Monday Morning

You showed up fine

Blood Evidence

 Murdered Ambassador Chris Stevens

Even though prior to my appearance on Fox News, hate mail had already started pouring in over town officials catastrophic decision to ground the 25 commemorative flags on 9/11, the national news network did screw up the flashy graphics overlayed on my live interview, thus allowing Town Hall to paint this as an intentional right wing conservative vs left wing liberal issue (rather than a right vs wrong) best exemplified in the national media by Fox News and their counterpart CNN.

Of course I was quick to point out that even the venerable CNN screwed up this sad saga of the commemorative flags eleven years ago when they mistakenly reported the town was restricting the rights of private citizens to fly American flags.  A report that was aired only hours after the Twin Towers crumbled.

Perhaps the best reason (besides the one of righteousness) town officials should have know better this time around. "Those who fail to learn from history..."and all that.

So it comes as no great surprise that CNN would remove evidence from a crime scene, read through it for news tips, and then use that information to tell a story that, indeed, needed to be told:  the lousy security for our murdered ambassador in Libya.

Even though CNN promised the family of Chris Stevens nothing would be reported until his personal journal had been returned to them, the news network went ahead with a story anyway, using the vague attribution "sources familiar with the Ambassador Steven's thinking".

But CNN would not have found those sources if not for his private journal, taken from the scene of a crime.

Fifteen years ago the ABC News program Prime Time Live aired a hidden camera segment exposing poor food handling at Food Lion supermarket chain.  The corporation brought suit for trespass and fraud since the reporters used phony resumes in seeking employment with the target company.  Notice the suit was not for libel/slander, where "truth is the ultimate defense."

But a jury agreed and slapped the premier news outlet with a $5.5 million judgement, which was soon thereafter reduced to $315,000.  On a federal appeal two years later, the jury verdict was thrown out. 

Sure BIG corporations acting badly are a juicy target for investigative watchdog journalists and bloggers, perhaps only eclipsed by exposing BIG government acting badly.  And in the case of murdered Ambassador Stevens, there's more than enough blame to go around.

Like Watergate, the real story is not the original act --a two bit break in -- but the cover up after the fact.  In this case CNN should have come clean in their original report about a serious issue the public certainly had a right to know:  inept security for an ambassador in a volatile region who clearly had security concerns, and probably made them known to someone higher up the ladder.

And just like Dan Rather's botched report on President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard eight years ago, the watchdogs who watch the media -- blogs -- continue to beat the drums on CNN's ghoulish lapse in judgement, aptly dubbed "disgusting" by a usually diffident State Department.

Trust is a reporter's most powerful ally.  If CNN did not keep their word to Ambassador's Stevens family, how can any nervous source now trust them when they promise -- in exchange for vital information -- to keep the whistleblower's name secret?

Hadley Hoe Down

Obviously the problem of student party houses is not unique to Amherst -- although the main contributor is of course UMass/Amherst ,who can't seem to house all of its students, or keep the ones they do shelter on campus with interesting activities.

A former one-family house on North Maple Road (that actually once had a family living in it) in Hadley directly across from the UMass horse farm, about a mile from campus, attracted many hundreds of students last night.  Around midnight four cruisers from Hadley PD converged on the scene, and a few minutes later APD sent two cruisers across town lines to assist.

Dispersed party goers either walked back to campus or crammed into cabs ... in search of another party.

Could have been worse I guess.  Damn social media!

Lords Over the Land

290 Lincoln Ave, barn on death row in rear

Just in the past five months using two different LLCs as a cloaking device, KH Amherst PE LLC and GP Amherst LLC, You-Pan Tzeng has purchased a half dozen Amherst houses, three of them on Lincoln Avenue -- one of the oldest streets in overly Democratic Amherst, named after a Republican President before a bullet to the back of the head elevated him to sainthood.

Over the past two years at public meeting after public meeting, residents of Lincoln Avenue have brought to the attention of town officials the persistent problem with unruly party houses, usually single family homes that have been bought up by speculators, subdivided into a" two family homes" and then crammed with eight unrelated, college aged tenants (Amherst zoning legally allows four per unit).

321 Lincoln Ave


The term "tipping point" was used often, meaning the number of owner occupied units was slowly becoming the minority on this historic old street that leads directly to UMass, our largest employer.

The recent purchase of three homes on Lincoln Avenue may very well have tipped the balance ... once and for all.

328 Lincoln Avenue

While Mr. Tzeng is keeping his cards close to his chest, he has tipped his hand with the filing of a ANR plan (Approval Not Required) before our Planning Board to jury rig a second building lot in a location now occupied by a historic old barn.

Even more ominous, You-Pan Tzeng testified before our Zoning Board of Appeals when he converted a one family house at 290 West Street to a two family operation that he "uses Eagle Crest Management for all aspects of property management ..."  Yikes!

Yes, although Eagle Crest owner Jamie Cherewatti testified before the Zoning Board for one of his conversions at 156 Sunset Ave last April that he did not want to be know as the "slumlord of Amherst", it would appear he doesn't work very hard at it. 

For starters, moving his business office from 73 Main Street Amherst into space above Stackers Bar, a youthful, less-than-elegant tap room in town center Cherewatti recently purchased using one of his front LLC's.  In addition to Stackers Pub Railroad Street Partners owns another half dozen rentals in town.


Nothing like staying on top of the source of your success:  alcohol and partying. 

Now that Cherewatti has partnered with You-Pan Tzeng (or vice versa), no neighborhood in Amherst is safe.  The town needs to call a moratorium on all housing conversions until this spring, so Town Meeting can takes up Planning Board articles that attempt to tame the Wild, Wild West. 
  
290 Lincoln Subdivide

The rest of You-Pan Tzeng's very recent purchases:

695/697 Main Street (yes, the garage is 695)

42 Shumway Street

300 West Street

From Piggies to Serious Perps

APD on scene of last week's major disturbance Townhouse Apartments 

So no, the Amherst Police Department does not spend all of its time dealing with rowdy students -- er, I mean "college aged youths" -- raising Hell in the dead of night.  Well, maybe on weekends -- especially when the weather is nice.

Although  APD did respond to a noise complaint late last night to 121 Meadow Street, ground zero for last year's most notorious riot, which would get my vote for 'Party House of the Year'.  Fortunately this time around a warning was sufficient (maybe because it was only a Thursday).

Yesterday around 6:30 PM police responded to a call on South East Street/Bay Road for "10 piglets running in the road."  And an hour later for a loose cow.  All of which were "Gone On Arrival."  Although a while later a call came in confirming the farmer had "wrangled them all."

On Monday evening police responded to a farm field off South East Street (not the same one with the lost piggies) for a suspicious vehicle.  Said vehicle, driven by David Brown, age  46, attempted to run down an officer.  


David Brown of 108 Lee Rd, South Deerfield is facing a litany of charges (the last one most astonishing):

Driving with revoked license
Assault with a dangerous weapon (the car)
Alcohol in motor vehicle
Possession of open container (in said vehicle)
O.U.I Liquor 5th offense.  Yes you read that correctly, 5th offense!

UMass needs to get serious about cracking down on serious offenders undermining the quality of life for neighborhoods all over Amherst with their obnoxious behavior, and the court system needs to get deadly serious with drunk drivers.

A common statistic I've heard about DUI is that the person caught has probably driven that way a couple hundred times before finally being nabbed.  Now factor in Mr. Brown's five arrests and be thankful you did not interest with him on the road the 1,000 times he was driving his "dangerous weapon."

And yes, I just checked UMass people finder and the only person cited the night of the notorious riot at 121 Meadow Street last year is still registered as a student.   

Bridge To Somewhere

Bike Path bridge over Snell Street is now reopened

DCR is so proud they slapped a permanent sign on each side of the new bridge, right about where an oversized truck will intersect with it someday.

Fire in the Hole

28 Hobart Lane on right

On Thursday September 13, just after high noon, Amherst Fire Department responded to a basement fire in apartment unit #28  on Hobart Lane, notorious party street and home of the infamous "Hobart Hoedown".

Fortunately the call came in at the perfect time --if there is such a thing for a structure fire -- as first responders were not overwhelmed with ETOH calls (alcohol poisoning), thus AFD quickly put down the blaze.

Since the "three bedroom" unit shares a large building with five other units, had AFD not caught the fire in time, the results could have been catastrophic -- especially if the blaze had started 12 hours later in the late evening of "Thirsty Thursday" when the building would have been packed with distracted students.

According to Lisa Queenin, UMass Director of Community Relations,  "The Dean of Students office and Residential Life are working with the students to make sure the five students have housing and the support services they need in the wake of the fire."

Note the number:  Five students.  Yes, a violation of Amherst zoning bylaw forbidding more than four unrelated housemates.

On Friday the morning after the fire, according to Amherst Police Department logs:

"Firefighter Mike Roy (Fire Prevention Officer) received information that Lincoln Realty had warned the residents that an inspection was imminent and that they needed to assist in hiding code violations. I assisted with contacting the DA's office and the Clerk of Courts seeking an administrative warrant to enter the apartment for inspection."

On the day  or even evening of the blaze, the fire department could have entered the building for an inspection under MGL 148 Section 4, but because 24 hours had passed they needed the administrative warrant, as the owner (Kathryn Grandonico) was not being overly cooperative.

According to Building Commissioner Rob Morra that inspection was delayed until Monday afternoon. And because of 4th Amendment concerns the "administrative warrant" only applied to the damaged apartment and adjoining units on either side (three total) rather than the entire 14 unit complex.

Evidence suggests an extra bedroom in the basement of those three units inspected on Monday.

The entire 14 unit complex is assessed at $1.5 million or $30,000 in property tax overhead, although it's quite possible those extra 14 tenants (if indeed all the units have an extra tenant) would about cover that.

A good deal for the landlord ... unless of course one of them overburdens an electrical circuit.

The back story, told in emails

Gilreath Manor, built in 1982, does have vertical firewalls between units. Fire however tends to move in an upward direction and would quickly get into the attic above the firewalls to engulf other units.