Issues not Crystal Clear
It's a rare moment when Andrew Crystal, president of the Board of Trustees at the Academy of Music, enters the fray of local public record. And so it is, given his decision to do so, that I do the same.
While I agree with him that the fortunes of Mayor Clare Higgins were not dependent on the success of her initiative to have an Academy screening of the Inauguration, I find Mr. Crystal's opinion tainted by the fact that he and his board are beholden to whatever Higgins asks for. Academy fortunes are inextricably tied to her decision to provide over $100,000 per annum to pay for maintenance, utilities, insurance and other fixed overhead expenses on behalf of all Northampton taxpayers.
Further, to Crystal's point about "heating the Academy," Main Street Motion Media presented a free event for kids, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," during the holiday season. However, as opposed to Crystal's argument that the Academy is heated 24/7, our audience and all their children had to keep warm by snuggling with coats on. Our two animated films were watched in a 50-degree theater. Academy management had essentially shut down the heat to such a low level prior to our engagement that they were unable to ratchet up the heat enough to make our audience comfortable.
We at Main Street Motion Media provided the Academy with over $30,000 in rental revenue from 2007 through 2008. And still the Academy did not provide heat for us during our community event. Of course, ours wasn't the mayor's event. Still, we did pay them to provide heat. Furthermore, during the month of January there were no renters. As a matter of minimizing operating expenses the Academy does in fact turn down the heat as we all do when we're away from home. But that's not the point. Andrew Crystal makes a completely inaccurate statement when he says the Academy is heated 24/7. It isn't. Mark Roessler was correct when he wrote that cranking the heat was for our mayor's event. It was not provided for us. It was provided for her.
In terms of ticketing, Crystal claims that 100 tickets were given away to resident companies and other supporters. Main Street Motion Media is a resident company at the Academy, and provides more in rental income to the Academy than any other single arts presenter. We were not provided any offer of "tickets" to the inauguration event.
Mayor Higgins and Andrew Crystal were both very familiar with the Valley's new Community Arts Box Office, a non-profit organization we established to expand access to events at the Academy. Tickets are available by phone and online at Cabotix.com. Yet neither one contacted us to distribute "free" tickets, a service which we provide to anyone who has a free event. We are located just around the corner from the mayor's office and down the street from the Academy.
Instead, Crystal and Mayor Higgins limited ticket distribution to the mayor's office, the Chamber of Commerce and the Academy Box Office on the day of the inauguration. By definition, that predetermined who got in and who didn't. Their lack of sensitivity to the greater community was, to us, an insult. They cut off attendance from multicultural and underserved populations from areas beyond downtown Northampton, separating the haves from the have-nots. Ironically, they insulted the new expansionary world-view held by our new President.
So maybe Mayor Higgins didn't use the inauguration as her political pulpit, but she did little to mirror the future of our new democracy, the one Barack Obama forged that special day in Washington. But neither did Andrew Crystal. As chief steward of Academy futures, his handling of the inauguration is but the tip of the iceberg on who controls our beloved Opera House, and whether the Academy will be an example of our new country's embrace of all people, all political views, all the time.
I hope Mr. Crystal steps into the fray a little more often. Maybe that way we can understand what's really going on at the Academy of Music
Kathleen E. Kamping
Executive Artistic Director
Community Arts Box Office
Main Street Motion Media
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River Experts Gagged
The Valley Advocate has done a great job highlighting the complex issues behind the appeal of the Russell Biomass water withdrawal permit as described in your February 19, 2009 issue ["Quiet on the River]". Connecticut River Watershed Council's involvement in the Russell Biomass application started in the fall of 2005, and continues as one of the two parties to the appeal, along with a group of local residents.
As concerns for the withdrawal's effects on the Westfield grew, CRWC, the Massachusetts/Rhode Island Council of Trout Unlimited, Concerned Citizens of Russell, and local citizens came together. We have all devoted considerable time and resources advocating for a permit that is more protective of the Westfield. Unfortunately, as Stephanie Kraft notes, TU and Concerned Citizens of Russell were excluded as parties to the appeal on technical grounds. Additionally, the expert witness testimonies of Dr. Piotr Parasiewicz, TU and local residents were excluded. Other expert testimony, including CRWC's, was also partially stricken.
While Russell Biomass appears to have substantial public funding and loans available in their private venture, as a small, member-supported nonprofit, that is not CRWC's situation. Nonetheless, we have committed hundreds of hours of staff time to this appeal because this case has the potential to establish unwelcome precedents in water withdrawal permitting and because the Westfield River is so biologically special. Our goal continues to be that water permits incorporate critical baseline protections needed for the long-term health of all rivers in our watershed.
Chelsea Gwyther, Executive Director
Connecticut River Watershed Council
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Complacency in Paradise
Hooray for Mark Roessler! It's about damn time someone in this town pointed out that the emperor (Northampton) has had no clothes for some time. Roessler's "Politics vs. Politeness" (Feb. 19, 2009) and "Beware the Rat King" (March 20, 2008) are much-needed antidotes to the self-congratulatory drec that passes for politics in what should be rechristened the Get-over-yourself Valley.
Perhaps there was a time up to the late '80s when Northampton had a reason to call itself Noho, with its Manhattan pretensions; but that time is over and any such claims are sad delusions maintained by the Chamber of Commerce and the aging? entrepreneurs who long ago paved Paradise and put up another overpriced boutique.
The BID and anti-panhandling ordinance are not sacrilegious outrages which betray some bohemian core in Noho. They are the logical, even evolutionary progression of a town which went through gentrification in the 1980s, outright bourgeoisification in the 1990s, and now is an over-priced, bloated, dull little "Paradise" too self-satisfied to notice it long ago traded its storied rebel spirit for safety and the occasional tidy little cultural event. That's why we are now ruled, as Roessler points out, by cynical pols who treat us like children and build hotels but won't fully fund our schools.
Joe Gannon
Florence
