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Politics vs. Politeness
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'...The World This Week: Surrealistic Pillow
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...Between The Lines: No Time to Play Cute
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,...
Northampton BID: Cooked or Raw?
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...
The Once and Future Bing
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....
Quiet on the River
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...Letters: What Do You Think?
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...Letters: What Do You Think?
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,...Imperium Watch: 401(NotO)K
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...
The Right to Discovery
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...
Urban Penalty
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...The World this Week: Coulter Geist
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...Mandatory Minimums in Action
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...Between the Lines: From Big Dig to Gas Tax
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'...Shopping for Water
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...The Party's Over
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...
Noho BID Zoning Unpacked
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...Letters: What Do You Think?
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...Between the Lines: Selling (Out) the Grassroots
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...
Northampton: Bardsley on the BID
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...Imperium Watch: Help for People Helps the GDP
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...Letters: What Do You Think?
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...
Don't Drive for Frances Crowe
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...Letters: What Do You Think?
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...
Fire in the Rectory, Music in the Church
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...Between the Lines: Deval's Promise
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...ImperiumWatch: The Professor-in-Chief
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...Open Door Policies
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,...
On Springfield: Enemies to the End
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...The World This Week: Ecopsychology 101
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...An Uneasy Peace at the YWCA
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...CAC Retrofits Master Plan
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...
Tour: Saint Anne's Church in Turners Falls
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...
Bogged Down
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,...Between the Lines: Forgetting Its Roots
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...Letters: What Do You Think?
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...BID: Get Involved, If You Can
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...The World this Week: Guilty!
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...
Round Two for Question 2
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...Imperium Watch: Big Shovels
The table may tilt so that public money slides into the hands of private interests yet again as Massachusetts opens its purse to receive stimulus funds for "shovel-ready" projects.Whose shovel? This money may wind up in the hands of private developers whose...Patrick Slights Single-Payer Advocates
Not just a moral imperative, but an economic imperative; that's what President Barack Obama said about health care reform at the national summit on health care March 5. After that conference, the next step was to be a set of regional forums on health care in...A New (Election) Season for Springfield
Conventional wisdom holds that if someone's seriously considering a shot for elected office in Springfield, this is the time he or she needs to stop considering and start doing some real work. And so with Election Day still more than seven months away, the gossip...Letters: What Do You Think?
Art Scene "Burgeoning"A recent column [Art in Paradise, Feb. 26, 2009] and a somewhat uninformed and dismissive letter to the editor may have left the casual reader with the sense that the Northampton Arts Council (NAC) and the local art scene in general are...Northampton BID: A Question Lingers
Last Thursday evening's vote by the Northampton City Council to approve the creation of a Business Improvement District (BID) within downtown Northampton capped a three-month period that featured a protracted public hearing, ongoing media coverage and street...Imperium Watch: Banks, Soundproof No More
Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist U.S. senator from up the way in Vermont, has a refreshing way of talking turkey to and about the big banks. Sanders recently had a set-to with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke because Bernanke wouldn't tell Congress...Between the Lines: “Trivial” Adds Up
As Gov. Deval Patrick pursues what he undoubtedly views as a meaningful agenda—rebuilding the state's transportation infrastructure, restructuring the state's pension system, closing a $1 billion-plus state budget deficit—he's feeling pestered...Pitching to the Cradle
Midway through the new documentary film, Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, Michael Brody, a child psychiatrist from the University of Maryland, offers a startling comparison: in one important way, marketers who target children are akin to sexual...The World This Week: The Behinder We Got
It seems much longer ago than eight years that Dick Cheney was scolding his fellow Americans for demanding higher conservation standards and more alternative and sustainable energy sources. Conservation, the Vice President imperiously told us, was merely "a sign...
Northampton: Handcuffing the Jaywalkers
It's damn near impossible to drive through downtown Northampton without having to slow down for some delinquents who simply can't contain themselves within the limits of the sidewalks and clearly marked crossings. A hundred times a day, somewhere along Main...Drunken Donuts
Dear Will Kussell, President of Dunkin’ Donuts:It says here in this cease and desist order that I & Jake & Cpt Slow & Oola etc can not run our community business anymore. Well, I just want you to know we were only trying to help President Obama by...
Vermont Yankee: High Risk, Low Maintenance
A storm of public opinion against extending the operating license of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vt., near Brattleboro, is gathering, intensified by new revelations last week of poor maintenance practices on the part of the plant's owner.On...
Letters: Higgins' Hot Chocolate Run?
Tom Vannah expressed concerns that Mayor Clare Higgins' endorsement of the Safe Passage Hot Chocolate Run "smacks of shameless self-promotion by the mayor." He also suggested that the mayor, "who is listed on the race website as 'title...Mexico's Mirror
Thank you, Hillary Clinton! I don't exactly know where the Secretary of State expects to go with her analysis of the drug violence exploding in Mexico, but I appreciate her framing the issue. The violence in Mexico, Clinton said last week, is the result of high...
Chillin' at the Farm Share
Here comes spring, a manifest destiny of nature. If your manifest destiny is to eat local without growing an entire season of food in your yard, check out a farm share. In the Happy Valley are no less than 15 stewards of the land who offer access to their barns once a...Between the Lines: In the Name of Economic Development
If you want to know one of the reasons why some people in the Northampton area objected so strenuously to a proposal by a few local businesspeople to create a Business Improvement District in Northampton, you might start by reading Matt Taibbi's latest piece for...
Letters: Handcuffs in Paradise
On Friday, March 13th, approximately 50 people gathered in front of City Hall on Main Street in Northampton to protest the Business Improvement District [which the City Council approved two weeks ago]. The BID is a consumerism-based rather than community-based piece...
Anti-Nuke Protesters Arrested in Vermont
Four activists were arrested Monday in Brattleboro for holding signs during a speech by Vermont Governor Jim Douglas and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy about the federal economic stimulus program. The signs said, "Veto Nuclear Jim in Nov. 2010." Douglas is up...The World This Week: Cheever Country
If Dave Eggers hadn't already used the title, the story of John Cheever's life could have been called A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. This occurred to me while reading Blake Bailey's magnificent Cheever: A Life (Knopf), one of the most (yes)...Imperium Watch: Sweatshirts in Orbit
April 1: The Advocate has learned that, in an unprecedented federal, state and local partnership, the town of Amherst has been given the go-ahead to send its solid waste into orbit. On April 2, Amherst's coffee grounds, battered sneakers and greasy pizza boxes...E-Edition
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