Deja Vu all over again

Clinton 1,954, Obama 4,139 all others 128

In 1988 when almost every municipality in Massachusetts went with Mike Dukakis Amherst supported Jesse Jackson; so I guess it should come as no surprise that Obama beats Clinton by a 2-1 margin here in the People’s Republic, while Clinton wins Massachusetts--dubbed by the Republican winner Mitt Romney as “the most liberal state in the nation”. So if that's true, I wonder what that makes Amherst?

The People’s Republic Indeed

The almost impossible job of constructing new dwellings, what with current zoning/permitting in place, NIMBY’s just waiting to pounce, and the price of land in an almost built-out Amherst, will only worsen if everybody’s favorite do-gooder Vince O’Connor convinces fellow Comrades at Town Meeting come Spring.

Yesterday he filed a Zoning Petition Article (only needs ten signatures) that would require any new residential development to “provide affordable housing units,” and if it results in five or more would be “referred to the LSSE Director (recreation department) and Commission of the Town of Amherst for their recommendations regarding the nature, extent and maintenance requirements of such on-site recreational facilities as would be consistent with national or regional standards.”

Of course the developer can opt out of providing on-cite recreation by “the payment into a Town of Amherst Recreational Capital Fund of a $5,000 per unit development impact fee.” Hell, I would give prospective new homeowners a deal at the Amherst Athletic Club.

Supply and demand is the simplest rule in market economy. High demand, low supply equals inflated prices. Low demand, high supply equals bargain prices. Anytime you restrict supply (ironically by requiring “affordable” units) or drive up the overhead cost ($5,000 per unit recreation tax) you strangle supply.

And that’s precisely what the Treehuggers want (couldn’t help but notice Select man Rob Kusner signed the petition.)

Is Umass burning?

No, as of 10:45 PM things on campus--post Super Bowl--seem to be under control. Police have closed off Massachusetts Avenue leading down to Southwest High-rise dorms (scene of the previous worst Red Sox riots) and the side roads leading up to Southwest from University Drive. A state police helicopter hovers high overhead.

UPDATE: 5:45 AM. Well, mostly stayed under control:
7 arrested, group of 500 broken up , a ton of tax dollars consumed.

Get em' next year.

The Amherst Select board (known every else in the liberal state of Massachusetts as the “Board of Selectmen”) had another one of those emergency meetings Saturday to discuss, yet again, THE BUDGET.

His Lordship, Selectman Chair Gerry Weiss opened with a rambling diatribe attributing the current budget woes to that malevolent actor/Republican President Ronald Reagan. (You know, the guy who brought down the “Evil Empire”).

Seems His Lordship’s only concern in our upcoming $60+ MILLION operation budget is the overall one-tenth-of-one-percent $67,000 that Amherst (taxpayers) donates to private charities. And yes, we are the ONLY municipality in the state that does so.

Of course the good (Front Page) news is that the Property Tax Override is probably toast this year.

With current Town Reserves at $4.2 million and another $1 million in the Amherst Regional High School slush fund, it looks like the players will cut capital spending this coming year by almost $400,000 (about 10%) and take $500,000 from the Town Reserves to help cover most of the Elementary Schools $1.3 million gap

The Regional High School will simply dip into their ($1 million) reserves to cover the $300,000 shortfall. Or maybe they will schedule extra showings of ‘The Vagina Monologues’ to cover the difference.

Thus, hard-pressed taxpayers are safe for another year…barely.

Vagina update.

So Principal Mark Jackson showed up coffee in hand early yesterday morning. He’s a lot bigger than I remember.

We chatted for over a half-hour, spending a moment or two on budget issues and then got right down (and dirty) to Vaginas. He mentioned how he had been hired by Amherst but not yet installed when the first controversy was at its peak four years ago.

His wife even called him to the television to watch ‘The Today Show” when they gave it eight minutes of live coverage with Eve Ensler herself appearing with the little 17-year-old from Amherst Regional High School.

I, of course only got 11 seconds of that—you know, good old “fair and balanced” you expect from a show that’s more entertainment than news.

I could tell Jackson is already worn out from this issue, and will probably never repeat the mistake for as long as he’s principal at Amherst. But with 4 of 6 principals in the school system on the outs, hard to say how long he will last.

Then of course, some other rookie will assume command and some young lady will want to do the Monologue where you get to yell the C-word at the top of your lungs--as though it’s something to be proud of.

And so it goes…

Routine returns?

Former blogger and forever friend Izzy Lyman once warned me about installing a sitemeter because you become "obsessive" about visitors.

Over the last few days I could not help but notice many of them coming from the Chicago area via a Goggle search for "Jenny Kim," sometimes adding "Amherst College" oftentimes THAT term...the one that makes the word death redundant.

I had noted Amherst College was flying their vibrant, well-lit American flag at the top of Johnson Chapel overlooking downtown Amherst in a position of mourning to remember and honor Jenny Kim, a 22-year senior with a prosperous life awaiting suddenly, stunningly, by her own dominant hand, gone.

Growing up in Amherst I can remember when Umass Southwest High-rise dorms were once rolling open fields. And it wasn't long after they first scraped the sky before a troubled youth used the top floor of one or the other as a platform for certain death.

After a half-dozen fatalities Umass, finally, instituted security measures and the regrettable ritual stopped--or at least took on a different form.

I feel bad for Jenny; I feel bad for her friends and family; and I feel bad for invoking her name over this medium where anyone can instantly arrive from anywhere in the world after typing her name.

Hopefully flying the American flag at half-staff high over Amherst College brought them some comfort; if indeed, anything can bring comfort to those she left behind.

On THAT awful day, as dusk descended over a forever-changed New York City, three tired firefighters desperately looking for fallen comrades break to hoist a borrowed American flag over the debris. The photo captured and inspired our national resolve and I, for one, took some comfort there.

So for those of you who arrive here now looking for information about Jenny Kim, I'm sorry; I did not know her in her life, and I'm saddened that I only became aware of her in death.

http://www.amherst.edu/memoriam/kim.html

Many rivers to cross

So today is a milestone…of sorts: my 53’rd birthday and the Amherst Athletic Club’s 26’th. Thus, I have been running a small business--or I should say it has been running me--for almost exactly half my life.

What my wife (a co-founder who is gainfully employed elsewhere as an Entrepreneurship Professor but still teaches Karate, Spin, Aerobics, does the bookkeeping, etc--all for no pay) calls a “lifestyle business.”

The “business” opened 1/30/82 on my 27’th birthday. It was either that or suicide. Ten years earlier, fat and introverted, I fell in love with karate at the crossroads age of 17.

My single minded series of goals were nothing if not ambitious: to become a Black Belt by age 19 (usually takes 4 years), attain a Regional Ranking in Sport Karate by age 21, become Nationally Ranked by age 23 and, finally, #1 in the nation at age 26.

My first instructor said to me that an average person has one chance in 10,000 of even making Black Belt but my chances were ten times worse. Grrrrrr.

I attained the first three goals ahead of schedule (Black belt at 18.5, six times ranked #1 in New England and four times ranked Top Ten in the nation), but as 1982 dawned I knew that I was going to fall just short of the last goal. I figured I would move up only one from my #5 ranking, but ended up at #3, just ahead of archrival Billy Blanks (pre Tae Bo days) at #4.

His manager was so angry she threatened to suit Karate Illustrated the magazine in charge of ratings. Billy had accumulated way more rating points than I by winning small local events against nobody’s but I had beaten him in Florida at an A-rated event where I took my one and only Grand Championship.

Since my goal had not technically failed until my birthday, and I did not want to be suicidal on that day, I decided to distract myself by opening a Karate School at the Mt. Farms Mall in Hadley, otherwise known as the “Dead Mall”.

We moved to The People’s Republic of Amherst a year later; and the rest as they say is history…ongoing.


http://www.metacafe.com/watch/124878/billy_blanks_tae_bo_fight/