Hampshire College Fire

 Fire started on front porch deck and climbed strait up

A brisk but peaceful New England Sunday suddenly became energetic when a box alarm alerted Amherst Fire Department to a structure fire at Greenwich Dorm,  Hampshire College around 4:13 PM.

 Smoke screen after water hit fire

First reports indicated furniture on the porch had ignited and spread to the building, but later, after the fire was extinguished, a student told Hampshire College Police he had dried a sweater in a microwave oven.

Engine 2, the Quint, arrives and starts extending her 75 foot ladder

The sweater caught fire, was doused with water and placed outside, thinking the fire was safely out.  It wasn't. 

 Quint extended ladder to second floor window

Firefighters ventilate above where the fire started

One police officer was transported to Cooley Dickinson Hospital by Northampton FD (mutual aid) as a precautionary measure after he suffered smoke inhalation going through the building to make sure everyone was safely out.  Give that man a medal.

And a warm thanks to the men and women of AFD ... just doing their public safety job:  keeping The Beast at bay.

 Students and staff of Hampshire College watch from a safe distance

Sorry, my iPhone doesn't do sound anymore

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AFD reports

Fear & Loathing at Hampshire College

 

Fireworks light up the sky over Hampshire College Red Barn Friday night for Hampshire Halloween.  And now the fireworks have turned into a firestorm

UPDATE:  (Sunday later afternoon)

Hampshire College has posted yet another "official statement" on their website, only a slight tweaking from the one issued earlier this morning.  Of course anything short of an outright apology and admission of a major mistake isn't going to cut it.  

And this statement does neither.

They also use the "West Side Story" defense beleaguered Amherst school officials invoked after the nationwide firestorm erupted over the only cancellation of the award winning play in it's entire history.  

Officials said the fast brewing controversy had caused too much of an uproar, pitting (minority) students against (white) students, and it was interfering with a safe and healthy environment for education to take place.

The cancellation then had the effect of rolling a grenade into the middle of an ammunition dump. 

UPDATE:  (Sunday early afternoon):

UPDATE (Sunday morning):  Official Hampshire College response (Believe it or not.  Yikes!). "Reasonable conversation"?????

The student organizers of Hampshire Halloween contracted with a number of bands to play Friday night. Some members of our student community questioned the selection of one band, asking whether it was a predominantly white Afrobeat band, and expressing their concerns about cultural appropriation and the need to respect marginalized cultures. The students tried to be clear that they meant no disrespect to the members of the band in question, but wished to raise larger questions and deeper thought within our own community.

Unfortunately, voices unconnected to our campus and the planning for Hampshire Halloween drowned out a reasonable conversation about how to ensure that the entire student community could have a safe and happy evening. As can happen on social media, posts from off-campus individuals trivialized the concerns of our students and made them feel disrespected.

Late Thursday afternoon, the student organizers met with the concerned students. Following that discussion they chose to cancel the band’s appearance at Hampshire Halloween but to pay the band in full. Hampshire Halloween is student organized, paid for by Hampshire students in their student activity fees, and is designed to be a fun evening for our entire student community.

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ORIGINAL Post (Saturday morning):

So just when I thought nothing could match the "only in Amherst" moments brought to you by our local Regional High School -- cancelling a production of 'West Side Story' because it was "racist", but then five years later allowing young girls to publicly perform the R rated 'Vagina Monologues' -- another indigenous "education" institute reminds us why the term Only in Amherst still applies.

Hampshire College, that bastion of, um, liberal progressive something-or-other, suddenly cancelled the group Shokazoba, scheduled to perform at their infamous "Hampshire Halloween" celebration, because they were, for lack of a better term, too white.

Interestingly the (appropriately titled) "Hype" committee felt comfortable engaging in censorship on their official Facebook page.  Yeah, they have their priorities straight (sarcasm). 

Hampshire College canceled our set tonight because we are "too white" to play Afrobeat. Racist much? Please spread the word! Unacceptable!!!
— Shokazoba (@Shokazoba) October 26, 2013

Gawker Reports (as usual Comments are the best)

Fox News Reports

Phantasy Tour discussion board

MassLive Reports

Fireground: University Drive

 AFD laying hose

The Amherst Fire Department responded early this morning to a small fire at the Golden Booty Tanning Salon on University Drive.  The call came in at 1:37 AM as an automated smoke alarm but when an Amherst police officer first on the scene reported seeing and smelling smoke, a box alarm was struck, automatically summoning all off duty personnel.

Fortunately the building has a sprinkler system and it extinguished the utility room fire before it could do serious damage.

At the time of the initial alarm 10 of the 13 on-duty firefighters were occupied staffing all 5 ambulances engaged in runs to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital, most of them for intoxicated "college aged youth."

Western Mass Electric was called in to shut off power to the business and the State Fire Marshall's Office has been called in to investigate.

AFD Reports

Strangling Supply

Cowls former lumber mill:  20+ acres in need of development

Adhering to the old PR mantra about repeating something often enough to make it seem true, North Amherst resident Melissa Perot -- who fancies herself a Joan of Arc -- has been repeating ad nauseam the Planning Board's "technical fix" (Article 18) for mixed use buildings, "REZONES the entire Commercial District and in particular the large 20+ acres of Cowls land in N. Amherst."  (Bold caps are all hers naturally.)

Simply put the only thing Article 18 does is to put into words what has been common practice with Building Commissioners over the past 25 years:  allowing offices for doctors and lawyers, government agencies, public service, etc.  Or what Ms Perot refers to as "paper pushers."

The only other change is reducing from "two or more" ground floor dwelling units down to "one," thus encouraging smaller mixed use developments like a business owner living above his or her business.  

In fact Article 18 came about via a request from Building Commissioner Rob Maura and not from any of the developers Mr. Perot rails against.  

 Trolley Barn

Ms. Perot did manage to torpedo an actual zoning CHANGE at last spring's Town Meeting that would have allowed greater density of dwelling units in a mixed use building.  For instance, in the Trolley Barn now under development, instead of the current four units the same amount of space could have been subdivided into eight residential units -- twice the current number. 

And that is precisely problem #1 in our little "college town:"  Too many residents -- more than half of them "college aged youth" -- and not nearly enough housing to shelter them.  As a result, speculators buy up single family homes, expand them into 2 family homes and rent them out to eight (or more) students, some of whom behave in a less than civil manner.   

The skyrocketing rents push out low income residents using Section 8 housing vouchers, single parent households or anyone trying to survive on a minimum wage salary. 

Town Meeting has continually turned down common sense zoning changes that would increase desperately needed housing stock (the town currently has only four apartment complexes with 200+ units).

And even when projects are announced that can be built "by right" (without zoning change) the NIMBYs sharpen their pitchforks, fire up the gas powered torches and make life miserable for the property owner and proposed developer.  

Even worse than Ms. Perot trying to roll back the minor gains made through zoning changes at the spring Town Meeting, another NIMBY -- amazingly enough one with a business background -- wants to tighten (like a noose) the town's four unrelated housemates bylaw to only three.

Yes, in a town with 5,265 rental units -- not nearly enough to handle current demands -- Ira Bryck would reduce total occupancy by as much as 25% with a single stroke of legislation.  Amazingly naive.   

In fact the town should -- under very strict circumstances -- allow more than four unrelated housemates depending upon the house.  But require the owner to seek a "special permit" from the Planning or Zoning Board, so the building commissioner, police and fire department can weigh in on the matter. 

Amherst needs an across the board increase in housing stock.  This housing crisis is certainly nothing knew having been talked about since the early 1970s where the town even briefly flirted with, gasp, "rent control."

Enactment of the Residential Rental Property Bylaw to "protect the health, safety, and welfare of tenants and other citizens of the Town of Amherst" last May was a giant leap forward for the town, setting the stage for future much-needed development.

Ms. Perot and Mr. Bryck's ideas places them squarely in the same league with the Flat Earth Society.  Although ironically enough, the first step in development is to level the site.   

68 Cowls Road

Bring on the bulldozers!

Going, Going ... Gone

It took less than three hours to auction off 40 years worth of equipment accumulated by one of the area's premier landscaping businesses, as the auction attracted over 200 bidders, with some items bringing in $10,000 or more.

 

Heavy duty trucks

The large crowd, predominantly men, consisted of contractors, farmers, landscapers, homeowners with large yards, and perhaps someone interested in buying a memento of an old fashioned family business, now but a fond memory.

 

Fleet of pick up trucks

A Laughing Stock

So I guess if you don't make the short list for recieving a community A+ award from the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, the next best thing is to get mentioned by radio personality Monte Belmonte during his -- mostly funny -- monologue.

Although I have a feeling Amherst Select Board members probably did not laugh.

(Just wait until next year.)

Rocks Of Ages

 

15 Fearing Street

You sagacious types have probably noticed the somewhat sudden sprouting of large rocks outlining the lawns of rental property all over town.  The reason is of course to keep tenants or their guests from parking on the lawn. 

The reason absentee landlords take the issue seriously enough to decorate their property with large boulders is because they don't want a $100 fine from the building inspector. Yes, the fines go to the owners not the offenders.  And it seems to be working.

 Corner of Main and Shumway Streets

I asked code enforcement officer, aka the enforcer, Jon Thompson for a breakdown of tickets issued thus far in calender 2013:

Here is the breakdown of the 112 violations / complaints that I have responded to since January 1^st of this year.

Health Complaints:  40 (Rentals), 5 (Owner Occupied)

Parking: 56 (Rentals), 2 (Owner Occupied)

Zoning: 5 (Rentals), 3 (Owner Occupied)

Building Code: 1 (Rental)

So as you can see "parking" is #1, and the vast majority of tickets are issued to "rentals".  But the fine goes to the owners, hence the motivation to actually do something about it.  Like planting a crop of large boulders. 

South Pleasant Street

Of course there are outliers: 

20 South Whitney Street, early October

51 North East Street, early October