There grows the neighborhood

So after eight L-O-N-G years of bitter strife--including of course the courts, costing the developer over $100,000 the town $10,000 and the neighbors about the same in legal fees --the "low income" housing project in Orchard Valley South Amherst is going full steam ahead, even on a rainy day.

I put low income in quotations because the 24 units will work out to $350,000 per unit in simply construction costs. And since it is "low income housing", it will pay reduced local property taxes.

Amherst is currently around 50/50, where half of all property in town is owned by tax exempts--although our assessor is getting vigilant about finding innovate ways to tax them, even if at reduced rates.

HAP, inc is a private 501c3 nonprofit organization serving all of Hampden and Hampshire counties and is funded by Federal, State and Private donations--in other words Other People's Money.

The 24 unit development springing up on Longmeadow Drive was approved by our ZBA under the the state's Chapter 40B affordable housing law, even though Amherst is not below the 10% threshold. HAP argued that Amherst has a less than 1% vacancy rate and that there was a strong "regional need" for the housing.

Hence the ire of the neighbors. The project development manager called it "the most extensive opposition of all the 40 projects we've done in western Massachusetts."

Let's hope the neighbors on the other side of town do not break that record in trying to torpedo 'The Gateway Project'.
Much of South Amherst was once an apple orchard harvested for generations by competing farm empires Atkins and Wentworth who both used lead arsenate--the insecticide of choice from around 1892 through the 1970s.

Since it was routinely sprayed on orchards in high concentrations, some of it would drip and bond tightly with the the top 10 or 12 inches of soil then separate into lead and arsenic, either of which is hazardous--especially to young children.

When will they ever learn? (sequel)

So missiles in the form of beer cans launched from the snipers lair located on the 3rd floor balcony of this humble abode at 27/28/29 Phillips street resulted in three $300 "nuisance house" tickets to the responsible parties late Sunday night/early Monday morning.

Since they were "beer cans" it's safe to assume they were empty--even so, any metal object hurled from the 3rd floor of a building gets a fair amount of assist from gravity and can do damage if you happen to be on the receiving end.

The nitwits are lucky APD did not charge them with "assault with a dangerous weapon."

And yes, I'm sure I will hear about incidents like this Thursday night at the Amherst Redevelopment Authority meeting as we continue to move forward with The Gateway Project, where the former 'Frat Row' directly across Phillips Street is headed for a mixed-use private development partly to provide new higher end student housing, but mainly to connect the downtown with Umass and to increase our pathetic commercial tax base.

Naturally, neighbors think the Gateway Project will result in more rowdy student behavior rather than less. Kind of like your toddler wailing over their first flu shot, not realizing the overall benefits.
Phillips Street is less than a beer can throw away from the heart of the Gateway Project: Former Frat Row, owned by Umass but about to be donated to the ARA

When will they ever learn (Original)



Frat Row circa 2005

In the mainstream, mostly

UPDATE: Wednesday 10:00 AM

So I was almost perfect in my predictions yesterday. Amherst went W-A-Y overboard supporting all the Ds including the Governor, and voting "No" to all the binding ballot questions except for the non binding vote on taxing pot where we voted strongly in favor.

Turnout was 45%--a little more than half what we muster for a Presidential election and certainly twice what we normally muster for a local town election.

My only surprise on a state level was the repeal of the booze tax. Of course Amherst voted overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the tax. But considering what happened on a national level yesterday a lot of folks in Massachusetts will be crying in their chardonnay for the next two years, so I guess it makes sense they would want to repeal the tax on alcohol.
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Original Post: election day 10:00 AM

So it's not too hard to predict how the People's Republic of Amherst will vote today: All Ds all the way, as in the straight Democratic ticket will win by more than a landslide (somewhere in the vicinity of 80% of the vote.)

The binding Questions will be about the same: Nix sales tax on booze or reduce the overall sales tax to 3% will lose by the whopping margin, as will the Question to repeal 40-B the affordable housing state law. And of course the non-binding question to tax pot the same way we tax booze will pass handily.

Voter turnout will be half what we get for a Presidential election and more than twice the average turnout for an annual spring town election (where the candidates have far more influence on 'All Things Amherst'.)

No longer fearing the 1st

So today marks the very first 1st of the month in 28 years where I did not experience some degree of trepidation brought on by making the rent. Actually my longtime landlord, Dick Johnson, told me early on that payment was due on the 1st but as long as it arrived by the 10th that was considered "on time." Naturally I took to getting it there on the 9th or 10th.

But the 1st of the month always set off that reminder alarm that a sizable chunk of my total monthly overhead was now due, and the clock was ticking.

Yes the Amherst Athletic Club closed June 21 but my new landlords were kind enough to allow me three months at greatly reduced rent--that I pushed to four--so I could try to sell a hundred or so very large, heavy commercial exercise machines one piece at a time; that otherwise would have sold for a song at public auction in the middle of a very hot summer.

Yesterday was the final, final day although I ended up with four pieces remaining--three of which "sold" Sunday morning but the deals never went through.

Although I now have one more week (gratis) to sell them, not having to worry about paying November's rent made the finality hit home this morning--and the weight of treadmill lifted from my tired shoulders.

So again tomorrow I will awaken, minus trepidation, and get through an entire day, without trepidation, and go to bed, minus my old friend, trepidation. Feels weird... Empty.

Don't mess with an angry angel

So Amherst's annual Halloween Fest attracted hundreds of family folks to the downtown this afternoon for some trick or treating around the downtown businesses (well, except maybe for the bars) and the big parade from Sweetser Park to the Bangs Community Center for more games and activities. My little angel had a ball.


Even though it was a Sunday afternoon, the Gazette managed to assign veteran ace photographer Gordon Daniels to cover the festivities (and when you have a photographer like him, who needs a reporter for a 1,000 words or so?) so watch for his artwork in an upcoming ink and paper edition.

As an old school legacy entity the Daily Hampshire Gazette is really good covering weekend events as long as you give them a few months notice. Breaking stories is another story altogether.

As in, if 9/11 happened on a Friday/Saturday/Sunday, we would read it in print on Tuesday.

Death to Ninjas

Top row: Nunchaku, brass knuckle knife, push dagger. Middle row: Ninja claw, throwing starsBottom row: Balisong Philippine knife, and my favorite: a razor sharp double-edged dagger made from high impact plastic rather than metal, so you could easily sneak it aboard commercial airplanes.

A martial arts instructor who ineptly led a band of Ninjas into a late night breaking and entering that turned into a sadistic murder was sentenced to death by a Florida jury.

As I mentioned last year with a post concerning Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer during her confirmation hearings, my first extensive brush with The Media as a "source" started around the fall of 1983 when I undertook the Sisyphean task of getting a federal law passed to ban mail order martial arts weapons into states--like Massachusetts-- that had declared them illegal.

My main concern was the safety of children, who were indeed getting their naive little hands on dangerous weapons. I figured if it was happening in the bucolic, venerable Amherst schools what the hell was happening in some of the tougher inner-city urban districts?

The crusade started about this time of year as I remember one of the first follow up press releases I issued after the more urgent SOS about the easy availability of the ninja weapons--a byproduct of the karate media's fascination with the Ninja fad--was just before Halloween, warning parents not to let their children dress up as Ninjas, since the black outfits were designed to merge with the night and the last thing you want is kids going around the neighborhood invisible to traffic.

My secondary concern was the image and reputation of the martial arts industry--specifically the thousands of karate schools nationwide that were teaching the true tenets of the martial arts and exposing hundreds of thousands of children to the proper aspects and benefits the discipline offers.

Nunchakus (two billy clubs connected by a chain) and multi-pointed throwing stars had become a hot item with street gangs, and with industry leader Black Belt Magazine glorifying Ninjas on the cover about to behead an opponent with a sword, I figured it was only a matter of time before some impressionable nitwit did it for real.

Sure enough, along came California mass murdered Charles Ng (1985) a self-described "ninja warrior" who used the weapons in a most sadistic way on terrorised kidnapped victims, all while he videotaped the mayhem. And sure enough, Newsweek Magazine (back when they ruled supreme) put his haunting face on the cover with the banner headline "Karate killer!"

I hate it when history repeats itself.

Failsafe

So as I pointed out on Saturday when I was the only reporter to show up at the Amherst Police Station turned War Room to observe the coordination of officials from various fiefdoms handling what could have been a major health alert, Princess Stephanie reaffirmed on Monday night that indeed public officials were on edge. As well they should have been.

Twice now in the past 13 months--both events at most inopportune times--the town has undergone this public health scare. If I were a terrorist trying to maximize damage from sabotaging the public water supply in Amherst, I would probably choose Labor Day weekend when the students return in waves (last year) or the first ever Phish concert at the Mullins Center (this year) which brought an extra 20,000 people to the town.

Unfortunately the Town Manager reported to the Select Board that we may "never know" the cause of the false coliform and E. coli positives (but then, how do we know they were false?)


The Springfield Republican reports