Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Cut Off Nose To Spite Face

621 East Pleasant Street, Amherst aka "BabeTown"

So while the addition to the overgrown front yard is kind of cute -- after all, who does not like bear statues? -- I would guess it's the Bad Boys of BabeTown symbolically extending the middle finger to the town after recent repeated $100 citations for parking on the lawn.

Note van is also still parked on the lawn  

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UPDATE: Wednesday morning 

Gaudy sign gone

Van still parked on overgrown lawn

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to see it's a rainbow bear!

Anonymous said...

Is this town lawn or can you actually be given a fine for parking on your own lawn?

Larry Kelley said...

Yes. You can actually be given a ticket for parking on your own lawn.

Or leaving ratty old living room furniture on it for that matter.

Or placing large hand made business signs on it.

Anonymous said...

I do not understand why its such a big deal to park on grass. So the land lords will dig up their yard and put mulch down and now, voila you can park. Who cares if you are parking on grass or mulch? I honestly dont understand what the big deal is. Amherst is such a strange place.

Larry Kelley said...

Actually it has to be hard packed gravel and after last night's Town Meeting all rental properties will have to submit a parking plan for approval.

Anonymous said...

My guess is that Anon 12:15 a.m. doesn't own residential property in Amherst.

It's what students do at their temporary rental homes that homeowners wouldn't do that makes Amherst "a strange place".

Larry Kelley said...

Indeed.

Although this particular house is owned by the father of one of the tenants.

Anonymous said...

yes, it's quite profitable to be an out of town parent landlord, buy a property and let your kid live there and pay for the mortgage and taxes by renting out the rest. who cares what it looks like..it's not next door to the landlord in suburbia where-ever. We had that situation and the owner gave us their phone number to call if problmes, that seemed reassuring..until we called after repeatedly being awakened in the middle of the night by noise (2 a.m loud, loud music, girls screaming, people parking...THIS during the week) so they changed their number and got a property "manager" who is unreachable. When large tree branch came down, I had to resort to calling the town after calling the "property Manager" for months and the town got in touch with him and the tree removed from our property. Since the landlord's kid moved, things have gotten better noise wise but they are NOT maintaining the property and it's looking very run down. THAT's the way to show a profit. no reinvestment.

Rebecca said...

I pass this house twice a day and hadn't noticed anything unusual about it until yesterday when I saw the added lawn decor. There are other houses on that road with unmowed lawns and work that needs to be done, but I don't think they are all rentals. Anyway it is interesting to see these developments. I wonder what the town's next step will be.

Donna said...

Two words for the occupants at 621 East Pleasant Street: GROW UP.

Parent rentals are the bane of Amherst's existence. Thier disrespectful spawn wreak havoc for 9 months out of the year, turning neighborhoods into slums, and then " just like that poof they are gone".

I knew of at least one such slum lord who lives in the Amherst Woods part of town, runs a rental near UMASS, over fills a 3 br home with 6 unrelated student tenants. The place wreaked of urine and beer, lawn never mowed, cars all over the place. I don't know if this person still owns that property, but I would gander a guess and say yes.

My point is that it is not only absent parent student rentals, but some of Amherr's finest. Hopefully these new ordinances will make a difference..

Larry Kelley said...

They will.

Anonymous said...

I know year round Amherst residents that use their lawns for tenant and RV parking- I would assume (princess) Stephanie's dad would know about this rule/ fine?

Just another way students get singled out...

BTW- Rumor has it Babetown will soon be on the MLS.

Anonymous said...

You seem to have a strange fascination with this particular residence. Are the decorations in someone's front lawn truly newsworthy and relevant to the public's interest? It seems to me that you're treading a fine line between "journalism" and "invasion of privacy."

As a relatively thick skinned citizen, I might take offense to the way you describe the residents of this household. Possibly even threatened by what seems to me to be an obsession with them.

If tacky was newsworthy there wouldn't be enough reporters in the world.

From http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/publication-private-facts

Despite the broad scope of potentially newsworthy topics, you risk losing your protection from liability if you exceed the bounds of common decency: "The line is to be drawn when the publicity ceases to be the giving of information to which the public is entitled, and becomes a morbid and sensational prying into private lives for its own sake, with which a reasonable member of the public, with decent standards, would say that he had no concern."



Larry Kelley said...

Well now, that would make lawsuit threat #79. So go ahead "make my day."

Anonymous said...

Are you referring this popular American movie?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mevxenJ6Mtc

Because it's making you sound like quite the bad boy, Larry.

Anonymous said...

I understand the fascination- Babetown is an illegal nightclub with live concerts- Lawn parking is the least of their violations!

https://www.facebook.com/events/183732778392888/