We're #7!

Umass Library was once the tallest in the world

I suppose this is one ubiquitous Internet top ten listical you will not see UMass Office of News & Media Relations extensively hyping.

 Southwest Towers (a 6th was planned but never materialized) built circa 1963 for high density housing

Towers look prettier at night

But hey, if you have traversed the UMass campus much at all you certainly have developed a sense of humor about some of the "brutalist" cold war East German architecture.

 Fine Arts Center goes long rather than up

I'm reminded of the Barnes Air National Guard A-10 warthog jets that used to routinely fly over Amherst:  exceedingly functional, but ever so ugly.

So ugly they are kinda cute.

A-10 warthog, brtttttt, doing its thing

Of course it could be worse: Hampshire College made #3!

 Hampshire College:  With that counter-culture 1960s and 70s style of architecture 

 Safe bet Amherst College will never make this list

Can't Forget

 Commemorative flag flies from downtown utility pole

The commemorative flags went up in the downtown yesterday at the crack of dawn to mark Labor Day, and for the first time in 14 years I hope they come down on Tuesday.

That way, when they go back up on Thursday or early Friday morning it sends the clear signal that they are returning to their perch to remember 9/11, a morning unlike any in our history.

Today is one of those 9/11-like days: late summer, our little college town swelling in size with an influx of college aged youth, all under a severe clear blue sky.  The bright yellow sun slowly arcing east to west.

Perhaps if the weather had not been so stunningly beautiful that morning the untested kamikaze pilots may have had a tougher time hitting their otherwise hard to miss targets.

Yes, we could probably come up with a few "what if" scenarios that could have changed the outcome that fateful morning, which only adds to the sorrow. Life moves on -- it always does.

So when you see those 23 commemorative American flags in town center on Friday (no matter what the weather is like) pause for moment to remember our innocent dead, perhaps say a prayer.

And hope it never happens again.

The main town flag will fly at half staff on 9/11 as will all municipal flags nationwide

Sudsy Saturday & Sunday?

1st year students moved into Southwest Friday

Scroll down for most recent updates

Not to be a killjoy prognosticator of dire outcomes but my Twitter buddy ZooMass does have a scary point:  By Sunday all the on-campus UMass students will be moved in --13,500+ of them ... with nothing much to do.

For the entire night.  With the weather predicted to be perfect.  And no school on Monday.

Yikes!

Saturday morning mist quickly burning off 

Phillips Street late Friday night

Crowd gathered westernmost quad Townhouse Apartments, North Amherst 4:45 PM Saturday

DUI Deluge

APD arrested five (5) impaired drivers over the weekend

The sad/scary thing is if APD had the staffing I'm sure we would see five drunk driving arrests practically every weekend rather than just when state grant money provides the extra coverage.

Either way, last weekend too many great white sharks shared our ecosystem.   Although fortunately nobody was hurt. This time. 

With UMass dorms opening on Friday and no school on Monday because of Labor Day, this long weekend could be a potential record breaker for DUIs.

   Brian Kenney, age 29

Mark Emery age 21

Kyle Coffee, age 23

 #####

Four of the five were arraigned before Judge Payne and released on their personal recognizance with trial dates set for later this month or October.  Juveline Tavares age 39 required a Portuguese interpreter so he was arraigned later in the day (hence no photo).

Ruth Castonguay failed to appear in District Court on Monday and Judge Payne issued a bench warrant for her arrest.  He is holding it until Friday because a friend called to say she had checked herself into a medical detox center after her arrest.  

   Just Another Amherst DUI

Thanks Amherst College!

Amherst College knows how to be a good neighbor

Yeah, yeah, yeah cynics will say  -- after all this is the Internet -- that when you have an endowment over $2 billion, anything measured in mere tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands is chicken feed.

But the point is Amherst College is a tax-exempt entity and as such is not forced to pay anything for Amherst Fire Department's high quality service.

Besides, they do pay property taxes on all the houses they own and maintain so nicely.   As well as the two commercial businesses that have been around forever:  Downtown anchor Lord Jeff Inn and the 9 hole Amherst Golf Course, which unlike our own Cherry Hill, actually makes money.

Last year those total taxes came to $502,080, or a cool half million.

Click photos to enlarge

 Lord Jeff pays property taxes like any other business in town

On Monday night just before the 9/11 flag controversy came up for discussion, Comptroller Sonia Aldrich mentioned that Amherst College, our #1 landowner in town,  had increased their "gift" last year from $90,000 to $130,000 .

They don't like to call it a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes because it then ties them in to an expected annual payment but they have been paying it annually for almost ten years now.  The first year it was $120,000 but all the other years it has been $90,000.

The payment is for Amherst Fire Department services, so as far as I'm concerned if it looks like a pilot, and flies like a pilot, then it's a PILOT.

That extra $40,000 -- a 44% increase over last year -- is enough to fund one new starting firefighter position (not counting employee benefits).

UMass on the other hand is now over three years behind for re signing the previous "5 Year Strategic Agreement," which currently pays us around $375,000 for the over $1 million in services they get from overworked AFD.
 

 New Amherst College Greenway Dorms (4 residence halls) will be protected by AFD as will the new 230,000 square foot Science Center

Sign Of The Times?

Parking enforcement on scene Town Hall for beheaded sign (left).  At least they left the pole

Yes one of the more minor aggravations we will have to put up with as our population begins to double with the return of "college aged youth": stolen street signs.

 Sign near Hastings still there

Why you would want a "15 minute parking" sign in your dorm room is beyond me -- especially if you  place it near a bed.

Property owner Jeff Brown is hoping the town will install those 15 minute (free) parking signs in front of his commercial building on Triangle Street immediately adjacent to Kendrick Place.

 Jeff Brown owns the concrete contiguous with Triangle Street

This would keep tenants and or contractors of the new building from tying up valuable parking spots.

And with the town's highly efficient Parking Management doing the enforcement, increasing revenues to the town over violations.

Living in the shadow of Kendrick Place

A double win.

A Presidential Expansion

Presidential Apartments, nine new buildings with plenty of parking

Kendrick Place, with 36 units/104 tenants, wasn't the only new apartment complex to open for business yesterday.  Presidential Apartments, built back in the 1960s, opened an entire new cluster of nine buildings holding 54 units/96 tenants.

But unlike Kendrick Place, six of those units will be "affordable" thereby adding to the town's Subsidized Housing Index which currently stands at 11.18%.

Any community in Massachusetts with an SHI lower than 10% is open to a Ch40B development that allows bypassing of local zoning ordinances for a housing project with at least 20% of the units subsidized.

 Moving in yesterday

"College aged youth" currently make up 59% of Amherst's population because of course UMass, our #1 employer. 

Kendrick Place and Presidential Apartments are, like bookends, conveniently located on either side of our flagship of higher education.