Stop The Retreat: A movement in the weeds
So for the Anons who questioned the combative headline in my first ever guest post (probably my last) in the war over "The Retreat" -- high end housing for college students, our #1 demographic -- I offer the following sad Facebook exchange:
Hey, if the national media can cite Facebook as attribution for an alleged 11-year-old's taunting of President Obama over the supposedly imminent attack on Syria, I don't feel bad using Facebook here.
The Amherst Bulletin, obviously still clinging to its long retired role as supreme gatekeeper, allowed NIMBY opponent Jack Hirsch two columns attacking "The Retreat", the second one where he took on Mr. Grabbe by name.
When Mr. Grabbe asked editor Larry Parnass for the right to respond he was turned down because the editor-in-chief wanted to give Mr. Hirsch "the last word."
(outnumbered) Nick Grabbe invoking 1st Amendment rights at 7/29 Select Board meeting
Okay, fair enough (not really) I suppose -- except in this week's Bulletin they publish another attack on "The Retreat" and again Mr. Grabbe is mentioned by name, with an almost snarky like quality you expect to find on a blog rather than staid old fashioned print newspaper.
Yes as President Truman once observed the public arena can be an uncomfortably warm kitchen, but in Amherst it's more like one-room commercial pizza joint on a hot, humid late-August afternoon.
Amherst: where even the h is silent. And now you know why.
12 comments:
I was really happy to see Nick's byline and to read that post here this week, Larry. Thank you for featuring it. I'm not 100% in agreement with either side, so I found Nick's contribution informative and welcome. The overkill in this week's Bulletin did jump out as noticeable to me, although it was not unusual.
Delighted that we have a clever, feisty, round-the-clock, and counterbalancing alternative with OI(TRO)A !
LK seems to relish the opportunity to point out offensive behaviors of those with whom he disagrees
He seems to conclude that his own ridiculing and name calling is thus justifiable
Is that what Martial Arts is all about?
Oh and I supposed any journalist rag is fair? Let's see, the NY Times kisses Obama's ass, wipes it to. Anything Murdoch condemns him.And every other publication has their bias. Somewhere we remember journalism being Walter Cronkite and the rest of the old-school guys who learned the five "W"s and never expressed their opinion just the news. But we forgot he died and so did journalism. Amherst, a bias, one-sided town for the get-go is no different.
Amherst Bulletin can be as biased as they wish, I just wish they would stop filling my mailbox with their lies. What part of "no" do those folks not understand?
Oh, the irony ... Welcome to how dissident conservatives (religious and political) are regularly treated
in the Happy Valley, Nick.
Mr. Grabbe was the only one with the stones to make the argument, which is probably the view of the Silent Majority in Amherst.
But who needs the abuse?
So it's entirely understandable that he's had enough.
Not playing any victim cards, just stating the facts (in light of Nick's complaint).
And I give Nick G. extra credit for putting his name and face on his opinions (and not hiding behind the boring Anonymous handle.
The Retreat is going to get built - and the UM student body is going to decline over the next few years -- demographic and economic conditions even beyond just the fact that UMass sucks is getting known to young people.
Hence folks like the policeman's mother are going to be having problems -- why would UM kids want to be there when they could be having more fun at the Retreat?
And when this is all on borrowed money anyway -- when you are accumulating mindboggling student loan debt that you don't intend to repay anyway -- and I don't think these kids do -- then why not just borrow a bit more and be at the Retreat?
And I wonder how much of that is behind this battle over the retreat?
"abuse"
What abuse?
Does it take "stones" to misrepresent the facts?
The only facts that are being misrepresented are by Cushman residents who think they are immune to conditions which are besetting the rest of the town. This only became an issue for them when it directly affected them. The Retreat would benefit the town. That is a fact, the fact. The vitriol Cushnan residents are spewing is reprehensible. Don't see it coming from the other side.
Poor, poor Cushman residents -- long having access to undeveloped land that they didn't own, neither having to buy nor pay taxes on it.
@ Anonymous on September 2, 2013 at 9:50 AM, yes these students do accumulate student loans and they would do it to live at the Retreat if it got built soon. However, the college bubble will burst and the student population will decline and you'll see more students getting their degrees online. I think eventually the UMass college bubble will burst too while building on our dime.
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