"Activists" Vladimir Morales and Rob Kusner facing camera--and probably not buying vegetables at today's final Amherst Farmers Market of the season.UPDATE: Sunday morning. Somebody alerted me to the discussion that took place over on Mother Mary Streeter's antiquated town meeting listserve over the past few days concerning this tempest in a teapot.
Leave it to Isaac BenEzra to dub his PR event a "LOVE IN". The 60s must have been good to him.
From: Isaac BenEzra
Date: Fri Nov 19, 2010 9:40 pm
Subject: Re: [AmhTownMtg] SAVE THE MARKET
Send Email Send Email
Dear Gerry,
John Musanti has moved a meeting with Mr. Spineti from January 2011, to next Tuesday, That is a positive step to early resolution.
Saturday's LOVE IN at the Market (11:30am) will contribute to affirming how we feel about the folks who put the food on our table.
The proposed plan to reduce the walkway between farm stands by 18 feet needs to be revisited by all concerned.
Isaac
On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 11:07 AM, Isaac BenEzra wrote:
SAVE THE MARKET
The Amherst Farmers' Market's space and future are in jeopardy.
Please join with the farmers and Friends of the Market on
Saturday, November 20,
8 am - 1:30 pm
to show your support for the market?
P.S. Pass this along!
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Original Post Saturday afternoon.
So this one really takes the (carrot) cake. Our dilapidated downtown is finally getting a much needed makeover--with state money no less--and the folks who have used a central prime location rent free for 37 years are whining about being moved 100 yards or so next year.
And the guy leading the charge, John Spineti, is not even an Amherst taxpayer.
Talk about self righteous gall. But hey, they are farmers and the Farmers Market is right up there with Mom, Apple Pie--and if this were anywhere but the People's Republic of Amherst--the American Flag.
Local activist and former Mayor-Daley-like Boss at ACTV (now called 'Amherst Media') Isaac BenEzra took his ever so, um, fair-and-balanced cable show (one sided) "Conversations..." on the road today (an entire half mile) to the Farmers Market in downtown Amherst, where he pretty much hangs out every Saturday anyway, so why not drag a few unpaid interns along to shoot this one-sided propaganda.
And being the consummate PT Barnum spinmeister, BenEzra even pre-alerted the Daily Hampshire Gazette that he would be taking up this cause to highlight the unfairness of the evil DPW paving paradise to put up a parking lot (not to mention sidewalk). Don't it always seem to go?
BenEzra even compares this to the Boy Scouts Christmas Tree fiasco thee years ago (a story I broke) where the scroog-like Town Mangler suddenly charged the Boy Scouts $1/tree "rent" for using Kendrick Park, a downtown location they have traditionally inhabited every December for the past 60 years.
Kind of a big difference in that Kendrick Park was not about to undergo major construction.
Any business owner who has ever endured a construction project in their front yard understands that short term inconvenience is more than made up for by the long term benefits--not just to the businesses--but also the local citizens who fund it all.
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Talk-show host targets forced relocation of farmers
By THE DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE and SCOTT MERZBACH
Staff Writers
Friday, November 19, 2010
AMHERST - The possible displacement of the weekly farmers market next summer from its long-time home on Spring Street will be the focus of a forthcoming installment of the "Conversations with Isaac BenEzra" program on Amherst Community Television.
BenEzra said Thursday that he will be interviewing both farmers and customers at the Saturday market beginning at 11:30 a.m.
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The Only in Amherst Christmas Tree Fiasco
