Improving On Success

APD Chief  Scott Livingstone addresses Rental Bylaw Implementation Group

The Rental Permit Bylaw has become perhaps the most successful local government health safety initiative of the past generation, protecting tenants from (the few) shoddy landlords while motivating them to keep tenants behavior in check or risk losing their permit.

Now, only one year after start up, the certification program boasts 100% compliance of all 1,261 rental properties in Amherst, a college town with a high percentage of rentals and the lowest median age in the state.

Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone paid a visit this afternoon to the Rental Bylaw Implementation Group to discuss ways to improve on the already resounding success of the program, specifically by allowing easier access to police records of that neighborhood bane, noise/nuisance issues.

The Chief told the committee that noise/nuisance complaints are not the highest priority for police response, so on a busy weekend when the weather is nice the call response can be delayed by an hour or more.  By the time police arrive the party or noise is sometimes over.

Currently the system  tracks noise/nuisance complaints if a formal ticket or warning is issued to a property.  But committee member Maurianne Adams wishes to see the system capture complaints made against a residence whereby no formal action was taken by officers, perhaps due to a delayed response.

Chief Livingstone confirmed the rowdy behavior that has disrupted neighborhoods for too many years, has improved significantly:  In 2012 APD had 1,064 calls for service relating to bad behavior and only two years later, in 2014, those calls decreased over 40% to 617.

The Chief attributed this dramatic reduction to outreach work done by his officers -- following up noise complaints the next morning for instance -- extensive publicity shining a light on bad behavior, neighbors taking it on themselves to try to resolve issues, and "peer group" initiatives undertaken by UMass and the Student Government Association (Walk This Way and Team Positive for instance).

One problem with increasing transparency of police calls via the town website is APD's computer system does not get along well with the town system used by Building Commissioner Rob Morra.

But Chief Livingstone liked the idea of sharing this information and planned to take it up with his senior staff and Information Technology person later this month. 

Uncle Amherst Wants You!

Although our $70+ million operation budget is in the multi-national corporation range, the  town of Amherst relies heavily on volunteer labor to staff a myriad of boards and committees.

Rather than complain about the way things are, get involved. Make a difference.

   Amherst Town Committees.

The Cost Of Quiet

One of the downsides of the tide turning towards civility in the war on rowdyism -- albeit a minor one -- is the town treasury is taking a hit with those $300 noise/nuisance tickets not being issued.

Last year at this time (halfway through the budget) Amherst collected $111,793 in town bylaw fines while this year it's down 37% to $69,806.

Of course neighbors who value their sleep or the look of their yards on weekend mornings are not going to mind a bit -- especially since it's a pubic safety issue.

The Public Safety aspect (police, fire, dispatch, animal welfare) of town government is the largest segment of the town's operating budget (46%), but the lion's share is split almost evenly between Amherst Police Department at $4,767,221 proposed for FY16, and $4,466,729 for Amherst Fire Department.

So the $200,000 or so in annual fines collected is a drop in the bucket compared to APD's overall budget.  The Town Manager in his proposed FY16 budget is, finally, adding two police officers to bolster their enemic ranks.

Amherst Fire Department, on the other hand, will not see any additional staffing even though their calls have been rising annually at a rate greater than inflation.

Interestingly 75% of AFD runs are for Emergency Medical Services, as all personnel are crossed trained to either run into burning buildings or stabilize and transport sick/injured patients.

Unlike fire calls, the department does collect fees for ambulance services which is the vast majority of what they do.  The last few years that has amounted to over $2 million dollars annually, enough to fund half their overall budget (although Town Meeting, NOT AFD, controls how that money is spent).

The town has 5 ambulances but usually cannot staff them all

Two years ago in his FY14 budget the Town Manager predicted $2,195,723 in Ambulance Fund revenues, but due to a typically all-too-busy year the fund took in $2,533,728, or $338,000 in excess revenues.

None of which was spent to hire additional staff.

Why No Riot?

UMass Southwest towers:  Ground Zero for potential riots

At one point about a half-hour after the Super Bowl ended joyously, a nitwit dressed only in a t-shirt, despite subfreezing temperatures, fell head first about 4 feet out of tree, drawing both gasps and cheers from the crowd that numbered around 1,000.

 Crowd peaked at around 1,000

That's when I thought, "Here we go."

My memory quickly rewound to the 2013 Blarney Blowout when AFD needed to get to an intoxicated young woman passed out in the center of a large crowd of maybe 2,000 gathered on the quad of Townhouse apartments and they were met with snowballs, bottles and cans.

APD had to move in to assist and soon thereafter six students (all of them from UMass) were arrested.

 5 minutes after the game ended Police and Media outnumbered students

But this time around more than a half-dozen UMPD officers moved in quickly and got the injured party out of the center of the crowd and safely ensconced him in the lobby of Washington tower to await AFD arrival. 

Other than that incident, at no point did I fear the jubilant crowd was going to suddenly turn ornery and require police response by officers dressed in riot gear.

Reason #1 for the safe celebration this time around was the ban on friends in dorms policy instituted by UMass officials for this particular event.  Had the jubilant crowd been twice the size, with half of them non UMass students, the few idiots who want to act out could have had far more impact.

The trees on the Southwest concourse probably would not have survived the night.

And yes, not having police show up dressed in riot gear or sitting upon those majestic horses probably also helped keep the instigation level low.  TV journos also picked safer spots further away from the action to stage, thus being a little less conspicuous to the revelers.

Posted to "Fade" a couple hours before game time

A heavy police presence with state PD vehicles parked at many entry/exit roads leading into Southwest and the MSP helicopter buzzing Southwest earlier in the day certainly sent a message that authorities were not playing around.

The weather was also helpful.  Below freezing, but not so far below to cause instant discomfort.  Yet after a half-hour I was uncomfortably cold, and right about that time the crowd started to dissipate.  

Does this bode well for Blarney Blowout?  Hell yes!  As long as UMass sticks to the same game plan we should see the same result.  As Mr. Davis pointed out in his $160,000 study the presence of 7,000 extra "guests" on campus made a HUGE difference that day.

And maybe last night will also set a positive precedent with college aged youth that you don't have to be destructive to have a good time.

 Students in Boston also behaved

Did any of those 1,000 students awaken this morning feeling shortchanged because no dispersal order was barked over a loudspeaker, and tear gas did not waft into crowd center?

 Happy, happy, happy students

A good time was had by all (well, except for the idiot who fell from the tree).

Good job UMass PD, Mass State PD, APD, AFD, UMass admins and most off all, UMass students.   

Sláinte!

#####

Alcohol problem still needs a lot of work

No Riot

Trees on the UMass Southwest concourse took a bit of a beating

All the advance work done by UMass officials paid off this evening as a large happy crowd did indeed gather in the open courtyards at the base of the Southwest towers to celebrate the Patriots Super Bowl victory, but no riot ensued.

 UMPD and State PD mobilized about 10 minutes before the game ended

At peak the crowd numbered about 1,000 with dozens of police and media on the outskirts taking it all in.  In fact the police seemed to almost disappear as the crowd started to grow into the hundreds.

 A flock of hard to miss TV stations showed up

At no point did the police forcefully move into the crowd, although about a half-hour into the celebration one exuberant fan did fall head first about 4 feet from a tree he should not have been climbing.

About 15 minutes after the game ended

Police moved in to get him out of the crowd and into the Washington Dorm lobby to await AFD arrival.

Within an hour the crowd dissipated and many police were standing down.

 Even an almost full moon did not bring on crowd madness

 Best of all:  A flag guy!

Ode To The Irish

Super Bowl Sunrise looking east naturally (Groff Park)

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

In addition to being much anticipated Super Bowl Sunday -- practically a sacred national holiday -- today is also "Irish Day" in the little college town of Amherst.

Kelley reunion, 1903 @ Kelley Square, Amherst.  Tom Kelley seated center (glasses).   Maggie Mahar (Miss Emily's "North Wind") top row center (in white)

A nice acknowledgement to my ancestors who migrated to Amherst out of desperation, made it their home, and worked tirelessly to make it a better place.

One of the less talked about negatives associated with the St. Paddy's Day stand-in, Blarney Blowout, was the all-Irish-are-drunkards stereotype perpetuated by the pernicious promotion.

That alone should have been reason enough for town officials to step in four years ago when the downtown bars abandoned the name "Kegs 'n Eggs" in favor of "Blarney Blowout."

 So let's hope today (or I should say late tonight) goes a lot better than that faux Irish "celebration" did last March. 

Kelley Square from 400 ft.  RR tracks on left, Dickinson Street on right

Emily Dickinson homestead (top left) from 400 feet over Kelley Square

Affordable Housing Cushion

Olympia Oaks 42 units now count towards town's Subsidized Housing Index

Amherst town officials can now breath a sigh of relief over our Subsidized Housing Index score.  A letter from Department of Housing and Community Development to Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek brought the good news:

After inclusion of Olympia Oaks 42 units, our SHI stands at 11.18%, up from the last official count of 10.8%.

When a municipality falls below 10% they are subject to the dreaded Chapter 40B, meaning a developer can ride in on a bulldozer and build pretty much whatever housing they wish, as long as 25% of the units are "affordable."

Last spring Town Meeting threw $1.25 million (using Community Preservation Act money) at the problem by giving the money to Beacon Communities to help purchase Rolling Green Apartments for $30.25 million, thereby preserving 41 of 204 units as affordable.

But a quirk in the bureaucracy allows all 204 Rolling Green units to be counted as "affordable" even though only 41 are.

That alone is what saved the town from falling below the magic 10% threshold, because even with Olympia Oaks 42 new units, the loss of 204 Rolling Green units would have brought the town down to only 9%.

Town Manager John Musante recently stated, "Affordable housing is one of the community's highest priorities for this coming Town Meeting."

Of course now that the threat of a Ch40B development is buried, it will be interesting to see if affordable housing maintains its place as a "highest priority."