Third Watch

 AFD at Mullins Center 1:30 AM for patient with "altered mental status"

Amherst police and firefighters were kept on the go last night (Friday) into early Saturday morning instigated by warm temperatures, alcohol, and opportunity:  That brief luxurious time period just after UMass classes are complete, but finals have not yet started. 

And yes, trouble areas were mostly the usual suspects:  a few outside unpermited bonfires on Phillips Street (#45 and #51), a loud party at 15/17 Fearing Street, a passed out drunk in front of College Pizza, and of course a DUI.

Around 12:45 AM a patrol car observed a vehicle driving erratically on South Pleasant Street dead in the heart of downtown.  He took a right on Northampton Road (Rt 9) with the patrol car in close pursuit, was pulled over and descended on by a swarm of cruisers.  The college aged youth flunked his Field Sobriety Test, was arrested and his car towed.

 Ernie's Towing escorts DUI vehicle to impound 1:15 AM

I retraced the trajectory of the vehicle, a potentially deadly weapon, and could not help but notice the downtown was especially active.  How many could have been seriously injured if he lost control and plunged into the crowd in front of Antonio's?

Antonio's downtown Amherst 1:00 AM

Dispatch recieved a call from a young lady around 2:10 AM complaining about a "loud party" at 69 Meadow Street. The Anonymous caller only wanted it "quieted down, but doesn't want anyone to get in trouble."  

Party hardy types apparently were not on the same page, as APD arrested two for "disorderly conduct".

 

69 Meadow Street, Amherst 

Making The Sausage

I did an interview yesterday with a nice young man from the UMass Journo program for his final paper -- specifically involving my favorite course, Journalism Ethics.

The easy question concerned whether I ever hesitate publishing names and addresses of perps arrested for bad behavior.  Well, no. 

But as usual it's the gray area questions that make you think.  Such as: do I give unfair out-of-proportion weight to one story or series of stories?  That I get accused of all the time.  Again talking Party Houses, DUI, and in general, rowdy student behavior. 

As of this morning, over 6 years, I've published 2,539 posts.  I did not even start my popular "Party House of The Weekend" series until November, 2010 and I have published under 200 of those, or less than 10%.

Or as a professional flack would say, "90% of Larry's stories do not concern rowdy student party houses."

My DUI Dishonor Role started 18 months ago, so there have been only around 30 of those posts, and only about half the "winners" are students.  So once again a very tiny percentage of overall articles.

And the widget on my main page that calculates my most "popular posts" of all time show 6 out of 10 are not related to rowdy student behavior. Thus I never feel pressured to come up with stories to fit that preordained narrative.

These days I have three levels of response to a story:  Level one is no more than a tweet.  Something I hear on the scanner or a quick photo of something that is borderline interesting, but not worthy of much more than 140 characters (but a photo is still worth 1,000 words).

Level 2 is it's worth more than a tweet, so it gets posted to my Facebook page (always a photo) as well.

And Level 3 is something that has risen to the level of posting here on the blog with a link (and intro headline) crossposted on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.  But yes, I occasionally have a slow news day where something whimsical still gets Level 3 treatment.

 

"Electric Flurry" photo tweeted last night around 10:00 PM

Last night, normally a Level 2 story, is a good example.  I expected the concert at the Mullins Center to be more of a problem than it turned out to be.  At 10:00 PM I tweeted a photo of the concert in progress with the report that AFD had already transported one to the hospital.

And then, the next morning (today) I posted on Facebook another photo from later in the concert when foam was being sprayed on concertgoers with the report that the event actually went quite well and the crowd was very well behaved.

Electric Flurry follow up photo posted to Facebook this AM

So sure, if it had been the disaster like some of the previous techno concerts I would have used a heavier Level 3 response.

And railed against the Mullins Center, UMass and clueless parents over youthful patrons tying up emergency responders due to their irresponsible activity, which I find unacceptable.

Now, however, the Mullins Center "Electric Flurry" concert has just risen to a Level 3 story anyway.   

And yes, today has been a slow news day ... so far.

Ding Ding!

Amherst Trolley downtown this morning

The quaint new trolley service, where all roads lead to downtown Amherst, starts this weekend with a test run via the Amherst Invitational Ultimate Tournament on Saturday: one trolley will be running shuttle service between the field locations (ARHS & UMass) and downtown. 

According to Business Improvement Director Alex Krogh-Grabbe, "That will be the beginning of their special event shuttle service, which we plan to continue through the summer. Fixed-route loops between the UMass campus and downtown will commence in the fall, Thursday-Sunday."

No word as to whether they will be serving Rice-a-Roni.

Early Weekend

No classes and the first really hot day of the year means crowds of college aged youths at Puffer's Pond in North Amherst.  A noontime throng of 100 had grown many times over by 2:00 PM and by 4:00 PM, with assist from UMPD, Amherst police had cleared the beach.

After all, town officials did not want to see a repeat of last year.  

APD Chief Livingstone was directing Operation Break Up and when I asked him an hour later if the beach was closed he replied, "Not closed to everyone, just people with alcohol."

Around 6:00 PM one of the officers stationed at the pond arrested a college aged perp who had been skinny dipping and consuming alcohol.  He was charged with "indecent exposure" and "open container" violations.  

Friday's No More

The painful but necessary decision by The Massachusetts Daily Collegian to cease putting out a Friday print edition after almost 125 years is l-o-n-g overdue.  In fact they should cease all print editions, period.  And go all digital, all the time.

According to a Pew report less than 10% of people under the age of 30 confirmed reading a newspaper the previous day while, conversely, about half of adults over the age of 65 did read one.

But as those older readers die off they are not replaced by a younger generation of digitally native adults.

The average age of a UMass undergrad is 21, with only 7% age 25 or older.   The math is pretty simple.  Quite frankly, marketing a print newspaper on the Amherst campus is kind of like installing pay phones around the Campus Center.  Or bringing back horses as a means of transportation.

The Internet allows instantaneous, unlimited, and wicked cheap news production.  Embrace it!

30

 Happy Birthday Collective Copies

In old fashioned journo 30 means "end" of the story, but in business -- when measured in years -- it means an extraordinary accomplishment, especially when you are a niche entity to begin with.

Amherst worker owned collectives account for less than 1% of the businesses in town, but Collective Copies also stands out because they have withstood the test of time.

And they would not have lasted this long if not fulfilling job #1 for any service business:  customer service.

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Collective Copies Open House today 3pm: self-publishing workshop, and a raffle of co-operative-made merchandise. All events are free and open to the public!

Nasty NIMBYs

 

Cowls Tree Farm:  "Respectful visits welcome"

It's certainly one thing to mount a protest campaign including lawn signs, newspaper columns, and vocal gatherings at public meetings -- something I applaud -- but another thing altogether to deviate into criminal activity.  And I consider vandalism criminal.  As does the law.

Last week someone defaced a wall in the bathrooms at Cowls Building Supply in North Amherst with the graffiti "Leave Cushman Alone!" Sort of betrays that it was politically motivated.

Cowls Building Supply

Also last week members of the  "Save Historic Cushman" group filed a complaint with state and local authorities over logging practices at the forest off Henry Street Cowls wishes to sell to a developer for student housing.

On Monday the Amherst Conservation Commission and state Department of Conservation and Recreation toured the site and found nothing major amiss. 

Amherst Conservation Commission and State officials on site

Which comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the 9th generation Cowls family,  the largest private landowners in the state and tree huggers since before the term was invented.

Just as it only takes a tiny minority of irresponsible party hardy students to give all students in town a bad name, so it is with activist groups.  Ironically the Save Historic Cushman folks are worried about rowdy student behavior and yet one or two of them are putting on an equally pernicious performance.

And since bad things often comes in three's:  At the Amherst Sustainability Festival Saturday on the Town Common a young conservation minded female working at the W.D. Cowls, Inc tent handing out free seedlings was verbally accosted by an older woman who represented herself as a member of Save Historic Cushman.

Including the mean barb, "You want the woods to look as ugly as you are," which sent her sobbing to the safety of her car.

Also on Saturday afternoon AFD responded to a brush fire along the cleared area just above Henry Street, far enough away so it could not have been sparks or a cigarette thrown from a passing vehicle.

First responders thought it was human activity that caused the fire, as in a party bonfire. But now I wonder:

Would someone take this hot button issue to an extreme, fighting fire with fire?

 

AFD Henry Street brush fire Saturday 2:45 PM

Henry Street Fire