Slow news day?

Bueno y Sano: downtown Amherst, contiguous with parking garage, near busy construction site

UPDATE (Wednesday morning): This non story hit Reuters national wire early Monday evening and a few hours ago went international via a Swedish publication. Probably will not enhance Amherst as a destination spot for Scandinavian tourism.
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So my friends in the bricks-and-mortar media were all over the (alleged) abandoned baby incident over the past 24 hours, with the Daily Hampshire Gazette leading the charge, splashing it on the front page--even highlighting it further with washed out color over the entire four columns.

To recap: A mother from Sweden goes into a busy take out restaurant in busy downtown Amherst around 2:00 PM on Friday to order food while leaving her baby boy snugly wrapped in a carriage the Swedes refer to as a "pram," just outside the establishment--but well within view via a window(s).

A Good Samaritan passerby calls police from his cell phone to report a baby in a carriage without parents in sight. APD responds, finds the child healthy and happy; but as a "mandated" authority, they report the mother to Department of Children and Families via a 51A .

The mother casually responds that it's a common practice in Sweden (even in the dead of winter), and she was watching periodically through the window. Since DCF has no enforcement authority anyway, chances are they will issue a letter outlining how things are done here in America and that will be the end of it.

The recent terrorist mass murder in Norway--many of the victims young adults--is still vivid in our minds, and since most Americans mix up Sweden and Norway anyway, why not go all tabloid over a non story concerning child safety that questions the rearing habits of Swedish mothers?

Maybe because next time the media goes ballistic on a far more deserving child abuse story, readers will be a tad less prone to pay attention.

Seen any wolves lately?

Springfield Republican also reported

Rainy Days & Mondays

I'll be the roundabout (test pilot)

Bad enough when one driver gets confused and tries to use a roundabout still under construction, even worse when the car behind him follows along for the ride.

According to Amherst Police (around 1:00 PM Saturday): "Two vehicles got onto the rotary that is under construction--most likely westbound off Bay Road--and as they exited they nearly caused an accident with the reporting party. One elderly gentleman in a Cadillac. No description of second vehicle."

Let's hope upon completion (sometime next year) the state installs a plethora of signage to mitigate confusion.

Call in the Cavalry

Alan Cote, Supervisor of Records
Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth
McCormack Building, Room 1719
One Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108
8/15/2011

Dear Mr. Cote,

I am requesting further assistance from the Public Records Division concerning my previous public documents request of the Amherst Schools for employee settlement agreements over the past five years with a value greater than $5,000.

In a 7/20/2011 letter to the Amherst schools your office, responding to my 4/7/11 appeal request, found in my favor saying, "The school has failed to show that the responsive separation agreements include personal information sufficient enough to withhold the agreements in their entirety under Exemption (C)."

On 8/2/2011 I met with Amherst School Superintendent Maria Geryk and Human Resources Director Kathy Mazur to pick up the documents. The Amherst officials, however, refused to provide any of the 13 settlement agreements, offering instead a "summary" with no names, job titles, dates or any other information besides the total amount of each individual settlement (document attached).

Could your office please issue another administrative order clarifying for the schools how to properly comply with your original order to provide the settlement agreements in question? As always, thank you for working to maintain transparency within our government.

Larry Kelley
596 South Pleasant St.
Amherst, Ma 01002

Settlement Agreement Summary

Gateway is Gone

The Gateway Corridor Project, born September 1, 2010, died Wednesday August 4, just shy of age one, after contracting an all too typical case of NIMBYism.

The ambitious Gateway was conceived out of an optimistic, rare partnership between Amherst and UMass, as an urban renewal project with a mixed-used commercial development of high end student housing, commercial retail, and office space, a signature building or two plus significant green space, to revitalize the corridor connecting downtown Amherst with our flagship University.

The Amherst Redevelopment Authority adopted the infant and acted as nursemaid.

But the generational pessimism ingrained in the nearby neighborhood by seasonal waves of rowdy students, combined with overly inclusive public officials who allowed self interested "stakeholders" to hijack the public process, inflicted a heavy toll.

Gateway supporters were so concerned about negotiating the Town Meeting gauntlet--where a two thirds vote is required for zoning changes--that they watered down the project immensely, thus alienating a major player.

On August 4th UMass rescinded the offer to transfer ownership of Frat Row, the Gateway's crown jewel, a two-acre swath of open land dubbed a critical "catalyst" by ARA consultant Gianni Longo. The prime piece of property that ignited the very idea of a "Gateway."

With its heart and soul gutted the grand idea is gone. Now, Gateway belongs to the ages.



9/1/10

Todd Diacon, UMass deputy chancellor (center). During the intensive design charrette he was seated at the only table of ten that came up with a "minimalist" plan for Frat Row: keeping it wide open and green. They called it, "King Philip Street Park."

They got their wish, for now

The Springfield Sunday Republican reports

A Special Run

From law enforcement rookies to top brass, and a few civilians

Lt. Robert O'Connor, Chief Scott Livingstone

While the distance from the Amherst Police Station to the finish line at the UMass Southwest towers quadrangle may have been only three miles, the resounding good cheer generated could have echoed from sea to shining sea.


About 30 runners participated in the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics this evening sponsored by the Amherst Police Department. The workout culminated with a rousing reception at the finish line by the athletes who benefit from the money raised (suggested donation per runner was $15) as they let out a resounding cheer when the entourage--all wearing distinctive black t shirts--arrived and the Flame of Hope met the cauldron, sending up a whoosh of orange flames.

Let the games begin!

Amherst's Twin Towers

Boltwood Place, downtown Amherst

Although Boltwood Place will be a single five-story building on completion, this morning it resembled an iconic place, now but a memory.