"What Democracy Looks Like"

 Coming up North Pleasant Street

A large group of about 100 mostly college aged youth marched from UMass to Amherst center with APD in front and trailing behind as they chanted their way through town center and then descended Main Street to demonstrate in front of the Amherst police station.

 APD Chief Scott Livingstone on scene

After more than a half-hour at the police station they marched back up into town center, over to the Rt 9 intersection, down college street and into Amherst College. All the while Amherst PD, UMPD and Amherst College PD kept their distance, simply trying to stay ahead of the crowd but closing off roads before they crossed.

Around 3:15 PM, after just over two hours of marching around the downtown, they headed back to campus.  



No doubt this is one of but many protests nationwide today over the highly publicized deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner.

Holiday Cheer (In A College Town)

Police pushed about 400 or so students off the quad area Amherst College

Amherst Police came to the assistance of Amherst College PD around midnight last night to clear out a large party in the quad area near Crossett Dorm which had, like last year, gotten out of hand.

The annual event, known as Crossett Christmas, attracts a bevy of off campus students from our other institutes of higher education.

And when you attract an extra few hundred college aged youth, mix in alcohol, loud music, and somewhat hospitable weather, things can quickly go wrong.

Amherst College PD:  If you see non AC students with backpacks and they will not let you inspect them, escort them off campus.
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) December 7, 2014

So many fire alarms were pulled AFD ended up stationing a engine at the scene for well over an hour.

The crowd was never anywhere that of the Blarney Blowout (400 vs 4,000) and it only took ten minutes to disperse.  Umass Police also assisted with foot traffic as hundreds of youth ended up on busy Rt 9 walking back to town center to catch the PVTA buses.

 Engine 1 East entrance 11:30 PM

Engine 1 parked in front of Crossett Dorm

APD briefly staged at Orr Rink then moved in from the south

AFD ambulance had trouble getting through fleet of taxis that were coming and going 

Timing

Battleship Row 7:55 AM

If we had the Internet, social media and smart phones back then maybe the two bored, hungry operators of that newfangled gizmo could have sent HQ a screen shot of that large blob appearing on their radar fast approaching from the north.

The rookie Captain of the USS Ward could have texted a photo of a periscope peeking up from waters where it should not be.

And field workers, who do not get Sunday morning off, could have confirmed things with a panoramic Facebook post of a flock of inbound fighters, set against a gorgeous Hawaiian sky, bearing a distinctive red zero at the end of each wing.

Thus the fleet in general would have had precious advance warning.  The USS Arizona in particular would have been able to scramble anti-aircraft personnel to their battle stations, perhaps in time to distract the pilot before he dropped his payload with a one-in-a-million result.

 USS Arizona, December 7, 1941 "A day that will live in infamy"

In fact, if the Japanese had broken off their 2 hour bombardment just 10 minutes into the attack, half the causalities had already been inflicted by the catastrophic explosion of the USS Arizona, snuffing out the lives 1,177 sailors and marines, including 23 sets of brothers. 

And if he were still alive on that fine Sunday morning 73 years ago, Colonel Billy Mitchell could have sent out a single tweet:  "I told you so."

USS Arizona today

Walk out? What Walk Out?

Thursday 12:20 PM Amherst Regional High School

Apparently Amherst School Superintendent Maria Geryk is too young to have learned the valuable lesson from that iconic Paul Newman movie concerning a, "failure to communicate."  

Her email blast update on Friday, the day after the BIG walkout, talks about all sorts of somewhat mundane -- but certainly interesting to parents -- in house school matters, but carefully avoids mentioning the walkout, err,  I mean, "Walk-out Dialogue". 

Hmm ... So an event occurs during the school day that impacts upwards of half the High School and according to Middle School principal Marisa Mendonsa 90% of those younger students participating via a "sit in" (APD also responded to to a 911 call from the MS and stayed on site until school ended) and it's gets no mention?

Certainly one dot in her email that could have been connected to the walkout was the HR report about "Staff of Color" and progress towards getting it to be "reflective of the community".   

The Regional School District definitely has a long way to go, with staff of color now standing at 18% while student enrollment of color is 43.5%.

But still, the Amherst Regional School District is in the top ten percent statewide for highest proportion of employees of color in a public school system. 

It would be interesting to see the percentage of employees of color in highly-paid administrative positions (both in the schools and the town).

The Amherst School Committee has a 20% minority make up.  And Amherst Town Meeting is probably in the 1% or 2% range.

Now that's worthy of a walkout.

Amherst Town Meeting last May

Just So You Know

 Tow truck used same route through Amherst College to get to wrecked truck

Three weeks after a vegetable truck downsized the hard way while trying to negotiate under the railroad bridge on South East Street, the town has put up a couple of signs warning about the stingy clearance.

Sign on rt faces the dirt road that comes down Fort Hill

Apparently the new Book & Plow farm on Amherst College property has increased traffic from the dirt road that connects from their the tennis courts to South East Street coming out very near the bridge.



The other equally low bike path bridge up by Mill Lane, a half mile away, is clearly marked on both sides so the theory used to be you would never make it under that bridge to get to this one.

Not any more.

DUI Dishonor Roll

APD attempting to perform FSTs on Deborah Mercier, age 21, Wednesday 7:35 PM

If you were out and about early Wednesday night Christmas shopping, attending an Amherst Planning Board meeting, or heading to your local health club, consider yourself lucky you did not run into Deborah Mercier, age 21.   Or more precisely, she did not run into you.

 Click to enlarge/read

An off-duty Amherst Fire Department Captain called Dispatch to report a beyond erratic driver on Snell Street, a heavily traveled cut through to busy Rt 116 and even busier Rt 9.  Amherst police handled it from there.

 Deborah Mercier, all 90 pounds of her, stands before Judge Payne

In Eastern Hampshire District Court yesterday morning Judge Payne entered a plea of "not guilty" and continued her case until December 29th, when she will appear with her private attorney.

Not a great way to start the New Year.  But at least she's alive.

Amherst Town Gown: Moving Forward

Town Gown Steering Committee co-Chairs Nancy Buffone, David Ziomek

In its final public meeting 13 months after formation the Town Gown Steering Committee discussed and then voted unanimously to support the final letter of conveyance drafted by member Stephanie O'Keeffe that will accompany the $60,000 U3 Advisers final report -- both narrative and Powerpoint overheads. 

   Amherst Town Gown Letter

The entire package will be sent to UMass Chancellor Subbaswamy and Amherst Town Manager John Musante, and committee co-chairs David Ziomek and Nancy Buffone will also meet with them in person to go over "next steps."

One additional amendment was added by member Ken Rosenthal to the bullet point about creating an "Economic Development Director".  Forming a new committee charged with economic development to work hand-in-hand with the town hired Director and potential developers.

Even though the town already has an Amherst Redevelopment Authority, Town Commercial Relations Committee, Chamber of Commerce and Business Improvement District.

  Roughly half the Town Gown Steering Committee

Not a single member out of the 18 who showed up for this final meeting spoke against the formation of University Town of Amherst Collaborative (UTAC) an outgrowth of -- but downsized from --  the Town Gown Steering Committee.

 Or the recommendation the town (unfortunately not half subsidized by the University) should hire a "Economic Development Director."

 Other half of the Town Gown Steering Committee

The meeting as usual, was not completely free of dissent:  Rolf Karlstrom reiterated he would be issuing a "minority report" outlining key points of disagreement or "lost opportunities" with the U3 final report.  So far two other members have signed on.  Co-chair David Ziomek agreed to include it in the final package.

Now the key question is will the committee report became a vital road map to the future for two super powers, or just another dead end waste of time, money, paper and bandwidth?