WATCH VIDEO COVERAGE OF Northampton's Smith College taking down a neighborhood in Northampton

Commencing in 2007, Smith College began preparations to construct Ford Hall, a new $65 million Science and Engineering building for women. Located on Belmont Avenue in the Green Street neighborhood of Northampton, Mass., Smith first had to remove four residential homes that comprised naturally occurring affordable rental housing. Below are some video clips of that activity provided me by a neighbor that I’ve made available through YouTube. Recently I received an email opining that I should drop coverage of this issue. The writer explained that the decision to remove Green Street proper eventually and the homes presently in order to construct the Science building has been made, and that I should move on to other matters. Easy for one to write who doesn’t live in the impacted neighborhood. While I don’t live in the vicinity either, I do sympathize with the living conditions those residents must endure for the next two years or so. The mainstream media will likely not cover very much of the actual building process and how that is impacting negatively the living conditions of neighbors. In the end the media will include a story or two about the ribbon-cutting as the project concludes, but I promise you, the smiling faces mugging for the cameras then will not include very many faces of people who are residing there today. The residents I’ve spoken with are living with a significant peace of mind impairment due to noise and dust, as well as the loss of their neighborhood. I think their story deserves to be shared, if only modestly on this web log. I hope you agree. * *