Party House Primer

Chief Livingstone

 
Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone paid a visit to the Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday to educate them about "Nuisance House" enforcement -- an important component of Town Manager John Musante's Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods initiative.

First off the Chief dispelled the myth that police officers drive around in their patrol cars looking for parties.  "We need to have to have a complainant, a valid complainant to dispatch an officer to a disturbance".

Usually easy to find in the form of a neighbor losing the peaceful enjoyment of their home.

The Chief reports that APD responds to between 900 and 1,200 quality of life (noise/nuisance) complaints annually, with only a minority resulting in action by the responding officers, i.e. a $300 ticket or arrest for TBL violation (Town By Law).

But that percentage is going up:  In the most recent year about 20% of the overall responses resulted in tickets or arrests, whereas the previous year it was only 14%. 

A lot depends on "cooperation at the door".  Meaning when officers first arrive do the responsible tenants comply with requests to tone down the rowdy behavior.  If not, and other infractions besides noise -- underage drinking, large crowds, haphazard parking of cars, littering -- are disrupting the neighborhood, then "Nuisance House" tickets are issued,  or arrests made. 

The Zoning Board of Appeals is considering tying a Special Permit (to expand the rental capacity of a house, almost always made by an absentee landlord) to "conditions" that must be met in an ongoing way.

And becoming a "nuisance house" would violate a condition, and bring with it the loss of that Special Permit.

The house would then revert back to the original capacity of only 4 unrelated tenants, a major loss of rental revenue.

Amherst building commissioner Rob Morra recently won a major victory defending the town's no more than  4 unrelated tenants in a one family dwelling bylaw.  Prominent landlord Grandonico Properties, LLC packed students into rental property on Hobart Lane, including illegally converting substandard basements into bedrooms and then tried to blame it on the student occupants.

Simply fining the noisy party house participants has not solved the problem.  Chief Livingstone stated no landlord has been fined yet since it takes a third nuisance house ticket to trip that regulation, but he declared confidently "It's going to happen this Spring."

Currently two locations on Phillips Street have two nuisance house tickets each.

Phillips Street

A dozen years ago when Amherst led the charge on banning smoking in the workplace, including bars, fines alone (issued to the bar, not the patron) had minimal impact.  Only when faced with loss of their liquor license did barowners learn the value of compliance.

Revoke a Special Permit from a slumlord for too many noise violations, thereby instantly cutting their revenues in half, and that party house will quickly go quiet.  One way or the other ...

Party house of the $emester

83 Morgan Circle

UPDATE: Monday 4/18, Patriots Day

So these bad boys have been good as of late. But better weather brings on the "Mean Season" for partying, thus time will tell (only about a month)

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Clearly the recent fine increase to $300 for the first offense for violating the town's noise or nuisance house bylaw (the maximum allowed by state law) has had a major impact. Hit them in the wallet and you get their undivided attention.

The vast majority of addresses ticketed in September and October learned their lesson and reigned in their rowdiness these past two months.

But naturally, there will always be "outliers". In this case we have 83 Morgan Circle, an address that garnered noise violations on four separate occasions, starting on September 18 with three and culminating on November 7 with two. And just to demonstrate the height of irresponsibility, three on October 1 and three more on October 2. Now that was an expensive weekend!

Their grand total for the semester: 11 tickets or $3,300 total.
Overall grand total for all locations: 176 tickets or $52,800 total.

Too bad APD could not set this up as an Enterprise Fund so that fines stay in the police budget since this four month amount alone could fund the addition of one more officer to our current strength, which is down 10 officers from ten years ago.

The raw statistics tell the story:

September: 21 Nuisance House, 44 Unlawful Noise or a total of 65
October: 13 Nuisance House, 53 Unlawful Noise or a total of 66

And here's where things get interesting:

November: 7 Nuisance House, 28 Unlawful Noise or a total of 35
December: 0 Nuisance House, 10 Unlawful Noise or a total of 10

Sure some of that is simply due to weather--a cops best friend. But certainly, the expensive tickets played a major role in bringing about such a dramatic decrease over the last two months.

A positive step in the march towards civility.

Party House(s) of the Weekend

53 Meadow Street, North Amherst

So as I expected, APD busted #53 Meadow Street for noise violations late Saturday night (see yesterday's report) but they also hit them with the more serious charge of "nuisance house." Rather than simply being handed $300 tickets--times each charge--the responsible parties were arrested, hands cuffed behind their backs and then transported to the police station where the bail bondsman usually shows up in the early AM to process at $40 each all those netted during the long night.

Overturned potty on Meadow Street

Arrested for Noise and Nuisance House violations:

Ryan Casey, 10 Cabot Rd, North Andover, MA, age 22
Brian Bartolucci, 103 Blueberry Pond Dr, Brewster, MA, age 22
Jeffrey Rigney, 13 Harlow Rd, Marshfield, MA, age 23
Salvatore Cacciatore, 653 Beaver St, Waltham, MA, age 22

Assessor Property Card for 53 Meadow Street

Rivaling the party at Meadow Street but with double the number arrested on the same charges of noise and nuisance house violations, the tenants of 62 Summer Street also merit a note of dubious achievement.

Arrested for Noise and Nuisance House violations:

Timothy Higgins, 7 Norwich Lane, Methuen, MA, age 20
John Coschigano, 7 Apple Tree Road, Bethel, CT, age 20
Adam Dorfman, 65 Wilkeshire Blvd, Randolph, NJ, age 21
Steven Pesapane, 8 Shadetree Ct, Stoney Brook, NY, age 20
Philip Taberner, 1 Bramble Hill Rd, Methuen, MA, age 21
Kevin Miller, 68 Temple Dr, Methuen, MA, age 20
Marc Jesi, 27 Castle Circle, Peabody, MA, age 20
Nicholas Fabrizio, 342 Pelham St, Methuen, MA, age 21

Property Card for 62 Summer Street

Party House of the weekend

47 Hobart Lane: note load of beer cans in back of pick up truck

So I had a hard time deciding a winner. On the one hand, we have 21 Hobart Lane which garnered two (2) $300 "Nuisance House" town bylaw violation tickets, but my favorite is 47 Hobart Lane (owned by Jones Properties) which only garnered one.

According to police logs narrative by the responding officer: "Resident (Brian P, age 21) called stating their were to many people surrounding his house that he did not know. Approximately 100 people observed around 47 Hobart Lane. Brian P approached me in the roadway asking to help clear people from his house. I advised him to enter his house, turn the music off and tell people to leave. Officers began to clear people out with minimal cooperation. Several underage drinkers observed who were summoned. Approximately an additional 150 people were cleared from the house. Empty beer cans/bottles and trash covered the ground surrounding the house. Brian P issued Nuisance House bylaw citation."

The reason why I like this one is because the perp called it in on himself. Priceless.

Not a great sign when the Hobart Lane street sign has been replaced by a beer can


And this, of course, is #27 the house in between #47 and #21-all odd number appropriately enough. This one is also owned by Jones Properties. Gotta wonder if Watroba's misses their banner?

Blarney Blowout Weekend

McMurphy's downtown Amherst.  Party Central

Spring break beating out St Patrick's Day by 24 hours provides a "Luck of the Irish" respite for the town. Thus this past weekend became the last one for Amherst area college students to use the patron saint of Ireland as an excuse to drink early and drink often.  Throw in mild spring like weather and you have perfect ingredients for a pernicious drain on public safety.

Long lines of college students noisily waiting to get into McMurphy's and Stacker's Saturday morning for the "Blarney Blowout" was a perfect barometer indicating a powerful storm was starting to swirl.  In fact, over the course of the morning/afternoon three individuals were cited ($300 each) for "open container" violations as they were drinking beer while waiting in line to drink more beer.

Interestingly, the McMurphy's event used to be called "Kegs & Eggs" but apparently in response to a public chastising by Amherst Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe last year because of the embarrassing aftereffects, this year they simply changed the name (and did not go before the Select Board requesting an early morning opening time).  Same embarrassing aftereffects, however.

One of the first noise warnings was issued at 9:30 AM to an apartment on Hallock Street almost in town center.  The reporting party stated there was extremely loud music coming from location and when asked to turn down the music the perps responded it was "Blarney Blowout today so every house would be like this."

The festivities would indeed peak very late Saturday night into Sunday morning, swamping AFD with ETOH (alcohol poisoning) calls.  Mutual aid ambulances were then required from Belchertown and two from Northampton Fire Department.

So yes with APD also swamped, issuing 14 Noise Bylaw tickets, 12 Noise warnings, 7 Nuisance House violations, and 12 open container infractions it's too hard to pick the one single Party House as overall winner, so I thought I would put up a rogues gallery:

176 Triangle Street

Four women cited each for noise and nuisance house for a party of 200+ just after midnight Friday.

The house is owned by Railroad Street Partners, aka James Cherewatti, aka Eagle Crest Management.  Not surprisingly that corporate entity also owns McMurphy's, Stacker's and the "opening soon" (for over a year now) Olde Town Tavern--all in town center.

Although 176 Triangle Street is slightly unusual for an Eagle Crest properties in that it is only a "one family"  with a maximum capacity of  four tenants.  Usual modus operandi is to convert a one family into two family in order to maximize profits by doubling legal occupancy to eight, with little increased cost of operations (assessor does not double the valuation of the building).

Take 156 Sunset Avenue for instance.  The Zoning Board of Appeals will continue to deliberate next month on providing just such a golden ticket to Mr. Cherewatti, over neighbors objections of course. 

747 Main Street, Amherst

Large Loud Party with taxi's dropping off more and more...

(1:00 AM Saturday) Loud voices from inside both floors of residence.  Approximately 50 guests were cleared with the cooperation of residents.  Residents were cooperative, however one TBL citation was issued to a tenant for the noise violations as we have multiple responses to this address for similar events.

The house is owned by Chad O'Rourke, AKA Pipeline Properties.  He owns or managers a total of 54 properties around town almost all of them rented to students.   Last September at a ZBA hearing for his newest acquisition at 314 Lincoln Avenue where the special permit allowing it to continue to be "two family" (thus 8 legal tenants) required reapproval upon sale of the structure, Hilda Greenbaum (ZBA member, also a large property owner in town) specifically questioned him regarding 747 Main Street pointing out the exterior is "poorly maintained."

28 Carriage Lane, Amherst (residential neighborhood)

1:00AM early Saturday morning (in another part of town)

Loud and unreasonable voices, music, and drumming could be heard coming from the house.  Uncooperative guests that numbered approximately 100.  Residents taken into custody.

Arrested for Noise Bylaw Violations:
Benjamin Monat, 21 Jefferson Ave, Sharon, MA, age 21
Kaivan Charmchi, 8 Bayberry Lane, Millbury, MA, age 21
David Fine, 81 Brackett Rd, Newton, MA, age 22

And yes, I've saved the worst for last or as Steve Jobs used to say "Just one more thing":

RP called to report that at 4:00 PM today (Saturday) a intoxicated college aged male grabbed her 11 year old daughter.

RP advises her 11 year old daughter was walking near Amity and Lincoln when a drunk college age male grabbed her daughter on the arm (no injury).  RP says her daughter and friend ran to friend's house.  RP doesn't want an officer to speak to her daughter.  RP was asked what she thinks the motive was.  She states party was going on and perp appeared drunk.  She says perp was trying to get her daughter to come and party.

RP also voiced displeasure with bars opening up so early today.

As should we all.

Party House repeat offenders

23 Tracy Circle

So even my casual readers will recognize this house and address, 23 Tracy Circle as a recent Party House of the Weekend winner. Yes, the losers who created the Facebook page "Fuck The Fines" are b-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ck. And yes, they were fined $1,800 for Friday's late night party.

According to APD narrative:
"Upon arrival Officers could clearly hear loud TV, noise and voices laughing and shouting from open windows. Several people could be seen through a partially open picture window . There have been 5-6 calls to house #23 for the same complaints with verbal warnings as well as written Town By Law citations. Three residents were placed under arrest for noise violation and nuisance house. 12-15 guests were asked to leave and the house was secured."

Arrested and charge with noise and nuisance house:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx age 21
Emerson E. Rutkowski, 36 Puritan Park, Swampscott, MA age 20
Michael Upham, 53 Sherwood Road, Swampscott, MA age 21

Property owner: who ya gonna call? Mr Gesualdi owns a few properties in Amherst.

Frisky Friday

72 Curtis Place 

Amherst Police were kept on the go last night all over town to quell loud parties and fighting, issuing five noise warnings all along North Pleasant Street with another four locations ticketed for noise (9 individuals total), nuisance house (8 total) and one underage drinking, for a grand total of eighteen $300 tickets or $5,400.

Perhaps the Perps spent early Friday consuming copious amounts of Red Bull before switching to the cheap beer.

The winner for 'Party House of the Night' goes to 72 Curtis Place as they garnered 4 noise, 4 nuisance house (meaning each resident was hit with $600 in fines) and one underage drinking (also a $300 offense), for hosting a loud event with 300 guests still going strong at 1:30 AM.

Arrested for Noise and Nuisance House violations:

Ross Lapetina, 72 Curtis Place #1, Amherst, Ma, age 21
Gregory Kuhn, 1 Falls Ct, N Attleborough, Ma, age 21
Stefan Valentin, 72 Curtis Place #2, Amherst, Ma, age 20
Mark Salhany, 72 Curtis Place #1, Amherst, Ma, age 21
Alden Michaels, 5 Coltin Drive, Newburyport, Ma, age 20, Possession Liquor under 21

Ownership Card for 72 Curtis Place, Amherst (Hilda and Louis Greenbaum)

51 North East St

 Arrested for Noise and Nuisance: Andrew Bridge, 34 Cook Street, Westborough, Ma, age 21

57 Woodside Ave 

Ticketed for noise: Anna Guigli, Amanda Holt, Elizabeth Wilson, Katherine Zoufaly, all age 21

UPDATE:  Sunday afternoon

AFD, via their Facebook page, reports a hectic Saturday night:  "With only seven people on duty, they handled a total of 17 calls on the overnight. These included: a car accident with entrapment and transport to Baystate Trauma Center, psychiatric evaluation, Stroke, Unconscious patient, Alcohol Overdose, Seizure, Lacerations, Shortness of Breath, Car vs Pedestrian, and several others."

Party House (s) of the Weekend

As you could probably tell from my previous report covering the alcohol soaked Friday night into Saturday morning that overwhelmed our Emergency Medical Response system, the other byproduct of free flowing alcohol-- noise/nuisance -- was also in abundant supply.

Amherst police broke up a party at #17 Salem Place Condominiums early Saturday morning (12:33 AM) arresting three UMass students for both noise and nuisance house Town By Law violations.  The second charge usually results if the party hosts are uncooperative at the front door, or there's a large number of attendees, with some of them underage.

Arrested by Amherst police: Enrico A. Aloi, Kyle A. Crist and John L. Tremblay all of them age 21 and all UMass students.

In Eastern Hampshire District Court this morning all three accepted the plea bargain whereby the criminal charges are switched to a civil charge.  Judge John Payne, Jr. only enforced the $300 noise ticket and reduced the other $300 ticket to zero, even though an Assistant District Attorney had suggested the second charge be $50.

 

1008 North Pleasant Street (note car parked on lawn)

Saturday around midnight police broke up an even larger party at 1008 North Pleasant Street very near the UMass campus and directly across the street from the natorious Hobart Lane.  Five students were arrested, although one (Arian Hashemi-Pour) claimed this morning he was not a resident of the house so the charges could have been thrown out. 

Arrested for noise:  Arian C. Hashemi-Pour, 22  and Sana Jameel, Patricia L. Martin, Nicole Scepkowski and Adriana N. Sobel all of them 21 and UMass students all.

The four actual residents of 1008 North Pleasant Street (all the females) also agreed to the plea bargain with a  $300 fine going to the town and an additional $100 court costs to settle the matter. (Plus the $40 each paid to the court clerk to be released from APD jail).

 35 Northampton Road

Police also arrested two female UMass students at 35 Northampton Road (Rt 9) for noise and nuisance house violations just after midnight Saturday into Sunday morning.  Christina Kingdara, 20,  and Allison N. Wolf, 19, both UMass students.

Again Judge Payne nixed the nuisance charge and allowed the plea bargain of $300 to the town and $100 in court costs.

Interestingly all the students arrested by APD for underage drinking and/or open container violations were fined more heavily than Party House perps.  The plea bargain cost them $300 to the town, $100 to the court plus completion of the BASICS program at UMass, which also has a $100 fee.

Party House of the Weekend

655 Main Street, Amherst (anybody know a good house painter?)

With power and transportation restored to most of Amherst, and the weather back to whatever is considered normal for early November, and pent up demand bubbling over from last weekends devastating storm, The Usual Suspects returned to party mode. Besides, it was "Homecoming Weekend" for UMass, our largest provider of Party House patrons.

655 Main Street is not exactly a repeat offender, although I did award them a "Party House In The Making" last Spring. Welcome boys, you have now made the Big Time.

And they must have done something to tick off responding officers as all the inhabitants received both noise and nuisance house citations ($300 each ticket $600 total per perp).

1:10 AM (early Sunday morning)

Noise Complaint 655 Main St

Arrested for noise and nuisance house:
Christopher Osepowicz, 58 Greenleaf Drive, Northampton, MA, age 21
Peter Grazul, 50 Saddleback Road, Mashpee, MA, age 21
Michael James Farrell, 5 Hope Ave, Foxborough, MA, age 21
John Daniel Donovan, 77 Forest St, Middleton, MA, age 21

Arrested for Open Container Alcohol and Underage Drinking:
Shawn Michael O'Donnell, 456 Homestead Ave, Holyoke, MA, age 20

Owner Card for 655 Main St

Dean of Discipline

Hobart Lane:  A usual suspect

As Party House apologists are fond of pointing out, UMass is the largest employer in Amherst, thus making us a "company town," thus making disturbing behavior that disrupts neighborhood tranquility town wide mere collateral damage to be endured for the greater good.

Or something like that.

Last year Amherst police politely handed over to UMass the names of 652 students arrested for rowdy behavior : Noise, Nuisance House, Open Container, Unlicenses Kegs, Under aged Drinking.

Since UMass is only in session roughly seven months out of the year, that amounts to 23 arrests per week.  Just this past semester APD made 105 arrests for Nuisance House violations alone.

Since Nuisance House tickets are issued to all tenants that can be found on the premises at the time of the disturbance, it usually amounts to three per incident which works out to 35 dwellings or two per week (usually on weekends.)

All the above statistics are reactionary.  A neighbor calls 911 to complain about loud noise or other disruptive behavior and the police show up.  By then things are already out of control.

UMass, our largest employer, needs to hire an Off Campus RA to proactively patrol the usual suspect streets and enforce the student code of conduct, which UMass now claims to apply to off campus behavior.

A combination between bar bouncer and Jr High School Principal in charge of behavior.  The town recently hired a code enforcement building inspector to better police slumlords who specialize in high demand student rentals.

Since UMass provides the supply side, it's only fair they share in the oversight.

Pay the Piper

23 Tracy Circle To: amherstac@aol.com
Sent: Mon, Jun 6, 2011 5:39 pm
Subject: [Only in The Republic of Amherst] New comment on Party House repeat offenders.

So Larry as you can see, this is matt. i just want to ask you in a civil manner to please take down the names and home addresses from you "second offense" page. Yeah, we were arrested, for watching the bruins play the flyers in game 4 if you need more facts about loud tv and yelling. but please, im asking you refer to us as "residents" "children" or any of you other nicknames youve given us. i understand that the information was probably in a police report or something you research. but when a family member puts my families home address in google and sees this, i get questioned clients, parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles all have to hear about it without knowing the facts.
i realize that some of the members in our house may not be the most mature people in the world, but that is why were in college now and you once were. stupid things happen to people by circumstance too so dont be so quick to judge.
i will answer anything you have to say privately and not on this blog if you want info to write about. get back to me

ill be watching the bruins
###############################################

Matt,
Yes, I was a UMass student once and strangely enough I worked as a bouncer at 'The Pub' in downtown Amherst to pay my way, dealing with rowdy UMass kids.

And yes your name was indeed on a police report--which is a public document. Perhaps why if you Google yourself you will also pick up the Amherst Bulletin article that came out a few days after mine:

"xxxxxxxxx, and Emerson E. Rutkowski, 19, and Michael H. Upham, 20, both of Swampscott, were arrested on charges of violating the town's noise bylaw and violating the town's nuisance house bylaw, police said. Each charge carries a $300 penalty, meaning the three men could be subject to $1,800 in fines."

Have you asked Scott Merzbach to remove your name and address from the Amherst Bulletin website?

Larry

################################################
Sent: Tue, Jun 7, 2011 5:33 pm
Subject: Re: Party House winner

Actually Larry i have asked him too.
his article is in archive and not a direct link so it doesn't return a page when searched
cant you just respect my wishes as being enough? i feel like you're taking swings at me here for no reason. all i want is the names off, is that really too much to ask?
################################################
Well when I Google your name and town I do indeed come up #1, but Gazettenet and the Amherst Bulletin come in at #2 and #3--and the Bulletin is free so a paywall would not interfere with folks pulling up your offense.

Have you paid your fines?
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yeah i paid my fines. fun story though the town of Amherst screwed up yet again. i paid my fines; they took my money and, luckily, gave me a reciept but never acknowleged it in their books. i then get a call from a friends in high places saying there is a warrant out for my arrest. as steve miller would say they took the money and ran. i went to the courthouse today. and for the second time the judge, 2 different judges, laughed at the charges blamed the town for yet again another mistake dismissed the warrant and charges and wiped my record completely.

just take it down

################################################
From: amherstac@aol.com
To: xxxxx@student.umass.edu
Sent: Thu, Jun 9, 2011 10:06 am

Matt,

Chief Livingstone just confirmed that you paid $600 for the most recent noise violation and a previous nuisance house violation. So I'm going to bend the rules of journalism and delete your name but not Emerson E. Rutkowski, 36 Puritan Park, Swampscott, MA age 20 and Michael Upham 53 Sherwood Road, Swampscott, MA age 21.

I'm tempted to demand you write a letter of apology to your Amherst neighbors and the APD as well as remove the term "Zoomass" from your Facebook page, but then I would run the risk of being called a "bully".

Tell your friends that my friends in high places confirm that an arrest warrant will be issued in August if they do not make good on the fines. And until then, if anyone should Google their name and hometown…

Larry

Party House of the Weekend

186 College St. Amherst

The wild weekend continued over Saturday night into Sunday early morning as the Amherst Police Department responded to 186 College Street  for a report of a young female passed out due to alcohol consumption (ETOH).  Once there they found a bevy of dangerous problems all too typically associated with a Party House:

According to APD logs (12:20 AM early Sunday morning):  

ETOH 18-year-old female located stumbling around yard outside residence. A large crowd was attending a party inside first floor, where the female patient had originated from.  I made contact with RP (reporting party) who stated female was vomiting inside the house and had consumed too much alcohol.  Patient transported to Cooley Dickinson Hospital by AFD.  Large crowd of approximately 200 cleared from residence.  Two tenants issued TBL citation for Nuisance House.  Significant code violations observed while inside, including no smoke detectors, unsecurable front door and an unstable living room floor which was concaved by approximately 12"

Issued $300 ticket for Nuisance House:

David Shamula, 21 Fairway Lane, Ocean, NJ, age 20

Gregory Cantor, 27 Tri Street, Ashland. MA, age 19

Ownership record for 186 College St, Amherst  Stephan Gharabegian

Mr. Gharabegian's other holdings in town.  Yikes!

UPDATE  11:30 AM   Look who came to visit (middle vehicle with blue plate):  AFD

AFD back on the scene

The Daily Collegian Reports

A Ray of Hope

 Sunset Avenue:  A Street On The Brink

Six years ago in testimony before our Zoning Board on a hearing to allow a house to become a fraternity, neighbors described Phillips Street, the street contiguous with our number one employer UMass, as being at a "tipping point", with almost half the homes on the street owned by absentee landlords renting mostly to students.

Today eight-out-of-nine houses are non owner occupied, and Phillips Street is the slum capital of Amherst.

So I hate it when residents of nearby Lincoln Avenue and Sunset Avenue describe their bucolic residential neighborhood as being at a "tipping point," which indeed they are.  And I fear that they too will go the way of Phillips Street.

While enforcement of nuisance house bylaws is only one component of the "safe and healthy neighborhood" initiative, it is a vital one.  And I firmly believe it is making a difference.

But everyone needs to do their part.  As with the war on terror: if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

#####

Dear Resident of Sunset Avenue,

I graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in May 2012. While a student at UMass I lived at 164 Sunset Avenue during the fall of 2011. 

I am writing to you to apologize for my role in the public disruptions that came from my house last fall, and the ensuing problems they may have caused you and your family.

To give you some background, I moved into 164 Sunset Avenue because it was the most affordable off-campus living option I could find at the time ($350/month). As someone who financed their own education, I did not have many economically feasible options for off-campus housing. 

Moreover, as someone who did not own a car, the house’s location and its proximity to campus was appealing to me. Unfortunately, I only knew one resident in the house before I moved in, and I soon learned that it was a “party house.”

My decision to move into this house still pains me to this day. Most notably, because of the night I was arrested. On this night, I was in my bedroom in the basement watching a movie with a friend. Upstairs, my roommates had company (as they usually did) and were playing loud music.

While in my bedroom I heard a knock at the backdoor. This person turned out to be a police officer. He asked me if I lived in the house, to which I responded yes. He then requested that I step outside to speak to him. I obliged, not entirely sure of what was going on. Immediately, he arrested me for a noise violation.

After my arrest, I was so worried that I could again get in trouble for something my roommates did that I slept on a friend’s futon for the remainder of the semester, in order to avoid any possible future problems. When the fall semester I ended, I immediately found someone to sublet my room to, and I finished my senior year in a dorm on campus. 

I am writing to you over a year after the incident occurred because time passed has provided time for reflection. Despite not playing an active role in the partying that came from my house, I did not play an active role in stopping it. Perhaps if I did, I would not have been arrested, and you would have had a quieter street.

Moreover, as a resident of 164 Sunset I was equally responsible for what took place inside my house, and because of this I owe you and your family an apology.
 
I hope you accept this letter of apology on behalf of my roommates and I, and I wish you the best as Amherst Police continue their crackdown on rowdiness. As someone who lived on Sunset Avenue I know how difficult it can be.

Hopefully, my letter of apology offers some kind of solace or at the very least an empathetic perspective from a former UMass student.

Regards,

Former Resident of 164 Sunset Avenue

164 Sunset Avenue, in the shadow of UMass

 Follow me

Reteaching an old dog...

For my new feature "Party house of the weekend," I attend the press briefing at Amherst Police Station around 9:00 AM on Monday morning, which until now pretty much consisted of only one reporter, Scott Merzbach from the Daily Hampshire Gazette; convenient enough for me, as I drop off my 3-year-old at the Spring Street Preschool 100 yards away at 8:45 AM.

Thus I had the story of the $3,900 scam suffered by the greatest little pizza shop on the planet, Antonio's, at the same time as Mr. Merzbach.

And like a lot of things concerning Amherst, I have a bit of a personal connection. Out of all the business owners I have known and called friend over the past 30 years none were better than original founder Bruno Matarazzo, may he rest in peace.

And of course I can beat the Gazette by a few hours--even on a really bad day. But I also had what I was looking for: a "party house" with 500 "guests", three tenants arrested for bad behavior and ticketed for violating the newly-escalated-in-price Noise and Nuisance town bylaws to the tune of $1,800 total.

The overwhelming plus side of a blog is the speed of publishing, downside is you only have a Front Page. What's a news blogger to do?

I drove from the Police Station to the party house about a mile down the road for a quick photo. Antonio's would have been closer by half. The loss to Antonio's was $3,900--a hell of a lot for sure, but their markup has got to be at least 50% so it was really less than $2,000. Thus roughly the same economic impact as the $1,800 in fines handed out to three denizens of the party/nuisance house.

So I went with the party house story. The Gazette online went with both a few hours later and the next day's print edition carried a slightly more fleshed out article about the pizza rip off (with better placement than the party house article), including an interview with the owner.

The Daily Collegian had followed up quickly online (getting an important fact wrong), then the Springfield Republican, local TV stations and then the motherload: the AP National wire.

Even this morning my friends at the Springfield Republican published an editorial about the affair. As of now over 200 news outlets have picked up the story. Yikes!

So don't worry too much about Antonio's losing $3,900. This amount of press is priceless in an advertising sort of way.

And for me, I relearned an old lesson from my 'News Reporting and Writing' class almost exactly 25 years ago: "Dog bites man, not a story; man bite dog, now that's a story."

Only in Amherst would an out-of-control, alcohol-fueled party of 500 collage-aged kids packed in a one-bedroom house resulting in 3 arrests (one charged with possession of a stun gun) and $1,800 in fines be considered routine.

The battle for peace (and quiet)

Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone, a 30+ year veteran of the APD, went before the illustrious Select Board last night to present an updated intelligence report on the impact of various town bylaws now being used as a tool to suppress outrageous late night behavior fueled by alcohol and resulting in property damage, ugly debris, lost sleep for anxious neighbors and an emotional reason for boards and committees to reject desperately needed development of any kind.

Last year Amherst Town Meeting, at the request of the Campus Community Coalition, increased the fines for the 1st offense on noise, unlicensed kegs, open containers, and the ultimate weapon--nuisance house--to $300. And yes officers can double up on the citations (noise + nuisance house = $600 per responsible party) if the perps are truly outrageous.

Click photo to enlarge/read

The most notable impact of the bylaw fine increase is in the "open container" category, which has resulted in a 16% decrease in citations and a general feeling that incidents of outright public drinking are on the decline, also reflected by a 40% decrease in fines for unlicensed kegs.
But you would think in this day and age a rational person of age should not have to be told (or punished for) walking or driving around in public while consuming alcohol.

The other major categories--"noise" and "nuisance house"--have seen a distinct increase in citations issued over last year from when the fines were far lower.

But the Chief pointed out that it is not necessarily a dramatic increase in occurrences, but more that the town now has the tools to combat this unacceptable behavior via heavier fines, which at $300 are worth taking time to issue. Over $100,000 worth over the past six months.

General public "calls for service" on noise and party violations increased by 35%, but that too could be a result of publicity about the issue: reporting parties now know that something significant will actually get done in response to their call.

And the fines save police time because officers can write a ticket quickly whereas an arrest--the kind with handcuffs--can take an officer off the street for a "considerable" time (5 minutes vs. one hour). Thus officers can come into contact with more violators, deal with them in less time and be available to "handle more serious calls for service."
Yes, the fines are being paid. Chief Livingstone reports (to his surprise) that 50% of the tickets are paid almost immediately and so far 100% of the tickets appealed to the Clerk Magistrate have been upheld. Unpaid tickets eventually work their way through the system and will inevitably result in an arrest warrant--not the kind of thing you want hanging over your head for a lifetime.

As Sir Winston once said: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."





Chief Livingstone's full report

The Mass Daily Collegian reports (to the target audience)

Fall Back In Civility

 Saturday 11:50 PM APD and AFD @ 647 Main Street for large party and passed out drunk individual

For most of us the extra hour afforded by the demise of daylight savings time provided an opportunity for something too often short in supply:  sleep.  But for that tiny minority of college aged youth who tarnish the reputations of the overwhelming majority, it was an excuse to party even hardier.

Amherst police ricochet all over town trying to quell noisy parties -- especially during those "Bewitching Hours" just before and after midnight.  At peak times responses to calls for service were delayed by as much as an hour.

Yes Dispatch knows how to prioritize response in a life-or-death situation, shifting officers from a routine noise complaint to the more serious call.  But occasionally a deadly serious calls starts out routine, and the prompt presence of a police officer would prevent it from breaking bad.

Late Saturday into early Sunday was noticeably worse than late Friday into early Saturday, which alone was bad enough.   In all, police busted four large party houses with arrests but made numerous calls to other party houses all around town that resulted in warnings.

The party at 338 Pine Street only generated one arrest -- as the young ladies in charge were very cooperative -- but it was a doozy.  Jay Patel, age 20, was  -- to say the least -- uncooperative.  He was arrested around midnight for Assault and Battery on a police officer, Resisting Arrest, Disorder Conduct, and Minor in possession of alcohol.

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday morning a not guilty plea was entered in his behalf and his case was continued to December 18.  What a Merry Christmas his family is going to have.

219 E. Pleasant Street

219 E Pleasant Street, a usual suspect house, also only had one arrest for noise/nuisance and one summons for underage possession of alcohol, generating $600 in fines.  

The four residents of 96 Bridge Street were somewhat more cooperative even if the party was "large and loud," so they were only arrested for noise violations, generating $1,200 in fines.

320 North Pleasant Street

The 2-family house (legally holding 8 tenants) at 320 North Pleasant Street, owned by Joel Greenbaum, tied for most arrests at one location, six, with the house at 240 Northampton Road Friday night that also had six arrested.  Although according to assessor records only 4 tenants should be legally living there.

And since each of the houses went above and beyond the call for partying, all 12 perps were charged  for both Noise and Nuisance violations.  Although as is his routine Judge John Payne Jr. only enforced the $300 fine on the Noise complaint, thus forfeiting $3,600 in fine revenue.

But it's still a good thing for APD to use the Nuisance House bylaw as the Judge does find them "responsible" and files the charge, bringing with it a four month probation.  While that may not quite bring them to the end of the semester I'm sure the DA's office would take note if they repeat the same offense anytime over the next year.  

All of the students appeared contrite in Court, were all well dressed, and many had parents in tow.  In fact the attorney for the boys at 240 Northampton Road told the Judge his clients had been "read the riot act" by their parents and had written a letter of apology to APD.

Two of the Party Houses that generated arrests on Saturday night are owned by Joel Greenbaum so hopefully he will take note.  If not, on the third offense (per house) Mr. Greenbaum will be hit with a $300 fine.  

Party house of the weekend

Obviously the "Keep out" sign did not apply to Amherst Police. They were called to this house at 675 Main Street in response to a fight in progress late Saturday night. The fight was finished when they arrived, but a large party was still in progress (the two of course are connected.)

So they broke up the party without having to issue a 'nuisance house' ticket (meaning the party goers were cooperative about dispersing) but did cite the responsible leaseholder with violating the town by law requiring a keg permit.

Yes, in Amherst a permit is required to have a keg. Just another arrow in the quiver for keeping rowdy parties in check. This past semester only one was applied for and granted; counting this most recent incident, Amherst police have issued ten $300 tickets.

And is seems to be working, as APD has not issued a $300 'nuisance house ticket' for the past two weeks.

Meadow Street Marauders

121 Meadow Street. Directly across street from Townhouse Apartments 

While top ranked UMass and town officials and Northwestern District Attorney Dave Sullivan staked out the south side of campus Friday night intercepting throngs of students traveling by foot through residential neighbors to discuss civility, respect and politeness all while handing out raisin oatmeal cookies, the north end of campus became party central, culminating in a riot at 121 Meadow Street. According to police narrative (11:57 PM):

1000+ party guests were cleared out. While doing so, bottles were thrown at officers who had to retreat and don riot helmets for protection. It took approximately 45 minutes to clear the party out. All party guests were moved east bound down Meadow Street and toward North Pleasant Street. The resident of 121 Meadow Street was issued a TBL (town bylaw) Nuisance House violation.

Summons issued:
XXX
18 Pond Street Stoneham, MA
age 21

Issuing a $300 Nuisance House ticket sets the groundwork for holding the owner of the house responsible, because after the second offense the town can fine the landlord $300 for not controlling their irresponsible tenants.

Property card for 121 Meadow Street

The Tide Is Turning

No single issue has dominated the public discussion in our little college town over the past too many years like the problem of unruly off campus student behavior.

Yes, let me quickly interject that it's only a small minority that indulge in downright dangerous antics, tie up emergency services for preventable alcohol related calls and disturb the tranquility of neighborhoods all over town.

But when the majority of your population consists of "college aged youth,"  that small percentage adds up to significant number -- especially problematic considering our woefully understaffed Public Safety Departments.



Plus they all seem to want to get out of control around the same time:  Thursday night through early Sunday morning.

In response to problems emanating from student rentals the town, 40 years after it was first proposed, enacted a Rental Registration and Permit Bylaw.  As of today 100% of the rental property in town is registered and have a permit that can be revoked.

Neighbors now have easy access to contact information for those adults who are owners/managers of Party Houses and a simple mechanism to file complaints with the town should they not get satisfaction from them.

UMass, the Goliath that provides the vast majority of housing consumers, has also started taking things seriously after student bad behavior started receiving the continuous attention it deserved (kind of like the bad behavior of Bill Cosby should have been exposed many, many years ago).

For over four years now I have focused attention on the weekend circus with my "Party House of the Weekend" reports, naming names of both the arrested perpetrators of the mayhem and the landlords who own the property.

These days I get requests almost weekly to take down a post because a Google search brings it up and prospective employers are probably not overly impressed (although we all were young once I suppose).

March 8, 2014

The Blarney Blowout was also a major turning point as my spotlight on rowdy student behavior was amplified a thousand times over by national and international media coverage.

In spite of the $160,000 Davis Report suggesting overwhelmed police overreacted, the average citizen -- both taxpayers and students -- knows full well the alcohol fueled mayhem was a significant black mark for the University and its student body.

 But you can still buy UMass branded shot glasses at the Textbook Annex

And it has served as an unmistakable wake up call,  or some would argue an attention getting slap in the face.

So why do I, a grumpy old get-off-my-lawn cynic, think things are improving?

Last year between August 15 and November 15 Amherst police responded to 322 noise complaints, while issuing 91 Noise Violations and 33 Nuisance House violations.

This year between August 15 and November 15 Amherst police responded to 214 noise complaints, while issuing only 17 Noise Violations and 25 Nuisance House violations.

In other words total number of $300 tickets levied have dropped from 124 to 42 in just one year.  A stunningly significant decrease. 

Now that's worth partying over!

Party house of the weekend: Busted!

51 Pine Grove (stand alone condominium)

These bad boys are vying for "Party House of the Semester"! Four occupants, each arrested on charges of violating three bylaws: Unlawful noise, Nuisance House, Unlawful Possession of a Keg. Normally, had they simply been issued $300 tickets, a stinging $900 each ($3,600 total for the incident).

But, instead of the that lucrative option, the responding officers arrested all four charging each with 3 violations and one, Ted Bates Miller, with the additional charge of "resisting arrest". Which shows that the town crackdown on rowdy students is not about raising money--it is about changing their bad behavior.

According to Police narrative: "Ongoing problem with listed apartment, approximately 20-plus people cleared out, keg confiscated, four residents arrested."

Dashnilov Emeri Yoyo, age 22
Matthew Kubinski, age 21
Mark Chancy, age 27
Ted Bates Miller, age 21

About a month ago I almost gave them "party house of the weekend" award for the noise tickets issued, but they were trumped by a party house of five girls gone wild. This past weekend they tried a little harder; and will now pay the price.

Interestingly the condo at 51 Pine Grove is owned by Jonathan Goldin and according to the assessor it is "owner occupied." Apparently Mr. Goldin was not home the night of the party.