Daydrink Believer & A Homecoming Queen

Crowd on the east quad of Townhouse Apartments

Had the weather been ten degrees warmer Saturday afternoon's "daydrink" at Townhouse Apartments could easily have doubled in size, becoming another Blarney Blowout.

In 2012 and 2013 the western most quad became ground zero for rowdy behavior requiring police in riot gear to disperse.  

Temperatures peaked at 53 degrees

 Line up of police patrol cars and detective vehicles around 2:30 PM

 Posted on Fade the day before

The youthful crowd starting forming around noon and Amherst police arrived in force around 2:00 PM.   But their response was relatively low key, mainly handing out summons tickets for alcohol related infractions.

The crowd peaked at about 1,000, or about half the size of the previous riotous Blarney incidents.

 A Fade fan of my live tweeting

In 2013 the catalyst for confrontation occurred when a young women in the middle of the crowd passed out from too much alcohol.  

As AFD was administering aid they were met with bottles, cans and snowballs from an unruly minority in the crowd.  APD with the aid of state and UMass police successfully shut down the event, arresting six. 

Will the crowd get out of control the next time?  That depends.

On the weather.

Party House of the Weekend

20 Allen Street

The first really nice weekend of the year after such a miserable winter is bound to bring out the most hardy of the party boys.  Around midnight Friday one of the usual suspect streets -- Allen Street -- produced a BIG winner.  20 Allen Street to be exact.

Party goers flooded onto Phillips Street after police broke up the party after midnight

After clearing the house of over 200 "guests" APD arrested seven residents for both Noise and Nuisance bylaw violations or other alcohol related charges:  Curtis Anderson (19), Luke Dowley (22), Devon Farrell (20), Nicholas Defusco (21) Gabriel Follettie (21), Timothy Orton (20) and Anthony Spano (19).

 Click to enlarge/read

In addition to five physical arrests APD also issued 3 summons arrests for liquor law violations

All the offenders took the standard "diversion" plea deal offered by the Commonwealth.  Pay one of the $300 tickets plus $100  in Court costs and stay out of trouble for the next four months.

Curtis Anderson

Devon Farrell

Luke Dowley

Nick Fusco

Gabriel Follettie

Timothy Orton

Sad Sunday

APD and AFD on scene assisting victim

The bustle of downtown Amherst on the most beautiful day of the year came to a brief horrific pause a little before 2:00 PM as two pedestrians were injured (one more seriously than the other) by a car in the Main Street Lot that jumped the granite curb and pinned the young women against one of  the recently installed cedar tree boxes.

Offending vehicle was using a handicapped space

Both victims were transported in separate ambulances by Amherst Fire Department and an ambulance from Northampton had to be called to assess the elderly female driver who was shaken up by the incident and transported by police to APD headquarters.

 AFD was overtaxed by the incident.  NFD ambulance arrived via "mutual aid"

The driver signed a "patient refusal" and was not transported by NFD to the hospital.

 APD investigating prior to Mass State Police arrival

Mass State Police accident reconstruction team was on scene for almost two hours and the vehicle was towed from the scene with a police escort a little before 5:00 PM

 State Police accident reconstruction team on scene

Dash & Dine For A Good Cause

And they're off!

One of the nice things about playing host to 30,000 college aged youth is most of them are relatively healthy, so a fitness event that combines a charitable cause with award winning food is bound to be a winner.

The 6th annual UMass Dash & Dine to benefit the Amherst Survival Center is just such an event.

And with the comparatively nice weather this morning the benefit attracted a h-u-g-e throng to the Southwest area starting point.

#####

Next Up:

Daffodil Fun Run to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters

Business/Government Superstar?

When you're alone & life is making you lonely you can always go ...

With Amherst being blessed by the presence of both a Chamber of Commerce and downtown Business Improvement District, the idea of creating a $70,000 taxpayer funded Director of Economic Development may get bankrupted on the floor of Town Meeting.

Especially since that ancient legislative body has never been known as business friendly.

$70K is a lot of money, but considering what this person is supposed to accomplish over the hurdles they face dealing with NIMBYs, BANANAs, and  government bureaucracy (Oh my!) probably not nearly enough.

After all, English literature professors make far less than Entrepreneurship professors and PR flacks make far more than front-line reporters.

A couple decades ago when then Town Manager Barry Del Castilho commissioned an expensive consultant he publicly admitted it was because, "We don't understand the language of business."

Considering the current pitiful 10% of our tax base that comes from commercial property, town government has still not learned the language.

So maybe an interpreter is in order.  Especially someone who can demonstrate how to walk the walk, after teaching the talk. 

   Amherst Business Czar Want Ad

A New Player In Town

The Amherst Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Board of Trustees had their groundbreaking meeting last night, hearing a brief presentation by Rita Farrell of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership on all the possibilities relating to affordable housing that lay ahead for this new entity.

Town Meeting approved the formation of the Housing Trust last year (after rejecting the idea back in 2008) and the Select Board only recently appointed the seven members:  

The first test for the Trust comes next month when Town Meeting votes the Community Preservation Act Committee recommendations of $846,633 in projects which includes $25,000 in "due diligence" money for the Trust. Originally they requested $50,000 but without a committee membership yet in place the CPAC was hesitant to fully fund the request.

There was some discussion last night as to whether the term "due diligence" is broad enough for the committee to invest in a wide variety of start up activities. 

The Trust will be allowed to accept grants, private donations (of money or property) or payments from developers due to Inclusionary Zoning requirements, but the bulk of their funding is expected to be Community Preservation Act funds. 

Since Amherst voters recently approved doubling the surcharge up to the maximum 3% the CPA fund has a significantly expanded bottom line with a projected surplus of $1.3 million after Town Meeting approval of this year's ($846,633) projects.

The fledgling committee hopes the Trust becomes both well-funded and credible to allow for more nimble deal making with affordable housing developers.   Currently the town is just over the 10% threshold  on the state Subsidized Housing Inventory thus insulating us from a Ch40B development.

Although the Trust could themselves take on the roll of developer, but with all the requirements imposed on a public agency (prevailing wage for one) it's highly unlikely.

Because of a strangling of supply over the past generation Amherst has become ever increasingly unaffordable.  And not just to low-income residents, but middle-income families as well.

The two most recent taxpayer funded housing studies clearly indicate that additional housing is desperatily needed across the entire economic spectrum.

My vote for the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust logo

Perhaps by benefit of the halo non-profit entities get to wear the Affordable Housing Trust will have better luck overcoming the stigma attached to anyone who tries to do housing development in this town, where NIMBYs are nothing if not formidable.

Could be worse:  We could be Boston

Assault & Battery

Amherst police arrested David Rempp, age 23, who lists his address as "streets of Amherst", for domestic Assault & Battery with a dangerous weapon and destruction of property with that dangerous weapon.

Unfortunately because he was transported by AFD for psychological issues, APD did not get a chance to book him, thus no mug shot. 

Mr Rempp was arrested Friday but later bailed under the condition he report to a hospital for treatment, and then Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday morning for arraignment.

But he failed to appear in District Court and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Editors note:  For any of you old enough to remember the Sharon Galligan murder at the Hampshire Mall in Hadley you will understand why I did not redact the sensitive medical information about Mr. Rempp.

Click to enlarge/read

Unabashed Conservative Comes Calling

 

Charles Krauthammer is a, gasp, Fox News contributor

Yes, the UMass Republican Club is at it again.

The daredevils who brought Karl Rove  and John Ashcroft to our unabashedly liberal enclave -- enraging the Ivory Tower intelligentsia -- have now snagged conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer to share his Pulitzer Prize winning opinions. 

Considering UMass recently hosted Angela Davis, consider it a "fair-and-balanced" kind of karma.

A Fabulous Job

Chief Livingstone introduces Sgts Foster (left) and McLean (ctr), Lt. Knightly (rt)

While the town is parsimonious when it comes to budgeting for our Public Safety departments, I have to admit the Select Board and Town Manager are pretty good when it comes to demonstrating moral support.

 Fellow officers (and Fire Chief) showed up for support

After the awful Blarney Blowout of 2013 (which resulted in six arrests) where bottles and cans were thrown at EMTs while they were assisting an intoxicated young woman, the Select Board and Town Manager actually gave UMass an earful for not doing enough to prevent the mayhem.

And of course the next year which was an utter disaster (with 58 arrests), Amherst town officials were quick to publicly support APD after the rush to judgement about alleged inappropriate use of force.

Last night it was one of those symbolic, non controversial little things that goes a l-o-n-g way towards maintaining pride in a job well done:  Swearing in recently promoted officers Dave Foster and Rich McLean to sergeant and Dave Knightly to lieutenant.

Sky High Price of Transparency

Besides outright refusal to provide requested documents and then running the risk of losing an appeal to the state Public Records Division  (although they have no enforcement powers), another way of keeping things buried is to charge a high price for fulfilling the request.

State law allows "reasonable fees" to be charged by a public institution to fulfill a request, and it really doesn't matter if you are an average citizen or legacy news organization.

Of course these days newspapers can barely afford to pay for employees coffee so an unexpected $11,000 for public documents is a little hard to swallow.

Which of course only makes you wonder, what is UMass trying to hide?

Our flagship of higher education seemed to be pretty transparent last month when they fairly quickly released total costs ($305,000) associated with the Mullins Center Concert designed to distract students from participating in the Blarney Blowout.

So what's the big deal about giving out the cost breakdown?  Will Ludacris and Juicy J be upset that Kesha was paid more? 

Or are there extra costs we don't know about?

These days public relations personnel outnumber journalists by five to one.  With UMass it's far worse since there really are no professional reporters exclusively assigned to cover UMass/Amherst, while their  "Office of News & Media Relations" has a full-time staff (many of them former reporters) of eleven.

But when you mess with one reporter, you mess with them all.  As well as intelligent readers who take transparency seriously. 

When UMass messed with me

Party House of the Weekend

2 Bridge Street in the heart of "Historic Cushman Village"

If the police come calling near midnight don't get mouthy with them, especially if you have a live band serenading the surrounding neighborhood with music they probably hate.

Click to enlarge/read

Amherst police received little to no "cooperation at the door" (as the Chief is fond of calling it) and as a result three college aged youth were arrested for violation of the town's Noise Bylaw, earning them a visit to APD headquarters at 111 Main Street and then a guided tour of Courtroom 1 in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday morning.

Bad Boys of Bridge Street appear before Judge John Payne

Student Town Advisory Board

Amherst Select Board voted Alisa Brewer new Chair, Doug Slaughter missed 1st meeting due to illness

Town Manager John Musante told the Amherst Select Board last night that he was bringing together student government appointees from all three institutes of higher education to meet with key town departments -- Police, Fire, Board of Health, Chamber of Commerce, etc -- to talk about issues impacting students, our #1 demographic.

Mr. Musante said he hoped the committee charge would be completed soon and the first meeting held before graduation day.  The group would meet "a couple times per semester."

The collaborative idea was not an offshoot of the $160,000 Davis Report on how to avoid another Blarney Blowout and not to be confused with University Town of Amherst Collaborative (UTAC) dreamed up by the $60,000 town/gown consultant as an offshoot of the Town Gown Steering Committee.

The Town Manger said it was the brainchild of the outgoing UMass Student Government Association President Vinayak Rao, who has been proactive with improving relations between the town and UMass students over the course of his one-year reign. 

 Vinayak Rao (rt) Amilcar Shabazz (ctr) Jacob Schissel (left)

Parking Peccadillos?

Hidden lot behind Town Hall has 18 spaces (2 of them handicapped)

For most of us parking in downtown Amherst is pretty straightforward. You drive around to find the perfect spot closest to a destination and then put money in the machine and hope you timed it correctly to avoid a $10 ticket, which if unpaid quickly escalates many times over in amount due.

Last year Parking Enforcement issued almost 23,000 tickets and the Transportation Fund -- between violations and fines -- benefited by around $400,000.

Some folks of course never have to worry about a parking ticket, and if they use the hidden spot behind Town Hall, probably never worry about finding a prime location to park.   And no, I'm not talking about special state issued Handicapped Permits (which also allows free parking).

The Town Manager's office issues parking permits to some town employees, as well as appointed and elected officials.  They are valid at any of the 538 on-street metered and public lot spaces around town.

Both the 5-member Select Board (the town's Executive branch of government) and the 5-member Jones Library Board of Trustees possess permits, although a Select Board member told me:

We do not use them while simply enjoying downtown:-)  And we have all had plenty of parking tickets -- just in case you wondered --  from the days before we had passes and for when we're currently out and about for non-Select Board work and guess our meter/machine time wrong. 

On Thursday afternoon (4/2) a walk around town center turned up 24 vehicles with the placards displayed on the front dashboard, nine of them in the secret lot behind Town Hall.  And on Good Friday I found 26, with nine once again in the lot behind Town Hall. 

Naturally none of these prized placards are issued to front line police, fire or DPW workers.

There's a movement afoot to build a new parking garage in town center, although the two most recent study/analysis reports -- one in 2008 and the other being released this week -- seem to indicate there is enough parking overall to meet demand, just not at peak periods.

Kind of like a health club that sees the trendy popular aerobic machines overbooked at 5:30 PM but in the early morning or later at night, not so much. Like most things in life, timing is everything.

At the most recent Downtown Parking Forum, Finance Committee Chair Kay Moran pointed out four expensive municipal major building projects are already in the hopper -- new Fire Station and DPW building, expanded renovated Jones Library and Wildwood School -- so any proposed parking structure darn well better be self supporting. 

Another strain on the system is meter feeders who take up prime spots for a full eight hours, or folks like the "top ten" scofflaws who forget to feed the meter and then forgets to pay the fines.  Take #1 for instance, with an astounding $18,330 owed.

 Downtown business owner gets "the boot", pays the $690 in fines within the hour

Yes, you would think a business owner would not park so near his business preferring to leave that prime spot open for, you know, paying customers.  And you would also wonder how the Hell he could rack up $18,330 in parking violations.

Or why the town didn't keep the boot on until those monies (owed from another vehicle) were paid, although I'm told the town had him sign an installment agreement to start making payments.  If not, the Select Board could fail to renew his liquor license.

Although, lately, the Town Manager and Select Board have been a tad fawning with the downtown liquor establishments, probably not wanting to fan the flames of an "anti business" reputation that has been smouldering for over a generation. 

Just one day after the March 23 booting of the pick up truck, he earned two more tickets in the downtown:

The Select Board is also generous with allowing downtown events -- Taste of Amherst, Extravaganja, The Sustainability Festival -- to temporarily take up prime parking spots as a staging area with no charge.

Yet when the Lord Jeff Inn requests meters be set aside for guests of a wedding reception, they pay $5 per meter bagged.

Meters reserved 3/24 Boltwood Ave for Lord Jeff wedding reception @ $5/bag

Since the town will soon be hiring a $70,000 Economic Development Director, perhaps their first order of business should be to address the parking situation in town center.  In as cost effective manner as possible. 

And don't give him/her a free parking pass until they figure it out!

   Parking in Amherst

$40.00 an hour?

 Town Hall SEIU payscale steps 1 thru step 10

Pumpkin Fest Goes PFFT

Keene State Pumpkin Fest riots October, 2014

The world -- or at least regionally -- famous Keene New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival will not live to see its 25th year.  Killed off by the international bad press generated by riots that broke out last year strikingly reminiscent of our own Blarney Blowout.

Although in our case BB was not attached to any particular Town or University sponsored event, as it was simply a juvenile promotion conjured up by downtown bars to stimulate business.  Ending up with a little more stimulation than they wished for.

But if Blarney had been associated with a legitimate event, the tragedy that just occurred in Keene's City Council chambers would be sort of like our Select Board pulling the permit for the Taste of Amherst or -- God forbid --  the celebratory pot festival, Extravaganja. 

According to the only Keene City Councilor (out of 14) who opposed denying the permit:  “We’ll be known as the city of the pumpkin festival riot. Keene State College will be remembered as the college that killed off the Pumpkin Festival.”

Yikes!  Can you imagine if UMass became known as the college that killed off Extravaganja?

Let this be a lesson boys and girls:  the misdeeds of the very few can significantly impact the reputations of the very many.

Hopefully our college aged youth will remember that over next four weekends leading up to graduations.  

I wonder if they will hire Mr. Davis to do a study

A Fitting Investment

UMass undergrad Commencement Ceremony, May 8th

If UMass can spend a little over $300,000 on three "artists" for a free musical concert at the Mullins Center to attract students away from a boorish Blarney Blowout style of celebration, I sure don't have a problem with paying Neil deGrasse Tyson $25,000 (plus expenses) for this year's Commencement speech.

As I've mentioned more than once, last year's Blarney Blowout cost the University and Town more than a million in bad PR.  And had this year's event stumbled down the same sorry path, you could have easily doubled that amount.

College graduation is a once in a lifetime event.  Let's hope Mr. Tyson presents a memorable, out of this world, speech.

Globe story alone is worth a couple bucks