And a good time was had...

UPDATE: 4:00 PM Traffic is gridlock as the light is back out again (damn electricians don't want to work on sunny saturday's)

Amherst Town Center 2:00 PM

Town center was still pretty much gridlock when I cycled by this afternoon. But it was worse around noon when the light at Rt. 9 was not working properly, simply flashing red. Luckily the drivers negotiating the gauntlet were not smoking pot.

And strangely enough last year I cycled up to the Extravaganja around the same time and noticed a lot more smoke hanging in the air vs. today, when theoretically it is decriminalized. Hmmm...

Maybe it is just not cool anymore.




(Click to enlarge). Last year, same time.

One is the best number.

So the League of Women Voters, a supposedly non-partisan entity, laid down their weapons without firing a shot, retreating from the idea of throwing a second competing July 4'th “protest parade”

Too bad, I was soooooo looking forward to some brash individual displaying a sign “League of Women Vultures sucks” or something colorful like that. And of course we had a number of folks who may have something to publicly proclaim about our Town Manager.

Funny, when they found out there’s no such thing as a free lunch and you have to pay for police and insurance, they surrendered. Thank God they were not at Valley Forge.

The Republic reports:

Ghost of Christmas future 2

Back 15 years ago Phillip Sweeney asked Amherst Town Meeting to zone this property Village Square to allow commercial development. They overwhelmingly turned him down. I of course voted in favor. One town official even told Town Meeting that someday this entire corridor (ultra-busy Rt. 9) would be zoned commercial but Mr. Sweeney is a tad ahead of the curve (naturally the NIMBY neighbors spoke against the rezoning.)

His speech was one of the most disjointed I have ever heard in Town Meeting and he looked, with his frizzy hair, a bit like a male version of recent sensation Susan Boyle (but without the speaking/singing talent)

When the lopsided vote was announced (and it required a two-thirds majority to pass) a long-time Town Meeting member sitting behind me said to the member next to him "That's because we don't like him." Hmmm....

He did manage to open the Maplewood Restaurant under a "farm stand" exemption (what is more natural than fresh brewed beer?) but with all the rules and regulations restraining his commercial activity the restaurant only lasted a few years.

And now it just sits there, abandoned. The first commercial enterprise you see when approaching Amherst from the east. A reminder of the motto: bury your business in Amherst.

Size does matter!

South Amherst 11:15 AM

All the news...

So today's front page's of the venerable Daily Collegian and by comparison reverent Gazette demonstrate these embarrassing issues have legs.

Of course the Gazette uses a pull quote from one of their unpaid, Hampshire College professor Columnist's who led the charge to increase costs to maintain the "lunch ladies" as school employees, but now laments the increase in spending for the new Super from Florida.

Hey maybe Rodriguez will pull a Governor Patrick with his $15-K housing/transportation allowance and buy a Cadillac (one that runs on vegetable grease of course)

And it seems the Gazette goes out of their way not to mention the firestorm reverberating within the blogesphere about this outlandish payraise issue.

But at least they are paying attention. So if those pissed off women do indeed burn their property tax bills in a hibachi outside the Superintendent's office window, the Gazette will give it Front Page play (and the AP will probably pick it up as well). BUT, you will see it first on the blogesphere.

And what can you say about nitwit Umass kids who dislike what a newspaper publishes so they ban the paper from future publication and steal the current copies?

The Student Government Association should consider their image. If they want the town of Amherst to take seriously their recent concern with the 4-person unrelated housing bylaw (and they damn well should) then stop doing stupid things like violating the freakin First Amendment!

Ghost of Christmas Future?

Last year Town Meeting turned down (117-63) Ken Bergstrom’s request to rezone his property out on the Sunderland line off Rt. 116, a major highway. He wanted to put in a mix of condo’s and retail under Village Square Zoning.

The property was formerly used by Environmental PC Poster Child Bioshelters, to grow fish and basil (they employed mentally retarded workers, used solar heating and recycled 99.7% of all its water and wastes). And they went belly up.

Now it sits like a set for a post apocalyptic movie (Note to Mel Gibson: If you ever do another Mad Max…). Fine greeting for all those entering Amherst from the north.

The 40,000 square foot pad underneath the rotting shelter is concrete so it’s not like you can farm it. But the Conservation Commission and Agricultural Commission wanted it to stay a fishfarm (although they were not going to invest the millions to get it back up and gurgling)

And our Old Majority Select board, with has-been Gerry Weiss in his brief but glorious reign as Chair voted 3-2 against the rezoning (newbie’s Stephanie and Alisa voted in favor.) Ann Awad told Town Meeting "This is an intense development project on a fragile piece of land that is very wet”

And she of course was the only Select Board member a few years earlier to vote in favor of the hostile rezoning of Meadow Street land (not to far down the road) to ‘Flood Prone Conservancy” that set off a marathon legal battle costing the town $150-K and the landowners over $500-K.

Former Bioshelters CEO John Reid told Town Meeting he was raising funds (estimated at $6 to $10 MILLION) to restart the business. So far, one year later, nothing. Had the zoning change gone thru the development would have been worth millions on the tax rolls, rather than the paltry $200,000 in current valuation.

Town Meeting 5/19/08.
Let's hope Mr Reid takes off his cap when meeting with Venture Capitalists.

Patriots Day

Old Colrain, Ma.

Wilmington, Vt.