Showing posts sorted by date for query babetown. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query babetown. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Monday, November 18, 2013

Party House from the Past

621 East Pleasant Street, formerly known as Babetown, early November

Just to show our Building Department means business when issuing tickets for zoning violations, aka slovenly behavior, I give you this morning's proceeding in Eastern Hampshire District Court where Building Commissioner Rob Morra put in an appearance to follow up on tickets written to 621 East Pleasant Street for, among other things, cars parked on the lawn rather than in the driveway.

My more ardent readers -- who especially like to read the comments -- will remember 621 East Pleasant was the household that was going to file suit against me for shining a light on their not so neighborly behavior.

The owner of the house, Robert Bonsall, failed to appear this morning in Civil Court; and if he does not appear in Criminal Court on 12/20 to answer the charge he will be arrested.  Merry Christmas. 


Friday, May 24, 2013

BabeTown Belligerence


621 East Pleasant Street, Amherst aka Babe Town

So after seven consecutive $100/day fines the owner of the van parked on the lawn at Babe Town, a venue for underground music concerts, showed great initiative and backed it up the ten feet required to come into compliance with Amherst zoning bylaw.

Moved 7 car parking problem to Sherman Lane Saturday morning (neighbor submitted photo)

I also could not help but notice the new addition on the overgrown front lawn: a pup tent, that went up when a 4' by 8' plywood illegal sign came down. Maybe the bear gets to sleep there at night.  And no, neither the bear or pup tent or combination therein are illegal.  But you gotta wonder what 's next, Christmas lights?



House next door for sale.  "Shocked, shocked I say ..."


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On my way back from the Hampshire Athletic Club, I routinely stop at the Cumby's on lower College Street (assassins take note). Around 11:45 a.m. today, a college-aged youth accosted me with his cell phone snapping at least a dozen pictures as I left the store heading to my car carrying my coffee, egg salad sandwich, and diet root beer.


  
 Shy college aged youth presumably resident of 621 E. Pleasant aka BabeTown


At one point I stopped and looked directly at him saying, "Can I help you?"  But he just kept snap, snap, snapping away. So I open my car door, as he snaps more pictures of my car and license plate, grab my iPhone and he then bounds back to his car leaving the parking lot like a bank robber fleeing the scene of a crime.

Well, I had to run out to North Amherst anyway, in my roles as a Town Meeting member and reporter, so as I drove by 621 East Pleasant Street, aka "Babe Town..."

I could not help but notice from the very public street that East Pleasant Street is, the very same college aged youth sitting on the front porch of his Daddy's mansion.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Cut Off Nose To Spite Face

621 East Pleasant Street, Amherst aka "BabeTown"

So while the addition to the overgrown front yard is kind of cute -- after all, who does not like bear statues? -- I would guess it's the Bad Boys of BabeTown symbolically extending the middle finger to the town after recent repeated $100 citations for parking on the lawn.

Note van is also still parked on the lawn  

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UPDATE: Wednesday morning 

Gaudy sign gone

Van still parked on overgrown lawn

Monday, May 20, 2013

Neighborhood Nuisance?

621 East Pleasant Street, aka "Babetown"

 Can you imagine living next door to a professional Party House, err ... I mean "Art House," that lives to play live music and occasionally skateboard on their half pipe in the back yard? 

"Hot Messy Sex".  Sorry I missed that one

These Bad Boys don't seem to get it.  A residential neighborhood is not zoned for an underground music venue.  Take a bow and get the Hell off the stageOr ... fade to black, dude.



Good question!




May have to increase cover charge to cover all the tickets

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Jesse James Rides Again


The only thing worse than a starving artist is a crispy dead artist.

Today the Gazette picks up and runs with a story I broke over three weeks ago about an underground music venue in an old time traditional middle class neighborhood in South Amherst.  The above-the-fold article is a cross between what traditional journalists would brand a "puff piece" and flat out girlish romanticism.

Because at no point does the lengthy article consider the major public safety concern about these pack them in underground late night commercial ventures:  fire safety.  In the past year Amherst has had two basement fires in student rental properties that violate zoning law with overcrowded illegal bedrooms.

Either of them could have been a tragic replay of February 17, 1991. 

And these non profit commercial ventures, which can pack up to 250 people in a low ceiling basement designed for nothing but storage, could easily become a tragic replay of the Station Nightclub fire February 20, 2003.

Consider this quote from the Gazette:  "It was a lot of fun.  A packed, sweaty basement where it's hard to move around makes for the best shows."  That's what they thought in Brazil, until ...

Coincidentally -- or maybe not -- last night around 11:00 PM Amherst Police cited for noise violations due to a band one of the houses mentioned in the lead paragraph:  Babetown.  Yes you would think a hip, young successful female reporter would you know, comment on that, but hey it's the Gazette.

And these particular bad boys are repeat offenders.  Twice last month they were warned for noise, not to mention the tickets from last year.

621 East Pleasant Street, Amherst:  BABETOWN Yeah the band can park on the lawn

A few weeks ago the boys at Dad City held a fundraiser concert at UMass to help cover the $1,800 in fines slapped on them by the Amherst Police.  Which kind of underscores the solution to this "problem" of not having a place to stage these hip, underground concerts.

Or could it be that half the allure is simply that they are "underground"?

And why would a commercial above-ground business like Iron Horse want to open in Amherst if they have to compete with these undergound operations that charge little or nothing?

Kind of hard to compete with free, especially when your overhead costs for insurance, rent, advertising and the occasional inspection from Amherst Fire Department needs to be covered.  Kind of like why print newspapers are on death row: they can't compete with free social media, blogs, and all-digital hyper-local news websites.

Rather than encouraging irresponsible behavior the Gazette needs to remember a simple journo prime directive, borrowed from the Hippocratic oath:  Above all else, do no harm. 

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Proves The Rule


621 E Pleasant (Illuminated sign reads "Babetown")

UPDATE: September 17

So yes, the childish comments that started coming in yesterday alerted me that this fairly routine, slow- -news-day post from almost three months ago (or "forever" in Internet time) was suddenly getting an avalanche of renewed interest -- probably from one of the denizens who must have Googled the address or possibly the silly sign title, "Babetown" to discover this post and then reposted on Facebook.

Interestingly this particular post originally barely registered on my sitemeter for traffic generated.  But NOW, it has broken in to my Top Ten list (see "popular posts" widget over on the lower right side) of all time, out of almost 2,200 posts.  Well done boys.  Keep up the good work!

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 Original Post: June 23

A day after the Planning Board Zoning Sub Committee heard an angry earful about student party houses at their annual public hearing--especially the conversion of single family homes to two family homes with a doubled capacity for eight unrelated housemates to congregate under one roof--police were called to 621 E Pleasant Street for loud noise and a bonfire.

And when firefighters arrived late Thursday night to put out the poorly contained fire, a couple dozen of the college aged youths gave them a hard time for disturbing their fun.

Hey when you have a full sized skateboard halfpipe in your backyard you would be able to enjoy it anytime of the day or night, neighbors be damned!