweet looks like she's 40 and she's only a college student?
ReplyDeleteAlso, who drinks keystone if they're actually over 21?
"Does the University/UMass Police take any steps to discourage .... there was a steady stream of students walking ... downtowTn"
ReplyDeleteExactly what right do the police -- any police have to tell a citizen that he/she/it can't walk downtown?!?!?!?!?
This is the United States of America, and citizens have a right to walk on any damn sidewalk they want to. Do you have any idea of the consequences of the police being allowed to tell Americans where they could and could not walk to?
Imagine what George Bush could have accomplished with this power -- he could have simply arrested anyone who wanted to attend anyanti-war protest and put an end to a major headache of his.
Larry, I am not asking you to censor comments, but I really have got to ask questions about the IQ of someone who says something this obtuse -- what part of "its a free country" does this idiot not understand?
We had to pull over for racing police sirens down Fearing once, for an ambulance driving to the hospital from Amherst three times on route 9, and for six state troopers driving toward Amherst on route 9! While at Hampshire mall, all we could hear were sirens speeding toward Amherst. Driving down Main Street toward downtown near Triangle, we had to dodge puke all over the road. It was disgusting!
ReplyDeleteWhy do homeowners in Amherst have to suffer so bar owners can get rich? We need new town management. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Don't worry Ed, Larry censors plenty of comments.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know why property managers aren't held accountable for repeat disturbances on their property. This is not a first on this property. Evict these tenants or get a serious fine from the town for the financial burden of managing your property for you.
ReplyDeletePolice should not be called in to stop parties every time the weather is nice. The property managers should not allow this and should be proactive in stopping large outdoor gatherings before they get out of hand. This goes for apartments and rented houses. Just put it in the lease and evict the kids who act-up. Once they're homeless, they'll change their priorities.
There are plenty of out-of-work people who would love a job as security guard.
Yes, one property manager against 600 rowdy college students. Sounds doable.
ReplyDeleteLook what the 300 Spartans accomplished. Man up.
ReplyDeleteDidn't work out to well for the 300.
ReplyDeleteBut they are remembered fondly.
ReplyDeleteYou, on the other hand ...
I don't know how many people are aware of this, but Townhouse are individually-owned condos. Many of the owners hire the same management company to rent/manage them, but they are all individually owned, in most cases by an investor who only owns one or two of them.
ReplyDeleteNow, I was only half in jest suggesting the Cherry Hill Young Adult Recreation Area -- wouldn't yesterday have been a lot better if all the kids who wanted to get drunk out of their minds could have simply done it somewhere where they weren't bothering anyone and be left alone to do it?
In other words, perhaps Amherst should "pick its fights" -- and perhaps also learn from the Asian Martial Arts that little concept of how it is far easier to re-direct than to outright stop something.
Might I suggest that instead of insisting on a "no parties, no where, not ever" mentality that you simply aren't ever going to be able to enforce, to instead permit the drunken debauchery, but in a controlled area and time?
Besides, has anyone ever thought about what happens when the State Troopers are busy with something else, which they sometimes are, and not being available? Remember the fiery gasoline tanker accident in Springfield a couple years back? What if that truck instead had been carrying Chlorine? Or Ammonia? Or any number of other quite nasty things -- and every available police officer being needed to secure an evacuation zone.
OR, worse, as you are needing inexorably more officers each time you break one of these parties up, eventually the number of officers you need will exceed the combined manpower of all the involved departments and then what?
Right now you essentially are "holding a fire line" -- it only is under control because you have a large number of police officers instantly available -- but if those officers weren't available, THEN WHAT? How much further could things go?
300??? I was walking by Townhouse with my dog, there were thousands of students. A few were running away and they told me that bottles were being thrown at the police. Disgusting, I'm glad I don't live near there, I was only dog-sitting.
ReplyDeleteI did not know Townhouse units were individually owned. That's not good.
ReplyDeleteHot water heaters have a pressure relief valve as a safety measure -- if the water inside gets hot enough to start boiling, this valve opens up and dumps hot water & steam overboard before the pressure builds up enough to cause an explosion.
ReplyDeleteIf you are trying to get more hot water out of a water heater that isn't big enough for your needs, you can defeat this valve with a piece of wire -- I've seen it done more than once, and it's really dangerous because if the pressure gets high enough, that water heater will explode.
"Letting off steam" is an expression that once was a life-or-death reality -- if the pressure in a boiler was allowed to build up beyond a certain point, and some wasn't released ("let off"), the boiler would explode and everyone in the immediate vicinity would be burnt to death.
What Amherst is doing right now essentially is wiring down the pressure relief valves -- with thicker and thicker wire -- so as to prevent steam from being released.
So the steam continues to build up inside a closed container. At what point does the boiler explode?
Here you go...let the Youtube posts begin...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUIaNDK1_Ws
Yeah, I already added that to my main post. Funny, it shows the bagpiper shown in the Gazette's puff piece coverage of this event.
ReplyDelete...one property manager against 600 rowdy college students...
ReplyDeleteOne property manager (or police officer) who had the respect of the 600 rowdy college students wouldn't have a problem doing so.
This is the point I am trying to make about the difference between governing through respect versus governing through fear -- and right now all you have is fear.
So, those of you who are supporting the proposed development of Henry St., please think about the several hundred "friends" of the 650 proposed residents navigating a winding country road back to the university after a blowout like the ones pictured here. Still think it's a good idea?
ReplyDeleteYes, actually I do.
ReplyDeleteI agree the swamping of afd assests is an issue. The logical response to this issue is to push for grants and support of medical systems in Amherst, not dumping money into an already overfunded police department (how many chargers do the apd own? How many paddy wagons) and calling in state police assets.
ReplyDeleteMuch like the tradition of hanging the American flag on 9/11s anniversary that you advocated so valiantly for, students have their own traditions and sending ten police cruisers to a single call not only shows they have nothing better to do but also breeds malcontent within the student body rather than a closer tie of the student body and community.
Hey guy, the APD has ONE charger and ONE "paddy wagon". Unless you know what in the hell youre talking about, then don't speak at all.
ReplyDeletei wish someone threw a bottle and sliced your neck open
ReplyDeleteActually a very large full can missed by a few inches.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, I forgot to include all of the plain clothes officers that the APD uses. I like the STOP Initiative that the town has. Plain clothes officers are hired to walk around college student's off campus housing to deter burglary. What? My point being, the police presence on campus and off is slightly obnoxious while other services (AFD) are lacking the support they deserve.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, feel free to express your angst at a well formed argument with inconsequential comments about bottles. I'll allow that vent to remain open to let out steam (interesting allegory made btw).
I have walked around campus almost every day for a year now and I have seen a police officer a grand total of THREE TIMES. This is an "obnoxious presence". Here's an idea: Don't act like an idiot you won't see the cops. People in college seem to think that because they're "in college", the laws suddenly don't apply to them anymore. Then when they get locked up, they whine and cry about "police brutality" and that nonsense.
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea: If you don't like how you are treated at college, go to your local recruiter and enlist and go serve with many other people your age. You'll soon see how good you have it here.
A reminder to lock car doors- The Gazette has an article about car break ins in South Amherst last week and over this weekend I saw a large number of cars with open doors/ open rear hatches in driveways throughout Amherst- Was everyone just airing their cars out? lol
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewxCyTtAgIw
ReplyDeleteJust Posted on You Tube
Give them enough rope ...
ReplyDelete(Parents should be so proud.)
Thank you, Larry, for actually giving us a visual for what we usually only read about. I understand that the students sincerely believe that they are simply carrying on a long tradition here in Amherst, and therefore this is no big deal. As someone who lived in Amherst from 1974-78 as a student, I respectfully disagree and I think some reflection about behavior is in order.
ReplyDeleteRich Morse
ANON, March 3rd, 7:03 AM:
ReplyDeleteWhy do homeowners in Amherst have to suffer so bar owners can get rich? We need new town management. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Rich????!! You tool. You are without a doubt the most informed jackass of all-time. You have absoltely zero facts to back up this idoitict claim. First off, the bar owners of Amherst these days make squat.
I mean to say that during the school year, just about every single joint doesn't come close to the busy point by 11:00 PM. Sometimes later. And I'm referring to Thursday, Friday and Saturday. That's six hours of steady business with a few hours during the week sprinkled in. Tops. I'm guessing you don't have a clue to what's been happening with the UMass football program either. The University by moving the team to Gillette Stadium (In Foxboro) has cost not just the bar owners, but many other Amherst business piles of cash. That's SIX (6) prime time fall Saturday afternoons including the biggest day of the year.... homecoming.
Why do you think that the past heavy bar owner's hitters such as Chick Delano (Delano's), Judie Teraspulsky (Barsie's), Mike Fusia (Time Out)and many others got out of that business?
You can bitch all you want about one and I say again (1) day of the year. Just remember, Amherst has always been a collegetown. Always will be a collegetown. Ninety-nine percent of it's citizens wouldn't be here without the Five College Community.
Accept it or move. Change your thinking and adatbt. If your so concerned about not having emergency services for your family, move to the neighboring stick towns or better yet the cities such as close by Springfield or Worcester. Good luck with that!
It's that simple.
As soon as this crap starts migrating to South Amherst I'm out of here! My heart goes out to anyone who's home is owner occupied anywhere near this bullshit. The only people that are tolerant of it are people who don't have to kick keg cups out of their way and watch out that they don't step in the vomit. So sad Amherst is slowly degrading right before our eyes and know one can stop it!
ReplyDeleteAs soon as this crap starts migrating to South Amherst I'm out of here! My heart goes out to anyone who's home is owner occupied anywhere near this bullshit. The only people that are tolerant of it are people who don't have to kick keg cups out of their way and watch out that they don't step in the vomit. So sad Amherst is slowly degrading right before our eyes and know one can stop it!
ReplyDeleteActually a very large full can missed by a few inches.
ReplyDeleteThey were throwing FULL beers now? How times have changed -- we would NEVER have thrown a full one, not when we could drink it instead....
Yeah, I was a tad surprised for that reason as well.
ReplyDeleteSome of the YouTube videos pick up the aerial display of arching cans in flight, and you can tell they are not empty.
Although the one hurled at me was on a direct strait line vector
There is no good reason to single out two UMass students by posting their Twitter accounts on your site. Stop being a horse's fanny.
ReplyDeleteHey Amherst Police Officers, the State Police will be hiring. I wouldn't put up with that shit every weekend. You have the most understaffed and unappreciated police department in any college town of that size in this country. Get out while you can.
ReplyDeleteI think that it may be migrating to South Amherst already.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the deterioration of homes along West Street located between the intersection of Mt. Holyoke Drive and the driveway to Crocker Farm School. The student slums are coming.
They tell us to accept it or move. Maybe they're right: those may be the only two choices.
No they are not.
ReplyDeleteWe just need to make sure Town Meeting passes Rental Registration/Permit Bylaw this spring.
The whole business of littering and not cleaning up after oneself:
ReplyDeleteYes, it's something that we associate with pigs, although that's probably being unfair to them.
But it's also indicative of a particular form of arrogance, that says that someone "beneath me" in society will clean up after.
Perhaps these folks behave this way at home? Doubt it.
Wish it were limited to one day as some commenters state. We know better, and the number of these blow-out days gets bigger every year.
I used to think that someone would have to die, directly or indirectly, as a result of one of these bacchanalias for any serious reconsideration to occur, but I suspect such a horrific result would simply be our Newtown, with the Right to Party People then finding new ways to justify and continue the madness.
When they complain about being singled out by name on your blog, Larry, you know that you hit them.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the punishments occur in unique ways.
I'm just holding up a mirror.
ReplyDeleteThe warts are all theirs.
" Ninety-nine percent of it's citizens wouldn't be here without the Five College Community."
ReplyDeleteand i am one of the 99% do quite well.....
Hey I had fun and drank there. 3.3 GPA and speaking to future employers as we speak.
ReplyDeleteI also talk to my bosses about all the great parties in Amherst. I work with someone who went here.
Yeah and you probably had a grandmother who smoked 2 packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day and lived to be 99.
ReplyDeleteOutlier.
Why are there no photos of the Umass cops?
ReplyDeleteLarry,
ReplyDeleteRe my comment at 12:51 and your response at 12:54:
I'm confused as to why you would support this development when it will create yet another site for student parties on a mass scale ala the Town house. So now we already have the police and fire department over stressed with existing developments and you want to add another location even farther from the university and police and fire? I' asking in all sincerity as I'm genuinely confused. This development would seem at cross purposes to some of your higher priorities.
Yes, I know we have a student housing problem here, but that should be solved by the university, not the private sector. If UMass is going to expand its students then it has an obligation to provide housing for them which (in my view) it has not done for years. For the record, both my wife and I are alums and we've lived here for over 30 years, so I'm not anti-student, etc.
Larry, how does it feel to spend so much time on something you have no possible chance of winning? UMass is much bigger than you. The sooner you realize that maybe the sooner you can do something of value with you're life.
ReplyDeleteUMass will be quick to tell you they are in the top five pubic universities for providing on campus housing.
ReplyDeleteIt's simply the law of supply and demand.
There is a huge demand for WELL MANAGED multi-unit developments that will take the pressure off single family homes being converted into student rooming houses.
Anon 8:57 PM
ReplyDeleteBehold the power.
I can't wait until the next warm day when we do it all over again!
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty warm today.
ReplyDeleteC'mon Larry its a Sunday we got class tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I guess you could say its the "Party Townhouses of the weekend!!!"
Yeah, you got class alright.
ReplyDeleteanon @ 8:39 PM
ReplyDeletethe proposed development would be no farther away from AFD north station, UMPD or APD than townhouse is.
as to the person speaking of south amherst, its already arrived in rental houses in the small neighborhoods as well as the crime in the big apt. complexes. call your realtor. as soon as our youngest graduates, we are out of here.
Larry,
ReplyDeleteYou hit the key point: "WELL MANAGED" multiunit development. There's no guarantee they will be well managed. In fact, word is from other places where they have properties is that they are not well managed and that the residents feel that these developments are places where they "will have the freedom to party."
Yes, UMass will say that they are in the top five for housing, but against what standard? Maybe all the top five (or ten or fifteen) have a chronic shortage of housing. That does not give me any comfort.
And, what about my initial point of the over stressing of the APD and AFD by going to yet another location? I don't feel you responded to that.
This community as a whole would not be able to function without the support the five college community brings in. The revenue from the students spending money, and various jobs that are created across the campuses upholds this society. Yes, the students should not litter, this is their home too and that is disrespectful, but aside from that, accept this or move.
ReplyDeleteWe're outta here too after our youngest graduates, but's because of dicks like Larry and Walter and Ed, not the students.
ReplyDeleteThis just shows the foolishness of blaming the landlords for the behavior of the students. Look at the number of police it took to control this and still they couldn't prevent it from happening. No amount of pamphlets and talking to the tenants is going to prevent behavior that is sadly a rite of spring.
ReplyDeleteMost of the homeowners in Amherst have advanced degrees. They know - and I know - firsthand that this does not happen in other "college" towns. Even in areas where the only employer is a major university much larger than UMass - this does not happen. Why anyone would want to even strive for tenure at one of these institutions is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteCount me in as another with no affiliation whatsoever with the five colleges.
Will someone please post the evidence that supports the claim that most homeowners in Amherst have advanced degrees?
ReplyDelete"i wish someone threw a bottle and sliced your neck open"
ReplyDeleteLOL.
Silly little chimp.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThere is no good reason to single out two UMass students by posting their Twitter accounts on your site. Stop being a horse's fanny.
March 10, 2013 at 6:55 PM"
Why not? They are the idiots who put that information on public social media for the world to see. If you put something on a public forum like Twitter then you should expect it to be public and viewed by everyone including Larry and potential employers. No one's fault but their own. If they can't handle the consequences then perhaps they should think before acting. A little common sense goes a long way.
Punks, drunks and Ponzivillers said...
ReplyDelete"i wish someone threw a bottle and sliced your neck open"
LOL.
Silly little chimp.
She always has such a visceral reaction to posts about Larry's well-being. I wonder who Ponzi is.
"Even in areas where the only employer is a major university much larger than UMass - this does not happen."
ReplyDeleteThat is a completely false statement. All you have to do is google for a minute or two to see all the similar headlines.
<SOUTH BEND – With St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and March Madness here, local police are reminding us about the consequences of drunk driving.
Area police conducted a sobriety checkpoint Saturday night at Angela and Twyckenham in South Bend.
A half dozen police agencies worked together on the effort.
135 cars went through it. 7 DUI arrests were made.
of course it's an untrue statement--ed just makes shit up as he goes along.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Even in areas where the only employer is a major university much larger than UMass - this does not happen."
"That is a completely false statement. All you have to do is google for a minute or two to see all the similar headlines."
You consider a sobriety check point the same as a riot? Why not pull-up another instance where riots of this magnitude and frequency are commonplace - particularly those that require the swat team. I've lived in two college towns - nothing at all like this. Nothing. UMass doesn't even have a major football team or sports program. Even where tailgating is common, this behavior is not.
"I wonder who Ponzi is."
ReplyDeleteI know.
They're a counterpart to Kelley's Billy Jack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joK8bT_tuoc
Does anyone have any sense of what it's like in Willimantic, CT where UConn is? That is a small town with a large state school similar to UMass?
ReplyDeleteIn college towns that do NOT have the rioting drunken college student problem that Amherst seems to have, is that because more of the students live on campus then what occurs here in Amherst? Is living on campus a deterrent to the behavior we are seeing here? If UMass had more dorms would things be better?
Anyone know?
Yes, it's bucolic. On Friday nights the students have a mixer dance, they share fruit punch, then head back to their dorms, in bed by 11pm.
ReplyDeleteRead the facts, boycott the Gazette, and remember this at the voting booths next election, support our police and firefighters! http://www.facebook.com/notes/amherst-ma-firefighters-local-1764/letter-from-the-president-of-local-1764-to-the-daily-hampshire-gazette/528009907251169
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:50, this is Anon 12:59.
ReplyDeleteI was asking a serious question. I have no idea what things are like in Willimantic. But, if the UConn students are less apt to drink to excess and riot and cause weekly upheaval in the town's neighborhoods I think it would be interesting to find out why that is.
You can be sarcastic all you want but I was asking a serious question.
Thanks, Larry, for publishing that ridiculous comment. You don't publish many of mine but you publish that sarcastic nonsense that does not move the conversation forward? What's up with that?
I've lived in towns with huge universities - no problems.
ReplyDeleteThe difference:
- a lot more apartments in the area with on-site property management monitoring the premises around the clock and evicting those who violate the lease. We really need a lot more professional apartment complexes.
- tenants are terrified of their property managers.
- far more bars and clubs downtown for the students to drink and have a good time with friends. This gets rid of the house parties and funnels that activity where it should be. Plus, you have a bartender who will cut the patron off when they've had enough.
Amherst has no apartments for these kids, so they live in houses with no property managers to be seen. They also have nothing to do because Amherst really isn't much fun downtown. There's nothing to do for anyone at any age, really, if you stay in Amherst.
anon 12:59
ReplyDeleteI know you were asking a serious question, I don't know the answer and I was in a silly, sarcastic mood after just reading through some of the comments on here. I hope someone has the answer, it's an interesting question. Don't take it personally.
Waaaaaaaah, We have nothing to do! Waaaaaaaaaaaah!
ReplyDeleteI could name 100 fun and interesting things a college student could do in this area on a Friday night besides drinking at a bar or at a house party. Of course there's nothing wrong with drinking responsibly, in my opinion.
I think you will find that the biggest difference between UMass and UConn is that manner in which the students (collectively) are treated both by the university and community.
ReplyDeleteWalMart's customers aren't rioting, are they? UMass' are -- and doesn't that raise a few questions????
An alumnus from the late '80s who will remain nameless had occasion to come back a few years back, and occasion to discuss UMass with various groups of students and the thing that struck her was the visceral level of dislike she heard and from places where she "would never have expected it."
I'm not so sure that anyone was "rioting" until the riot police showed up...
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Wal-Mart customers riot every year on Black Friday.
ReplyDeleteI hope the riot police will be present this year to tame all the drunks at the Holyoke and Boston St. Patrick's Day parades.
ReplyDeleteI could name 100 fun and interesting things a college student could do in this area on a Friday night besides drinking at a bar or at a house party
ReplyDeleteName five.
Just name five things that a young person from Metro Boston would find "fun and interesting" -- and and I mean to that type of person. Not to you.
I honestly can't think of one -- one that such a person (not you or I) would find "fun and interesting." And that is the problem...
I could name 100 fun and interesting things a college student could do in this area on a Friday night besides drinking at a bar or at a house party
ReplyDeleteName five.
Just name five things that a young person from Metro Boston would find "fun and interesting" -- and and I mean to that type of person. Not to you.
I honestly can't think of one -- one that such a person (not you or I) would find "fun and interesting." And that is the problem...
To March 11, 2013 at 6:50 PM - Many college kids drink. There's nothing wrong with that. But they are too young to monitor how much they can safely drink because this is too new. Guess what - I have a kid who could be in college and I drink wine on occasion. It's really not a sinful thing in moderation.
ReplyDeleteAmherst downtown is boring. Just go to Northampton and compare the two. Northampton is very small town, but they invest in their downtown. There are people everywhere - of all ages and at all hours of the day.
Let the kids be kids. Give them something to do downtown. Expand downtown, encourage small business ownership, and funnel this consumer demand to the business district where it should be. It would be a win/win or all.
how about some places downtown with live music?
ReplyDeleteI think that would be wonderful! We need small downtown places with live local bands. It would even attract revenue from surrounding towns. I would think that kids - anyone - would consume less alcohol per minute if they were distracted by conversations with friends, music, just fun in general.
ReplyDeleteIt's easier to redirect flowing water than it is to stop it.
"didn't riot until the police showed-up...' Are you for real, did you not notice the part about several people treated for injuries after being hit by bottles, people on the roof, lighting shit on fire?
ReplyDelete"not so sure anyone was" is very different than "didn't". word-twister.
ReplyDeleteHere I'll help you out
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/hampshire/6-arrested-in-riot-at-amherst-apartment-complex
Yeah, thanks. It's interesting how the first sentence of the article you refer me too reads like this...
ReplyDelete...during what officials call a "riot"...
Also, nothing in there says that the crowd was creating a "disturbance" before the "riot police" got there. Is a large crowd by definition a "disturbance"?
Were the students throwing bottles at each other before cops got there?
There are riots, and then there are riots, and clearly the editor of the article you cite understands that.
I had a ver large full can of beer hurled at my head hours before police arrived.
ReplyDeleteSo one individual throwing a beer at you is a "riot"?
ReplyDeleteWatch the YouTube videos (you seem to have a lot of time on your hands). Lots of bottles and cans were flying about.
ReplyDeleteI drove through that area about 20 minutes before this unfolded. They were definitely creating a disturbance. People were darting in and out of cars, and mind you this is a major offramp into town. Kids were yelling, drinking in public, screaming from the houses on one side to the apartments on the other, and of course there was a bagpipe player with half-naked, fat, drunk boys surrounding him. There were so many people that traffic was nearly stopped. It took a long time to get to the light, and I was honestly terrified the entire time. I believe the last time I was that frightened while driving was the day I got lost and ended up in East L.A.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, I was near there too, amidst all those green jersey-clad young college boys, and the last time I was that scared I was being held hostage in Iran.
ReplyDeleteGlad you escaped (both scenarios).
ReplyDeleteUmass is clearly the only place where this is a problem....actually looks nowhere as bad as those others..
ReplyDeletehttp://m.brobible.com/college/article/best-college-st-patricks-day-parties
15 wrongs don't make a right.
ReplyDelete"I'm with you, I was near there too, amidst all those green jersey-clad young college boys, and the last time I was that scared I was being held hostage in Iran."
ReplyDeleteYou shoulda told em where you were from.
The clerics woulda treated you like royalty.