News
by Mary Serreze | Jan 29, 2009 | News
Last week, on a bitterly cold Northampton evening, a crowd of cashmere-, camel hair- and eiderdown-clad individuals filed into the brightly lit Puchalski Municipal Building tucked behind the spare and classical Unitarian church. The Johnson-era edifice provided snug...
by our readers | Jan 29, 2009 | News
"Clean" Energy Future?Tom Sturm's Jan. 15 article "Follow the Green Brick Road" misses the truth of the "clean energy future" being planned for us. The real plan is that most (at least 80 percent) of the new "clean"...
by Tom Vannah | Jan 29, 2009 | News
I started this column on a chairlift at Berkshire East, the ski resort in Charlemont. I finished it the old-fashioned way: in my office, pecking away on my old Dell computer.I wasn't writing on the chairlift to show my ability to multi-task, using technology to...
by Alan Bisbort | Jan 29, 2009 | News
So this is what leadership looks and feels like. It looks like a million people on the Washington Mall and not a single fistfight. And it feels like we can breathe again. The first taste of President Barack Obama hit Americans like a gourmet feast after George W....
by Stephanie Kraft | Jan 29, 2009 | News
There's something about the phrase "entitlement programs" that seems to belittle those programs even before discussions of their merits or liabilities begin. The phrase has acquired a ring that seems to leave out of account that programs like Social...
by Mark Roessler | Jan 29, 2009 | News
In 2010, the 23rd United States Census will be conducted, and hiring for this massive, two year-long effort is beginning now. Tim Goggins of the U.S. Census Bureau's office in Worcester stopped by the Advocate offices last week to promote this recruitment effort....
by Mark Roessler | Feb 3, 2009 | News
If a business or an average member of the public had wanted to open the doors of the Northampton Academy of Music for a free public screening of Obama's inauguration, it's unlikely they would have ever have gotten the idea beyond the pipe dream stage. It costs...
by Frank Dodge | Feb 3, 2009 | News
Dear Vice President Joseph Biden:It says here on the TV that you & the president have made a “team of rivals.” That is interesting b/c what you probly do not know is I (Frank Dodge) and my neighbor Jake are also a team of rivals, sort of.So I am...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 5, 2009 | News
In the spring and summer of 1999, it seemed that everyone in Holyoke was talking about one thing: the quarry on Mount Tom.Earlier that year, the owners of the defunct Mount Tom Ski Area had gone to the City Council requesting a permit to expand a traprock quarry on...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 5, 2009 | News
It was late December. It was a Springfield City Council meeting about the controversial plan to redevelop the former Longhill Garden apartments into affordable housing. It was Councilor Bud Williams, criticizing the Sarno administration for failing to "do its due...
by Alan Bisbort | Feb 5, 2009 | News
Last week, the Republicans rose up on their hind legs and stood, as one unanimous bloc, against affordable contraception for the nation's women. That's a sizeable group of potential voters for the GOP to permanently alienate, but far be it from me to offer any...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 5, 2009 | News
Almost a century ago we had the Lost Generation; now, early in the millennium, a morally indifferent oligarchy whose ascendancy has culminated in financial catastrophe has given us what might be called the Cheated Generation. (With the collapse of the economy, their...
by From Our Readers | Feb 5, 2009 | News
Barramundi Can't Eat LocallyBarramundi is not a true locavore option [see Locavore, Jan. 22, 2009]. No fish that is a predator can be sustainably raised unless you're growing its food as well. While barramundi certainly is a better choice than farm-raised...
by Tom Vannah | Feb 5, 2009 | News
A buddy of mine spends a couple of days in late January every year in Atlantic City. He goes for a convention, the Atlantic City Pool & Spa Show, but stays in a resort hotel and plays in the casinos. This year, he was shaken by what he saw. Attendance at the...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 10, 2009 | News
When I was originally hired by the Advocate Weekly chain as their "Web guy" in late 2005, my job was to revamp the online presence of their four print publications. One of my first initiatives was to help the newspaper editors start blogging on their sites....
by Sarah Gibbons | Feb 10, 2009 | News
The waiting area outside the Superior Court room at the Hampshire County Courthouse is lined with benches and backed by tall, curved, greenhouse-style windows. On January 15 at around 2 p.m., the windows were heavy with melting snow and ice, the room was bright and...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 10, 2009 | News
Standing on a street corner in downtown Northampton soon, there’s a good chance you’ll see one of two mythical, money-eating creatures.You’ll have to look closely to make a positive ID. Both will have their hands out, promising good things for only a...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 10, 2009 | News
Frustrated by a growing sense of disconnect between city government and the public, the Ad Hoc Committee on Best Practices in Northampton has spent the last year trying to determine how best to revive civic engagement in the city. To better understand the dynamic...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 12, 2009 | News
When American companies get bailouts, do Americans get the jobs?The Latin American Herald Tribune has just reported that General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in its operations in Brazil. The Tribune quotes Jaime Ardila, president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, as saying...
by Alan Bisbort | Feb 12, 2009 | News
Now that conservatism, neo-conservatism and Republicanism have proven to be miserable failures, a vacuum exists in the political and academic worlds. Right-wingers and left-wingers are shifting around for new ways to define themselves, and so-called moderates are...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 19, 2009 | News
Springfield's city libraries have been on a roller coaster ride in recent years, with dramatic lows (the shutting of three neighborhood branches by the Springfield Library and Museums Association in 2003) and thrilling highs (the citizens' movement that same...
by Mark Roessler | Feb 19, 2009 | News
During the last Northampton City Council meeting on Feb. 5, the chambers were packed with members of the public eager to weigh in on the proposed Northampton Business Improvement District (BID). As with the previous Council meeting, a majority of the councilors'...
by Alan Bisbort | Feb 19, 2009 | News
They held a birthday party for Abraham Lincoln at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford last week. The birthday boy showed up, in the person of the suitably tall and lanky Howard Wright, a West Hartford schoolteacher. Children squealed in delight at the sight of Honest...
by Tom Vannah | Feb 19, 2009 | News
Would President Obama have run into this much trouble appointing an entirely left-leaning cabinet?No doubt, the president would have come under mild criticism from Republicans if, rather than picking New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg as commerce secretary,...
by Mary Serreze | Feb 19, 2009 | News
Attorney and downtown property owner Alan Scheinman not only thinks that the proposed Northampton Business Improvement District (BID) is a bad idea, but believes that the Northampton BID petition does not meet the requirements of Chapter 40O, the state legislation...
by James Heflin | Feb 19, 2009 | News
Walking the aisle of Springfield's frigid old Bing Theater is, in some respects, like visiting the set of a '70s slasher pic. Even in the daytime, it's a dark cavern. Flashlight beams slice through air heavy with vapors; glass cracks under your boots....
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 19, 2009 | News
The state Department of Environmental Protection has thrown out testimony offered by a highly credentialed expert on rivers for a hearing on the Russell Biomass plant. The hearing focused on the water withdrawal permit the state has issued for the wood-fired...
by From Our Readers | Feb 19, 2009 | News
Vilsack Is From Big AgWith all due respect to the Western Mass Food Bank and their director Andrew Morehouse (Letters, Feb. 12, 2009), I beg to differ on January 20th being "an historic day for the future of food and anti-hunger programs" with Obama's...
by From Our Readers | Feb 19, 2009 | News
Keep SerrezeMary Serreze's article ["The BID-ding Opens," Jan. 29, 2009] was absolutely excellent, everything I want in a newspaper article. It had the facts, the background, the additional research, the opinions, the players. The writing was evenhanded,...
by Stephanie Kraft | Feb 24, 2009 | News
Besides causing many Americans trouble from day to day as they struggle to pay their mortgages and other bills, the financial crisis is aggravating a situation that was ominous before the bottom of the economy fell out last fall: the failure of many to tuck away...
by Sarah Gibbons | Feb 26, 2009 | News
On February 18, supporters of Jason Vassell packed a courtroom in Northampton for a pre-trial hearing in the case of the former UMass student accused of stabbing two men in February of last year after his nose was broken in a fight with them (see "The Eve of...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 26, 2009 | News
In January of 1989, Gov. Mike Dukakis was fresh off a failed presidential bid, but he wasn't ready to give up on all his campaign pledges. That year, in his State of the Commonwealth address, Dukakis reiterated an ambitious vow made on the campaign trail: to rid...
by Alan Bisbort | Feb 26, 2009 | News
No doubt the time will come when you are confronted with the opportunity to talk to a conservative celebrity. That is, someone other than the co-worker, blog troll or neighbor. Like, say, an Ann Coulter. Be forewarned. For the audacity of speaking to one of these...
by Maureen Turner | Feb 26, 2009 | News
On a June morning in 2004, 17-year-old Mitchell Lawrence rode his bicycle from his home in Otis to Great Barrington, where he met up with friends in a parking lot outside a movie theater. Lawrence, who would start his senior year in high school that fall, went to the...
by Tom Vannah | Feb 26, 2009 | News
I see Deval Patrick on TV, see those intelligent eyes burn with anger when he talks about the mess his predecessors left him.And maybe he's right. The dilapidated state of the commonwealth's infrastructure may be the result of prior administrations'...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 5, 2009 | News
The Massachusetts power deregulation law of the late 1990s, which allowed the building of so-called "merchant" power plants unrelated to the old regional utilities, is leading to the rise of small new power companies with their eyes on one of the...
by Alan Bisbort | Mar 5, 2009 | News
It's not coming back. The party's over. This isn't some temporary blip in the economy that a little belt-tightening will fix. One less latte and a smaller, "fuel-efficient" SUV will not this problem make go away. It would be nice to have all that...
by Mary Serezze | Mar 5, 2009 | News
In a story that appeared in the Feb. 19 edition of the Advocate ("Northampton BID—Cooked or Raw?"), this reporter examined whether Northampton city clerk Wendy Mazza had properly verified a petition, presented by a group of proponents headed by former...
by From Our Readers | Mar 5, 2009 | News
Issues not Crystal ClearIt'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...
by Tom Vannah | Mar 5, 2009 | News
Gov. Deval Patrick should be congratulated for his decision last week to get back to the grassroots brand of politics that saw him through a tough gubernatorial race two years ago. Responding to a bit of criticism sent, via email, from one of his constituents in...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 5, 2009 | News
The past three Northampton City Council meetings have been full of heated testimony both for and against the proposed Business Improvement District (BID). If passed, downtown property owners hope the BID might return downtown to the prosperity it saw a decade...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 5, 2009 | News
It's been proven over and over, but with the economy in crisis and stimulus packages the order of the day, it needs to be repeated: tax breaks for wealthy people just don't feed as much into the economy as tax breaks or other economic assistance for people...
by From Our Readers | Mar 5, 2009 | News
Academy Story a StretchI write to correct three significant errors in the article "Politics in the People's Academy" [Jan. 29, 2009] by Mark Roessler about the live screening of the presidential inauguration at the Academy of Music. First, the article...
by Tom Vannah | Mar 12, 2009 | News
The Valley's most famous living peace activist is having a birthday. It should come as no surprise that Frances Crowe, known for her opposition to war through war tax resistance and eco-pacifism, isn't hoping for the standard cake-and-presents birthday...
by From Our Readers | Mar 12, 2009 | News
Downtown JoeIt is surprising that only now James Heflin notices that Noho is not an "underground bohemia" anymore ["The Other Awards Show," Feb. 26, 2009]. Rather it has been for years an elite yuppie enclave of million-dollar homes, $1,200...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 12, 2009 | News
Nothing like your new home catching fire to determine who your friends are and clarify priorities.Dr. Jordan Quinn had moved into the one-time rectory next to the former Saint Anne's Church in Turners Falls with her husband, John Anctil, and her children. She is a...
by Tom Vannah | Mar 12, 2009 | News
When he campaigned for governor, Deval Patrick approached the subject of taxation with apparent intelligence and courage. Since coming to office in 2007, however, the governor has wandered far from his campaign promise to provide property tax relief by restoring local...
by Stephanie Kraft | Mar 12, 2009 | News
President Barack Obama's bailout package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, includes help for students to get into college and stay there even in an economy in which many of their parents are losing their jobs.At the same time, his new budget would end...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 12, 2009 | News
Caroline Murray has been losing a lot of sleep since Barack Obama became president. It's not that she's unhappy about Obama's election—rather, she says, she's overwhelmed by the possibilities it's opened up, to create real, lasting,...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 12, 2009 | News
The relationship between Springfield's Finance Control Board and its city employee labor unions has been sour from the beginning—or, more precisely, before the beginning.Early in 2004, the city—struggling with the financial disaster left by Mayor Mike...
by Alan Bisbort | Mar 14, 2009 | News
On the edge of my town sits a gas station that was forced to close last year because of a leak in one of its underground tanks. Soon after this event occurred, yellow crime-scene tape was ominously swaddled around the block. Since then, a chain link fence has replaced...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 14, 2009 | News
Late last week, after many contentious months at the bargaining table, a tentative contract agreement was reached between the YWCA of Western Mass. and employees represented by UAW Local 2322. But that doesn't mean the battle is over.The union members—who...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 16, 2009 | News
Northampton's Citizen's Advisory Committee (CAC), the group charged with overseeing development on the site of the former Northampton State Hospital, met on Wednesday, March 4 to tie up a loose end.Last fall, the committee debated the merits of a revised site...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 17, 2009 | News
The former Saint Anne's church and rectory in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, is currently under development to become a combination music venue, pub and bistro. Below are links to a 5-panorama tour of the former church. Each panorama permits visitors to look in...
by Mike Kirby | Mar 17, 2009 | News
It was September 20, 2007. On the agenda of the Northampton City Council was a revision of the city's regulations on wetland protection. The mayor, Mary Clare Higgins, sat at her desk in front of the City Hall chambers holding a copy of the ordinance as amended,...
by Tom Vannah | Mar 17, 2009 | News
Last Friday, about 60 protesters took to the streets of Northampton to decry a proposed Business Improvement District in that city's downtown. Brandishing signs and playing music, protestors railed against what they view as an overly restrictive, publicly...
by Our Readers | Mar 17, 2009 | News
Art in Paradise, Yes!Iapplaud James Heflin's new column, Art in Paradise, and heartily encourage its continuation. The role that art plays in expressing and celebrating the depth of human experience has been denied too long. Funding cuts have...
by Mark Roessler | Mar 17, 2009 | News
On March 9, a "Local Mayors Speak" podcast on WHMP promoted itself as containing "strong words" from Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins "for those who oppose the Business Improvement District." The BID, as it's called, is one City...
by Alan Bisbort | Mar 17, 2009 | News
The thing most striking to me about the Bernard Madoff case was how quickly he confessed guilt for his $65 billion scam. From the moment he was caught, Madoff admitted he was running a Ponzi scheme; he almost seemed relieved to be free of it, and yet perversely proud...
by Maureen Turner | Mar 17, 2009 | News
Drug law reform advocates scored a decisive victory last November when voters approved, by a 65 to 35 margin, Question 2, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. Under the new law, which went into effect in January, possession of one ounce or...
