Kirby on the Loose

Saved by the Bell

2015-05-03T11:10:00.001-04:00

I had my hand up for a while at the meeting about the Recreation Dept. move at the senior center, but lots of other people had their hand up too, and after awhile I gave up. Every one was piling on the Mayor and I began to feel sorry for the guy. I was wondering if he had second thoughts about starting that battle with Smith Vocational two years ago. To read the full article, click here

WARNING WARNING WARNING

This is will be my last posting on www. kirbyontheloose.blogspot.com, from now on, our headquarters will be at www.kirbyontheloose.com A redirection gizmo will be in place shortly. If you want to continue to be notified of our postings, you have to designate that on the new website.

And the track record of Opal in Springfield is not great,either.

2015-04-28T19:45:00.001-04:00

Four years have passed since Opal Real Estate was designated the preferred developer for the Court Square Development. The main six story building is right across from city hall and the courthouse. The Court Square Hotel was once the center of Springfield’s civic life, the place where distinguished visitors stayed when they came to town. The buildings in Court Square are owned by the Springfield Redevelopment Authority. The buildings still looks good from the outside, but inside the plaster is falling and there is substantial damage from water leaks. The Springfield Redevelopment Authority have given Peter Picknelly and Demetrios Panteleakis many extensions of time to get their plans and financing together. The plan was to convert it to office space, but it never gained traction in the face of a surplus in downtown office space . Read the full article by clicking here.

I'm glad I don't write for money

2015-04-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

or work for the city here. It's a brutal business. When a major developer cracks the whip, people have to jump, and writers have to write what the boss tells them to write. After his posting on Masslive on Monday, Fred Contrada of the Republican had to write a retraction, the building inspector is incommunicado, and a million questions will remain unanswered until the new development group meets with the community. If there is confusion in the community about whether Opal or Historic Round Hill LLC is running this project, it's a problem that Peter Picknelly and Demetrios Pantelakis created. The papers filed with the Massachusetts Secretary of State don't lie. Picknelly exited the development group on July 8, 2013 shortly after the corporation got bank financing. He never told anybody in Northampton that he had spun off the development to Pantelakis and James Hebert. Pantelakis was running the project all last year, and the freezing of the pipes occurred on his watch. He never had any experience with managing a big project.

I believe Louis Hasbrouck did tell Fred Contrada that the project was dead, but then the Mayor probably called him and told him to shut up. Louis hadn't seen any progress since last summer. This spring, Pantelakis resigns or is fired. Why, we'll never know. I'm not going to go find him, although I think I know where he is and what he is doing. So nothing happened at all with the project until Fred and I start asking questions and making calls. Calls are not returned, Public embarassment looms for the Mayor and Picknelly. Picknelly gets his ducks in order, gets architects and builders lined up, and an interview scheduled with the Gazette. A new beginning, and no one asks any awkward questions. To go to the Opal story, click here.

Opal and Picknelly drop the ball

2015-04-15T11:54:00.002-04:00

The signs are down, the buildings are empty. By now, the renovation of the historic complex of buildings that Clarke School sold to Peter Picknelly and his development group, Opal Real Estate, should be almost complete. Neighbors and the city were told the renovated high-end apartments overlooking the valley would be ready for occupation by the winter of 2014, then it was the spring of 2015, then neighbors were told that it would ready in the summer of 2015. But there have never been architectural drawings and no signs up boasting of their bank financing and showing what the area would look like. The focus of the project kept shifting and last spring they were talking about adding more residential units and less commercial space. The last the building inspector's office heard from the developer was last spring, when they applied for a demolition permit to clear out the buildings to the bare walls. The trucks came roaring up the hill, and by the early summer that work was done, and they left. And now almost a year later nothing is happening. Click and read the full story here

Kirbyontheloose is moving!

2015-04-05T16:37:00.000-04:00

Under assault by unseen unknown Spamatory forces, Kirbyontheloose is folding its tents and moving into new fortified quarters. It will take us awhile to get organized, but until then check in at the following Web address. Check out this latest bulletin on art and rust

Community Preservation Mathematics: 2.05 million in applications, only $170,000 is left in the kitty?

2015-03-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I’m back from California, and I am not happy. I opened the Gazette the other day and I see this front-page article with an artist’s rendition of a new Pulaski Park. The mayor plans to finance it with a $1.7 million Community Preservation Act grant, even though there is only $170,000 left in in the CPA fund. Read all about it here

The Upper Roberts Meadow Dam Removal: It’s a scam. FBI take note!

2015-02-12T21:50:00.000-05:00

The snow day we had on February 9 temporarily put a hold on the DPW’s longstanding efforts to knock down the Upper Roberts Meadow Dam. On that day Department of Public works officials and GZAGeoEnvironmental, the consultants guiding the DPW’s efforts, were due to meet with the Historical Commission to try to approve some kind of memorandum of agreement. They'll be back. The dam was built in 1883 and is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, so various rings need to be jumped through in order to meet state environmental review requirements. The DPW wants to knock down the dam. According to Mary Sereze’s article in the Union, GZA is proposing to meet its burden to the state historical commission by erecting some historical signage, put in a pedestrian path, and maybe reuse some of the granite blocks for the Pulaski Park redesign. This deal is similar to the figleaf that MassDevelopment offered us after demolishing the state hospital. Then it was preserving the fountain, which I think has yet to be built. The community loses a valuable resource for flood and fire control, and they get a sign. Read the full article here

Smart-Mob” attacks Gazette poll, AFSC strategy paralyzes Northampton City Hall

2015-01-21T15:13:00.001-05:00

To read the full article, click here

2015-01-14T20:08:00.002-05:00

Our readers have raised questions on to why the the Valley CDC’s “Lumberyard” affordable project on Pleasant Street is so expensive, and whether it is a good use of Community Preservation Act (CPA) money. According to Gregory Rosenthal ,writing in the Wharton Real Estate Review, other communities across the United States are also having “sticker shock” on the costs of building new low and moderate income housing. He cites the case of a Public Housing project in Philadelphia where the local housing authority proposed building a 161 unit project and the price tag was $70 million, or $434,000 a unit. Comparable units on the private market were going for $350,000. Read the full article by clicking here

Time for City Hall to Speak Up

2015-01-08T16:11:00.001-05:00

So Alisa Klein read her controversial speech before the demonstration on the steps of city hall. I never have had much luck with reading a speech; it isolates you from the audience. In the audience were quite a few Northampton police trying to keep order under difficult circumstances. Human beings. Did she think about their feelings when they were getting shouted at because of Ferguson? “F__k the police” the demonstrators were supposedly shouting.

Andy Trushaw has been dumped on unmercifully for a very mild letter admonishing Ms. Klein. Andy is an exemplary officer, recently retired, and certainly no racist. Right now I don’t hear the Mayor saying anything to defend his people. I called him up this morning and he had no comment. I don’t hear the Chief saying anything to defend his people, although my hearing aid is not working too well right now.

The City Council sits there and applauds officers when they get citations, but they seem to be on another planet. There is a class chasm. Our elected representatives are dominated by lawyers, consultants and businesspeople who never have had experience doing the kind of dirty dangerous work that police have to do. When is the last time a Northampton police officer used his weapon? I remember one case involving a home invasion with a weapon when the whole shift worked to deal with the situation without a shot being fired. The great majority are good people. People who were at the top of their classes at the Academy. So I fault the city for its spinelessness in not standing up for its people, I fault the American Friends Service Committee and the other sponsors for not exerting discipline on the demonstrators. Whatever happened to disciplined quiet non-violence? I fault Councilor Alisa Klein for not thinking about the impact of her words on the feelings of our local police. Anyone who ever had to wear a uniform (and I have) knows that it stereotypes you. You become invisible. There are human beings inside those uniforms. In her rush to condemn this wicked world, she did damage to her home town and the people who work hard to make it a better place. Some of them may vote with their feet and go elsewhere.

Revised Plans Presented for Valley CDC Affordable Housing

2015-01-01T11:40:00.001-05:00

The Valley Community Development Council’s architect, Cliff Baehmer, took a beating at a previous public meeting about his design for a mixed use building at the corner of Holyoke Street and Pleasant Street at the former site of Northampton Lumber. Local architects and aesthetes and abutters went at the building’s deficiencies with great gusto. The temperature was a lot warmer on Monday night when he presented his revised plans at a public meeting held at the headquarters of Hampshire Educational Collaborative on Hawley Street. They are asking for $300,000 from Community Preservation Act funding. To read the full article, click on this.

Tom Vannah leaves the Advocate

2014-12-29T17:48:00.003-05:00

There was no announcement of the change at the weekly's December 25-31th issue , which has gone through a number of ownership changes over the years. Different names on the masthead now. For many years now, the Advocate has been Tom Vannah, assisted by Stephanie Kraft and a few other reporters and designers. Stephanie retired a couple months ago. Now Tom has left the paper after a twenty year run. This was confirmed by Jeffrey Good, who is the Executive Editor of the Pioneer Valley branch of New England Newspapers. These papers include the Gazette, the Valley Advocate, The Amherst Register, and the Greenfield Reporter. He said that it was Tom's decision to leave after "many years of managing the bureaucratic aspects of putting out a weekly paper." Good said that he wanted to chase his dream and "go back to his roots." Which he said was being a reporter. "He liked nothing better than grabbing a notebook, and going out of the office and writing a story. He decided that this was the time "to grab his dream."

Another local reporter, who refused to be quoted, said that the decision to leave was a mutual one: management was unhappy, Tom was unhappy. I have not been able to reach him for comment. I remember a little of the eighties when the Advocate was more of an alternative hippy-type publication, working out of an old mill building in Hatfield. It was an idyllic setting, on top of a waterfall. And Tom loved to rattle cages on the local scene, going after people like David Starr, the acerbic publisher of the Springfield Union. And Tom when he first came to the Advocate was supportive to this guy Kirby who had his dreams of being an investigative reporter. I think he used one of my pieces, but maybe editing Kirby was more like heavy lifting. But then somewhere along the way the Advocate was sold to the big guys, moving first to Easthampton and the Eastworks building, and finally to a small suite of offices in the back of the Gazette's headquarter's building on Conz Street. It is now part of the New England Newspapers chain, headquartered in Concord New Hampshire. Tom, give me a call!! I liked this bit about Tom.

Death in the Swamp

2014-12-22T17:21:00.000-05:00

And the Heroin Epidemic

This is a cold dismal wet noisy patch of forest to die in. Just south of the bowling alley in a patch of forest between Route 91 and the dike. James Musante was 24 years old. I think he was a distant relative of the former Mayor. He was homeless, living in a tent, and probably died of an overdose on December 4^th. What drug actually killed Musante we’ll probably never know. Confidentiality laws mean that toxicology reports only go to the police and the family. At the time Musante’s body was discovered, there was a warrant out for his arrest stemming from a probation violation. I felt for the guy because he was carrying the Musante name. In the Northampton/Amherst area, the Musantes still wield a good deal of political power and are prominent in business circles. It’s hard to be the Musante who never got his GED, the Musante who is working at a restaurant, the Musante who is reduced to living in a tent with winter coming on. Maybe the kid should have got out of town or changed his name to Smith or Jones. Read the full article by clicking here.

Happy Birthday

2014-12-16T12:14:00.001-05:00

In happier days

My MacBook Pro sat on the surgeon's desk at Apple's Holyoke store. It looked like the same friendly little machine that I have grown dependent on over the years, but it was a whole new animal. On my birthday I gave in to warnings that my system was becoming obsolete, and downloaded a new operating system from Apple called OS X Yosemite, and since then nothing has been the same. My old version of Word didn't work with Yosemite, so I had to spend $124 for a new version of Office. Kirby On The Loose couldn't get on the web. I had to make a number of tech support calls, there were passwords that didn't work any more, and now there are four years of missing photos in my IPhoto system. Gone,gone, pfft. At one point I got so angry, I took it out on the screensaver. I trashed a lovely picture of Yosemite and substituted a starry sky. I know that most of my audience out there are PC people, and I want to let you know that I will no longer feel superior to you guys just because I have an expensive laptop with a groovy light-up logo on the back side of my laptop. I have been humbled. I sense that with Steve Jobs dead, their diabolically clear commitment to clarity and simplicity in their software has gone by the boards. Old Mac people like me who use their computer mainly for writing and surfing the Web should wait awhile for Apple to get the bugs out of Yosemite, and be prepared for some work adjusting to this brave new world.

Leave the Farmers Alone!

2014-12-05T14:45:00.001-05:00

They have it rough enough. When I'm still in bed, they are out there working in cold weather, rain, whatever. Raising potatoes and onions is not for sissies. I took these pictures a couple weeks ago at one of my favorite places in Northampton, out in the Meadows near the Connecticut. God’s country.

In America everything has the potential of turning into a racket. All it takes is some sharp thinking, some consultation with a sharp lawyer, and foggy-minded politicians and you are all set to put the screws to people.

Now we have the Storm Water Enterprise Fund which is both a worthy cause and a racket. It’s a worthy cause to overhaul our storm water system; it’s a racket to make people pay for the system who derive no benefits from it. Click here to read the full article

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

2014-11-26T11:15:00.001-05:00

Although it looks more like Christmas outside.

in Bed with the Consultants

2014-11-21T11:57:00.001-05:00

I guess there are nice consultants. Consultants who aren’t out to hustle you, Consultants that tell the truth. But cross off the list of trustable people Ann Burke and Attorney Jerome Fialky of the Western Massachusetts Development Council. These two people did a great deal to help the Northampton BID get organized, but killed it by their hardball tactics. And Clare Higgins and her economic development person, Teri Anderson and the city solicitor went along with them. And now we have bodies twisting in the wind. Joan Sarafin and Wendy Mazza, two of the nicest hard-working people at city hall. No one is looking at the role that the people up on the second floor on city hall in 2009 played in this business. Assessor Joan Sarafin told me that there were one and maybe two meetings with the Mayor and Teri Anderson before she signed the certificate. She said that Clare and Teri were all for it, and instructed her that the petition could be approved if there were a signature for each parcel.

And Wendy? On the day she signed off on the BID’s petition that the consultants had prepared, Dan Yacuzzo, Anne Burke, and the BID’s lawyer, Jerome Fialky were in the room with her. Where was the Mayor, where was the city solicitor? Where was someone, anyone who was not an advocate and had knowledge of the law?

Read Part Three of the BID chronicles by clicking here

Read the complete decision on BID here

2014-11-12T23:02:00.001-05:00

This judicial decision was a scorcher. When a judge uses words like "desperate" to describe the defendant's arguments, it is indicative that he finds the city's case extremely weak. I will have more to say tomorrow. To read the full decision, click here.

Space Age Medicine

2014-11-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

He sat there at the keyboard of his laptop, peering at the screen. He was not a happy camper. Our ten minutes together was over, and it had been a lot of fun while it lasted. A small joke, the ticker was okay, blood pressure normal, normal sounding arteries, medicine that seemed to be working okay. I was putting my shoes on, and he was at the keyboard of the computer the health service had given him, summarizing and documenting, tapping away at the keys, sending to Alabama or somewhere on Mars a form to get me a 90 supply of medicine.

“Nice the way they make it so you don’t need an assistant any more.” I said. “Doing all the work yourself.”

“You noticed that huh?” he said. “Here I am, just like everyone else in the world, staring at the goddamn screen, filling in blanks. Data, data, data.”

“Huh?”

He was filling in a new form that I was to take home with me. It would show me all the medicine I was taking.

“It’s all they talk about these days in medicine. It’s all these young doctors think about, is getting the data. And who are we getting all this data for? The damn insurance companies.”

He paused and swung around and fixed me with an eagle eye.

“ I mean, what about you, what about Mike Kirby, what about the patient? What about having enough time to talk? What about the chemistry between us, about asking the right questions, sensing moods, having the time and leisure to probe into what happens to be going on? What about that? Is it all going by the board?”

He laughed. Questions like that need no answers.

But my health system has speed and accuracy, you have to say that. No sooner had I put myself together and was walking down the corridor, the phlebotomist spotted me coming.

“Michael Kirby?” she says,

“You reading tea leaves again?” I said.

“Step into our closet. I’m psychic.” she said, “On continual alert. Sit right down.”

She must have done this six kajillion times. The needle goes in without a twinge. Tomorrow morning, the phone will ring and I’ll know my creatine levels are okay or not. And life will go on.

Crack is Back

2014-11-04T09:34:00.003-05:00

(This article was written in March of 2007, and I've added to it since then. I'm working on a special issue of KOTL on heroin in Northampton, and it'll be a couple of weeks before it is ready. I was sitting in Pulaski Park the other night and there was a lot of suspicious activity there. The substance may change, but the industry is as healthy as ever)

“What’s it like?” I asked. “ Nice,” she said, making a little airplane of her hand and flying it around her, gaining altitude and heading up into heaven. “All your troubles, all your cares, all the things that are bringing you down? Poof, all gone. Bye, bye misery.”

I watched her hand as it banked and lifted. There was a little nostalgia in her voice, even though she says she has been clean for many years. Anyone who has fought the gremlins of depression and self-hate can relate to that little plane. Anyone who has been on the street. But the problems in taking that ride are legion. A short fifteen or twenty minutes in heaven, and then you’re back here on earth. There are no physical withdrawal symptoms as such from crack cocaine. Alcoholics can go to rehabs, but there is no protocol for a withdrawal program from crack cocaine. To read the full article, click on this.

The Case for a City Manager in Northampton

2014-10-31T09:20:00.001-04:00

Breit Wegner*

It's worthwhile to consider this alternative form of government at each charter review. I heard they did but rejected it. It would be interesting to know why. The Charter Review Committee should consider appointing a city manager. Our city now has a budget approaching $100M with over a dozen important departments covering multiple areas that are becoming increasing complex. The administration of this organization could be better served by a City Manager who is trained in municipal management and has the required skill set and proven abilities. Note that historically city managers were usually engineers since many large city issues involve technical details. Think expanded land fill, Three County Fair Ground expansion, problems of deferred maintenance. They also have flexibility with numbers and mathematics. I’ve mentioned this issue to friends and have received numerous replies such as:

· A city manager only works in small towns. Answer: Worcester, Lowell, Cambridge and Phoenix have Council-Manager governments.

· A city manager only works in big towns. Answer: 23 cities and towns in Massachusetts with population (in 2000) below 30,000 have Council-Manager governments.

· Indeed as of 2010 the 7249 cities and towns with populations over 2500 have 49% Council-Managers versus 44% for Mayor-Council structures.

· A city manager is expensive. Answer: Yes, but their abilities can make savings that more than make up for the added expense.

· You can vote a Mayor out-of-office. Answer: A city manager’s contract can be terminated within two weeks rather than waiting for another mayoral election.

· There is a larger pool of available city managers to choose from versus mayoral candidates allowing for a better choice.

· City managers come with a documented and verifiable managerial skill set and job history.

· City managers would be politically independent.

For answers to other technical questions contact Jared Dailey at International City/County Management Association in DC. On a state and local level contact the Massachusetts Municipal Management Association which would also provide information and guidance.

*KOTL is on the outlook for guest editorials and articles. You can expect between 350 and 900 readers. Writing under a pen name is fine, under most circumstances.

Seen about Town

2014-10-26T19:23:00.000-04:00

Smith College Fixing up the Lyman Mansion

If you think the old Lyman Mansion has been looking good lately, it is because painters are working both inside and outside the building, which has stood vacant for many years. According to reliable sources (two painters), the mansion is being readied for sale. Maybe the place isn't going to be demolished after all. For more background, check out an old article I did on the pending disposition of the buildings and the property.

A Painted Lady courtesy our (their) Community Preservation Act funding

Fixing up these apartments on South Street is wonderful, but this paint job? Affordable housing has never been glitzier or more expensive to taxpayers than in Northampton, where CPA money just flies out the window.

And the Winner of the Battle of the Algorithms is:

2014-10-16T12:21:00.000-04:00

In the middle giving out awards to their storm water committee is Suzanne Beck, executive director of the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce. This is a high-powered group with a lot of technical, legal and lobbying skills. They had this Chamber committee up and operating in January of 2013, when it became clear that the city was going to create a Storm Water Enterprise Fund, funded by some kind of “rain tax.” The Chamber saw that there was a real potential for their members to get hammered when it came time to pay the assessments for the new storm water enterprise fund.

When it came time for the Mayor and the DPW to name a committee to set fees to fund the new stormwater enterprise, they picked a committee that looked to be broad-based and inclusive, in line with the "Best Practices" credo. But it wasn't. The fix was in. To read the full article, click here.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop

2014-10-10T09:33:00.002-04:00

Jim Barkham ( a fake name) is holding his breath waiting for his first storm water bill to arrive. A lot of other people around town are apprehensive. Jim is not interested in becoming the star of another incendiary article in Kirbyontheloose, and so he said, "Ok Kirby, use my situation, but don't use my name or I'll come after you. You're too damn late with this article anyway."

"THEY DON'T CARE!" he said, talking about the city. He went before the city council once and talked about the burden the taxes were having on him, and he said they didn't listen to him.

"They just kept whispering among themselves and playing with their computers" he said, "All they care about is getting their money."

He almost had a heart attack when he learned that his storm water bill this fall was going to be about $3,000. click on this to read the full story

Anti-BID effort picks up more backers in new filings in federal court

2014-09-30T12:23:00.001-04:00

Up til now, it has been W. Michael Ryan, Alan Scheinman and Eric Suher against the world. On September 29th, however, their lawyer filed a petition in federal court to add forty six new complainants. The 68 page filing asserts these complainants own property in the BID district and they are refusing to pay their assessments, and that the BID and the city and the state legislature have no right to change what was a voluntary organization into an organization that can levy compulsory payments. They are also alleging irregularities in how the organization was created.

Perhaps the legal grounds for their suit in federal court are stronger. KOTL staffers did a quick rundown on the names on the list, and they indicate that Ryan, Scheinman, and Suher will have no problem paying their legal fees from now on. Prominent owners of downtown property on the list include Peter Picknelly, the Gleason Brothers, Jeffrey Dwyer, John Herlihy, Jordi Herald, Peter Laird, Bruce and Pauline Fogel, the principals of the Pearl Street nightclub, the Crafts Avenue Realty Trust, and many more. It looks more like a rebellion now. We'll publish more on this later. To read the filings,and a link to BID website click on this.