Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Let Us (Safely) Cross!

 Applewood is on south side of West Bay Road, across from Eric Carle Museum

Residents of Applewood, an upscale retirement community in South Amherst, have petitioned the Amherst Planning Board for a couple of crosswalks to connect them to Hampshire College, The Eric Carle Museum and the Yiddish Book Center just across the street.

 Atkins and double rotaries are also on south side of West Bay Road

West Bay Road has certainly gotten busier since the creation of the double roundabouts in front of Atkins Country Market five years ago, located on the same side of the road just below Applewood.



Hampshire College is installing a solar array just below the Eric Carle Museum on the north side of West Bay Road starting any day now, so maybe the town can talk them into doing the crosswalks. 

 This field on north side of West Bay Road will become large solar array

Especially since they pay the town nothing in Payment In Lieu Of Taxes for AFD emergency services, unlike that other private college who pays us $120,000 per year.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great pictures and reporting Larry. Q: Is there a sidewalk along the frontage on either side of Bay Road? Seems to me, it doesn't make sense to have a crosswalk without sidewalks on BOTH sides.

And yes, HC should pay for it. It doesn't contribute much to the town so a little infrastructure would be nice.

Larry Kelley said...

There's one on the south side of West Bay, but only where it is parallel with Atkins just about into the roundabouts.

Anonymous said...

There was a meeting organized by the Planning Dept two years ago at Atkins Corner and almost everyone wanted sidewalks. It's time to respond to neighbor concerns, not just developers' zoning wishlist.

Dr. Ed said...

Upscale retirement communities, an aging town population in general, and an increasing percentage of those children who remain being low-income, really low-income in a affluent town -- an increasingly squalid housing stock that only people with Section 8 Vouchers or student loans can afford to rent (it's cheaper for everyone else to buy somewhere else & commute) -- this does not bode well for the future of either Team Maria or the town itself.

This is what happened to places like Baltimore....

Anonymous said...

Scroll on big Mama; Nope Ed is still here.
Somebody lied to me???

Anonymous said...

Somewhere else online an Amherst resident said about the crosswalk request: you want it? you pay for it. ... how many times will a resident of N Amherst use this?

Another said: How many residents or visitors have been hit crossing there?

These sentiments mirror closely my opinions about tax dollars being used to provide Amherst police officers with bullet proof vests. How many Amherst police officers have been shot at in the 200+ year history of Amherst? Zero. How many times will an Amherst resident use one of our bullet-proof vests, despite being just as likely to be shot at as an Amherst police officer? Zero. There is absolutely NO justification for spending our money on bullet proof vests for our officers. I feel that if you are a tax-payer funded employee and you want to wear a bullet-proof vest to work--whether you're a cop, a teacher, or a politician--you should have to pay for it yourself. Those things are expensive and not a justified expense.