An Expensive View

615 Bay Road, Amherst

Even though the house and entire property are only valued at $343,800 total, safe bet Town Meeting will approve spending $505,000 for the (20 acre) property alone, which is only assessed at $163,500.

Why? Well it is indeed "nice" -- even the reserved assessor noted that on the property card. But one of the main reasons put forth in a memo to Town Meeting is perhaps the most typical argument used over the past forty years for conservation purchases:  

As the appraisal indicates, there is ample frontage and acreage to develop four single-family house lots from the Ricci property. With municipal water on the street and sewer within 300’ of the property, it is a concern of the Town that as the market demand for home sites and housing increases, the owners will seek to develop the property. The adjacent properties to the west succumbed to a similar fate in the early 1980’s as a larger property was subdivided into two large single-family house lots.

Amherst has one of the tightest housing markets in Western Massachusetts, yet we continue to stifle supply in the face of ever increasing demand. In this case, four housing units that will never get built.  And those twenty acres come off the tax rolls in a town where over half the property is already owned by tax exempt entities. 

And it's not like slumlords buy up brand new houses to rent to students. It's the tired older single family units they scoop up and expand the occupancy by two or three times in order to maximize rents.

Interestingly one of the properties refered to in the report to Town Meeting as one of those evil adjacent "large single-family house lots" is the Souweine Top Notch Farm, otherwise known as the "House" immortalized by Tracy Kidder.

Yes, the same book where Mr. Kidder aptly describes Amherst as  “a college and university town, the kind of place that has a fine public school system and a foreign policy.”

If Amherst conservation aficionados had their way, a great book would never have been written. 

Yet the venerable Amherst town seal is a book and a plow.

Property rolls up to the Holyoke Range

UPDATE Tuesday morning. Town Meeting did of course approve the purchase using $151,500 from Community Preservation funds but the bulk of the money ($353,500) will come from a state grant which is far from guaranteed.

Siesta Sunday

Catching some rays

Fiery Friday Finale

Professional Help For Crime Victims

Amherst Police Department 111 Main Street

While the town recently lost a $900,000 federal grant to benefit low and moderate income residents and a $4.2 million state grant for road improvements in North Amherst, a potentially lifesaving Amherst Police Department regional program designed to aid those devastated by the horror of sexual assault or domestic abuse snagged a $300,000 grant from the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

The money will continue to fund a full-time counselor who splits her time between UMass and the town, add a part-time counselor for Northampton PD, increase training for all three departments and fund an additional full-time Amherst police officer whose exclusive beat will be sexual assault and domestic violence cases.

The renewal/expansion of the program, originally founded two years ago with $174,000 Justice Department grant, comes soon after our comfortable college town was rocked by a series of sensational sexual assault cases.

A long-form narrative first-person piece published on the front page of the Amherst College student newspaper shone a glaring spotlight on the inadequate system the prestigious college used for handling such sensitive matters.

Followed by a shocking incident of alleged gang rape at a UMass dormitory.

And just when you thought it could not get any worse, the heartrending story of yet another Amherst College student ill-served by an in-house amateur response to a situation requiring highly trained professionals.

Trey Malone committed suicide, leaving behind a devastatingly poignant final farewell blaming his self-induced death on the sexual assault by a fellow student, made even worse by the way Amherst College (mis) handled it.

Could this regional civilian advocacy program have made a difference for Trey?  Although funding is provided by the "Office on Violence Against Women" men most certainly are not excluded.

But, since Amherst College didn't report the incident to local police or the district attorney's office, we will never know.

This essential service program has helped hundreds over the past two years, and will now continue to help hundreds into the future.

Smooth Sailing

What a difference a day makes

 
Crew from Lane Construction prepares to mill and overlay S. Pleasant Street, heart of town center.  Early Christmas present for downtown merchants

A Decadent Crown Jewel

11 Phillips Street, Amherst/UMass border

Since Stephan Gharabegian is the "King of the Decadent Street", owning almost half the hovels on Phillips Street, the slum capital of Amherst & UMass,  I hereby dub (dripping in sarcasm) 11 Phillips Street his crown jewel. 

Exhibit A:  The most recent Board of Health investigation report that found 11 Phillips Street to be "in violation of the Minimum Standard of Fitness for Human Habitation."

11 Phillips St Health Dept report




Exhibit B:  The most recent Amherst Fire Department investigation citation that found dangerous shortcomings in fire safety requirements and flagrantly ignoring an order to stop using a one-family dwelling (maximum of 4 unrelated tenants) as a boarding house with 13 tenants.

An overcrowded abode, lots of alcohol and defunct fire alarms is a sure fire formula for catastrophe.

11 Phillips St AFD Ticket

And clearly, a recent Worcester Housing Court decision reaffirms the ability of cities and towns to enforce unrelated tenant zoning restrictions.  The town has known about the overcrowded conditions at 11 Philips since at least last June when the Health Department did their inspection.

Yet when Amherst police raided the address on October 30, to shut down an illegal basement bar, that busload of students still lived there.  The town needs to get serious about overcrowded illegal living conditions.  Before a tragedy occurs.

Play it Again Sam

Just to underscore the difference between the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette and little ol' me I offer the following:  nine years ago I tried to run a half-page print ad supporting the Charter Change ballot question (at the ridiculously high "political ad rate"), dumping our antiquated Select Board/Town Meeting form of government for a more nimble, professional Mayor/Council, but I was turned down (at lost revenue to them of almost $1,500).

Why?  Because the ad consisted of only one name, blown up rather prominently, as having endorsed the "Vote yes on the Charter:" A signature ad that had run the previous week with over 500 other names besides his own.  And I hate to now out him, but that lone name was Amherst's (super) state Senator Stan Rosenberg.

The Gazette rationale was that he knowingly signed a signature ad assuming his name would appear with over 500 other names (and as a result get lost) but he had not signed off on a rather large spotlight.  My theory is when you go public, you go public -- all the way baby.

Take this Cowardly Anon Nitwit for instance.  He made a Comment at 3:41 AM this morning on a post from 6 months ago that would normally only get a couple dozen views -- mainly from folks doing a Google search for any of the numerous names that appear.

And obviously he is friends with one or two because how else would he know that some of the kids I mention are "recent graduates".

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Last Hurrah Party House Blowout":

I am appalled that you think it is okay to post the names and addresses of these young students and recent graduates. As I read this, and the string of comments attached, I wonder if you have ever attended college? Have you ever pursued a higher education? There may be flaws with the education system, and higher education is certainly not without its share of flaws. However, it is a community in which young adults can grow and learn from their accomplishments as well mistakes. I am biased, I suppose, as I am a doctoral student studying education. What is rather amusing, however, is the fact that you are still in the town in which you were raised, posting personal information about people you do not know. Why don't you post some of your flaws and your street address? I am sure that you have rolled through a stop sign, crossed a street without using the crosswalk, or perhaps upset a few people in your day.

You harp on people who disturbed the public, and yet here you are, disturbing the public.

Larry Kelley has left a new comment on your post "Last Hurrah Party House Blowout":

Seems to me the only ones I'm "disturbing" are the a-holes who party too much.
But thanks for stopping by. Now go work on your dissertation.

I'm actually happy the CAN brought me back to that particular Party House post.  In light of recent events, it's certainly worth revisiting.  Notice the record setting number of arrests (a dozen) at 11 Phillips Street that weekend.  Yes, that is the same house we now know had 14 kids living in it! (although it is only zoned for 4).

And they paid the rent by operating an alleged illegal basement bar at all hours of the night/early morning. If the town and UMass really want to send a message about these insidious student slums, then they should join together to support taking Phillips Street by eminent domain (via the Amherst Redevelopment Authority) and allowing a responsible developer to rebuild a Phoenix housing project we can all can be proud of.