Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Control or chaos?
Rent Control, Amherst’s failed experiment in socialism finally pays off--but not for the tenants it was designed to help, now long gone.
A judge decided the $100,000 held in escrow since 1998 by fired (oops, I mean former) town attorney Alan Seewald should go to the town rather than the state.
The 1987 Rent Control fiasco represents the high water mark for liberalism gone amok. Not only did Town Meeting create a ‘Housing Review Board’ to dictate the rent a landlord could charge, but they gave these untrained amateurs the power of subpoena to bully and threaten landlords into compliance.
Within two years Amherst’s Rent Control went the way off the Dodo Bird; and oh yeah, the Berlin Wall also came down.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
It's the little things...
With Umass Amherst churning out faculty pink slips like a gay pride print shop and deferring building maintenance while escalating student fees $1,500, today’s Springfield Republican carried a Legal Notice RFP for sandblasting McGuirk Stadium, estimated at $35,000.
So hmmm… they are going to hold off on routine maintenance for buildings used year-round, but gussy up a football stadium used only a few months per year for a very expensive athletic program? Yeah I know, it is also used for Commencement another one time annually.
Maybe the 91 professors who received lay-off notices should form a Workers’ Collective to place a bid. According to bid specification they have to get paid at least prevailing wage.
Yes we can!
Click to enlargeWith all this talk about parking in downtown Amherst—specifically the lack of it—and with me actually agreeing for the first time in quite a while with today’s Gazette editorial suggesting the town NOT give away parking for free to stimulate business, you would think town officials would remember that the once controversial Parking Garage (costing about $40,000 per addition space gained) was specifically designed to e-x-p-a-n-d.
In fact, the Amherst Redevelopment Authority donated the prime location (valued at $350,000) under only one condition: that the garage be built strong enough to support a second (much cheaper to construct) deck.
Well at least one former town official remembered, as he snail-mailed me the actually blueprint from 1998. And at the time the cost was $1.3 million for 55 new spaces gained—or a Hell of a lot cheaper than the original cost per space for our quaint little garage.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Three card monte
So I guess now the Amherst School Committee can go on that “retreat”—you know the one that skirts the Open Meeting Law.
Their choice last night off Alberto Rodriguez, with very little actual Superintendent experience, indicates they want a nice guy who plays well with others and, unfortunately, will probably go along to get along.
Unless of course while in Florida he learned how to swim with the sharks.
Amherst School Committee chair Andy Churchill was his usual diffident self--first expressing a preference for David Sklarz, who is white, but then changing his mind and supporting Rodriguez (the Gazette points out he is Cuban-American, not to be confused with Puerto Rican or just plain old Hispanic.)
Mr. Churchill also had trouble a few months back with Catherine Sanderson’s suggestion of an electronic suggestion box:
"I'm having trouble figuring out how to vote on this. I think it's a relatively small thing, but the people who would be implementing it don't," Churchill said. "I guess I'm going to vote against it, even though I support it, even though that's lame."
And you gotta love Ms. Brighty’s worship of former Super Jere Hochman likening him to a “rare event” (as was of course the coming of Christ). So I guess Jere set a new standard, a high benchmark and she would just simply have to settle for Mr. Rodriguez, which she seemed to do strongly.
Regional Chair Michael Hussin originally abstained because no candidate could compare to Barack Obama, although I’m pretty sure he was not talking about race. But, he too, finally settled for Rodriguez.
Let’s hope Rodriguez turns out to be a tad more like Truman: suddenly thrown into a thankless job and rising to the occasion.
Their choice last night off Alberto Rodriguez, with very little actual Superintendent experience, indicates they want a nice guy who plays well with others and, unfortunately, will probably go along to get along.
Unless of course while in Florida he learned how to swim with the sharks.
Amherst School Committee chair Andy Churchill was his usual diffident self--first expressing a preference for David Sklarz, who is white, but then changing his mind and supporting Rodriguez (the Gazette points out he is Cuban-American, not to be confused with Puerto Rican or just plain old Hispanic.)
Mr. Churchill also had trouble a few months back with Catherine Sanderson’s suggestion of an electronic suggestion box:
"I'm having trouble figuring out how to vote on this. I think it's a relatively small thing, but the people who would be implementing it don't," Churchill said. "I guess I'm going to vote against it, even though I support it, even though that's lame."
And you gotta love Ms. Brighty’s worship of former Super Jere Hochman likening him to a “rare event” (as was of course the coming of Christ). So I guess Jere set a new standard, a high benchmark and she would just simply have to settle for Mr. Rodriguez, which she seemed to do strongly.
Regional Chair Michael Hussin originally abstained because no candidate could compare to Barack Obama, although I’m pretty sure he was not talking about race. But, he too, finally settled for Rodriguez.
Let’s hope Rodriguez turns out to be a tad more like Truman: suddenly thrown into a thankless job and rising to the occasion.
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