Primary Wrap-up 2011

 

Springfield's Tragic Loss

 

Pepe and friends last night by Don Treeger.

It's a sad day in Springfield as the best chance the city had for meaningful reform slipped away with the defeat of Antonette Pepe for Mayor in yesterday's primary. That leaves the contest in November between incumbent Dom Sarno and Albano era stooge Jose Tosado. Sarno whomped Tosado by a landslide margin, leaving it highly unlikely that Sarno will be beaten in November unless he really messes up big time in the coming weeks. While Sarno has been a competent mayor, he is not the person who will shake things up the way they need to be shaken up to give the city some forward momentum. That person was Antonette Pepe, and her elimination in the primary is a tragic loss for the entire region.

Meanwhile, the at-large City Council results did little to dispel Springfield's reputation as having the dumbest electorate in the Valley. The pitiful results were as follows:

Thomas Ashe: 6,885 - That a flunkie for convicted felon Frankie Keough (Keough once described Ashe as his political heir) could finish in first place is so pathetic one is tempted to simply give up in despair on Springfield.

Tim Rooke: 5,955 - Rooke is the only councilor who consistently appears to take the public good into consideration. His second place finish partially redeems the shameful Ashe results.

Kateri Walsh: 5,642 - Everybody likes Kateri, including me, but she is an old guard councilor not noted for any reform tendencies.

Bud Williams: 5,117 - He did nothing when he was on the Council before, why do voters want to send him back?

Jimmy Ferrera: 5,087 - It's been a mystery why Ferrara was ever elected in the first place and that he gets re-elected is simply baffling. May he finally be shown the door.

Justin Hurst: 4,245 - Another wanna-be from one of Springfield's establishment families. Beyond the family connections, he hasn't given anyone a reason to vote for him.

Amaad Rivera: 3,179 - This crusading leftist really wishes he was a congressman. Voters should give him the free time to challenge Richie Neal in the Democrat primary of 2012.

Miguel Soto: 2,398 - An ethnic candidate crippled by the low Hispanic turnout.

Charles Rucks: 2,327 - Probably the best challenger on the field, but somehow he never gets the attention he deserves. Hopefully the voters will wake up by November.

Joseph Fountain: 2,111 - The comeback attempt by this eccentric figure from the Albano era continues, but just barely.

Bruce Adams: 2,036 - He got eliminated because he didn't get it - even in Springfield you're supposed to be accused of stealing after the election, not before.

John Stevens: 1,557 and David Ciampi: 1,374 - Of course two Republicans occupied the bottom spots - after all, the Democrats have done such a wonderful job for Springfield.

Write-ins: 149 - I'd love to know whose names were being written on the ballots. How much you wanna bet most of the names being written in were far superior to any of the actual candidates?

A display of football memorabilia at the UMass library shows this image from the cover of a 1961 game program. It portrays a typical college student attending a game with two bratty kids in tow. Those were the days when everybody got married right out of high school and most of the students had at least two kids by graduation. Today college students who are raising children are a rarity. 

The annual marijuana legalization rally in Boston, one of the largest in the country, was held last weekend and among the speakers was Amherst's Terry Franklin. Here's his two minute speech. 

TV Polls

The Mayoral Races

 



WGGB-TV runs a poll every day on a subject related to the news. They are unscientific polls because the people who participate are self selected. However they are not completely unenlightening, since people participate who may never otherwise be contacted by a pollster. There is also software in place to prevent people from voting more than once from the same computer. Lately, they have been running polls on local mayoral races, with some interesting results. For example, here's the totals for their poll on the Springfield mayoral race between incumbent Dom Sarno and challenger Bud Williams. 

Sarno - 59%
Williams - 20%
Other - 31%

Not exactly encouraging news for City Councilor Williams. What is interesting is that a third of the voters appear to wish that they had a third alternative, suggesting that many people would prefer someone to vote for other than the two candidates actually running.

A similar poll was held this week for the hotly contested mayoral race in Northampton. However the results suggest that a landslide defeat is in store for incumbent M. Clare Higgins.

Higgins - 27%
Bardsley - 59%
Other - 14%

Although the Channel 40 polls do provide fun fuel for speculation, ultimately the only poll that matters is on Election Day. Personally, I never forgave Channel 40 for cancelling the Admiral and Swabby Show. 

The Future Predicted

 



Cool Local Advertisements

A corny but cute ad for Northampton's Turn It Up.

 

Here's a better one, featuring a Rod Stewart album I used to own as well as someone I was in rehab with. 

 

Hamp Hike

I got to the bus stop today just as the bus to Amherst was pulling away! Oh well, all that did was give me a half hour to take a little walk down the street. Camera in hand, I headed towards Smith College.

There I saw this clever definition of Smith.

As well as these sidewalk guilt monsters. 

Heading into the heart of town, I checked out the newly painted mural on Kirkland Avenue, othewise universally known as "the ally behind Thornes."

Turtle-like beings now climb the fire escape. 

A psychedelic owl gazes down upon all.

Less artistic scrawlings adorn the opposite wall, the better to go with the sewer motif. 

This is the kind of sign you only see in New England.

 



A parking meter expresses a preference. 

Finally the next bus arrives, I climb onboard and later I snap this pic out the window as we cross the mighty Connecticut.

 



Today's Video

Another lost masterpiece resurfaces:

Paul Kantner : Guitar, vocals,
Grace Slick : Piano, vocals
Jack Casady : Bass
Jerry Garcia : Lead Guitar
Bill Kreutzmann: Drums
David Crosby : Guitar,vocals
Graham Nash : Vocals

No light shines on the mind protected
No light shines on the fangs neglected.

The Wee Sound

Odd Moment in Hungry Hill

I was an embryo in Maine. That was where my father was stationed when I was conceived, at a military base in Presque Isle Maine.

However I was actually born at home, in my parents bedroom in Robinson Gardens, one of the toughest public housing projects in Springfield Massachusetts. I was delivered by my father, having emerged from the womb so quickly that there was no time to get to the hospital. Maybe if I'd been aware of some of the coming attractions I wouldn't have been in such a rush to make the scene. Then again, I've always been glad to be in the world.

When I was small, and before my parents moved us back to Pine Point, which was the neighborhood where they had grown up, we lived for some years in a grey house my Uncle Steve owned on Littleton Street in the so-called Hungry Hill neighborhood. That was the name given it because of all the poverty stricken Irish who lived there - the hill where everyone was hungry like in the days of the potato famines! 

I remember that the house on Littleton Street had a big stained glass window in the upstairs hallway that sprayed color in the living room when the sun shone through it. I also remember it had a big multi-car garage in back where my Uncle used to keep the vehicles he was always collecting, or selling or something. Behind the garage there was a lot of rhubarb plants, and some of my earliest memories involve playing back there. I remember once the girl next door pulled down her pants for me behind that garage, because I asked her to.

One day I was standing on the front porch with my sister. It was summer and the dust from where the lawn should have been was swirling lazily in a light breeze. We had dust instead of a lawn because between our friends and our cousins and the neighborhood kids the whole of the ground surrounding the outside of our house was pounded into dust by everyone's sneakers.

But on this day it was only me and my sister Bev. We were on the porch. It was dusk, and the sun was just setting behind the Walsh's house across the street. It was very still. That was when we  heard it, a sound that was soft and far off, and yet was still very distinct. It was a human voice, sort of moaning in a slow, flowing way that had an otherworldly character to it. It was just a sound, not a word or a phrase, and it was impossible to say what emotion lay behind it.

Such a wee and almost imperceptibly low vibration, but a human made noise none the less, calming and mysterious. It sounded somewhere beyond. We listened in silence for the several seconds it could be heard, until it faded away. I have remembered that moment and that haunting cry for all the rest of my life - an odd and inscrutable snatch of sonic poetry which I have never heard repeated.

 

Yet I believe that I will hear it again on the day when I die.

 

Matthews in Spfld

Popular talkshow host Chris Matthews was in Springfield the other night to give a speech. Here's a picture of him with State Representative Angelo Puppolo (center) and Springfield Mayor Dom Sarno.

 



At the National Democrat Convention in Boston in 2004 I spotted Matthews smoking a cigar and talking on the phone while trying to hide his identity under a too small baseball cap. 

Obviously the disguise did not work, as not just me but several others also recognized him.

Today's Video

Improbable sounds in downtown Northampton. 

 

Southern Sojourn

Going down to Springfield!

I went to Springfield today, visiting the city of my birth for only the second time this year. I've been so tied down to a strict drug rehab schedule that I simply haven't been able to put together enough free hours in a row to make it worth visiting the city! Today I took the bus there, with the usual holdover at Veteran's Park in Holyoke. There I unexpectedly ran into Amber, a friend of mine from rehab.

The patients in rehab were divided into three groups. The largest consisted of street folk from the so called urban culture. Drugs are as much a part of their lives as sunshine or air. The second group were people that can't be described as being in any category, they're so blown out on drugs they've lost any real sense of their own identity and have just turned weird. The third group was people like Amber and me, Grateful Dead sort of stoners. We were the smallest group but we stuck together, flower children among burnouts and gangstas, and Amber was a great help to me at times, listening to me and consoling me when I was confused and unhappy and going through withdrawal. She ended up getting thrown out of rehab for fighting with a nurse. I never knew what became of her, and it was great to see her today looking healthy and happy. I took her picture....

Then she took mine:

As you might imagine, being in Springfield for only the second time this year I had a lot of errands to attend to. However, I did take the time to stop in for a few minutes at the Springfield Control Board meeting this morning. City Hall is always a trip!

I climbed the antique spiral staircase to the mahogany chambers where the Control Board meetings are held.

There Board Chairman Chris Gabrielli was presiding over a dull economic development discussion.

 



The two local officials on the board are Mayor Dom Sarno and City Councilor Bud Williams.

 




Later I was by the new federal courthouse, which is almost completed. Notice the two ancient trees in front. The whole building was designed to accommodate those trees, believed to be among the oldest in the city. 

At the beginning of construction in 2003 I took this picture of local historian Greg Metzadakis posing by one of the old trees on the otherwise cleared lot. 

Here is the exact same tree as it appeared this morning. 

One thing I haven't been able to do since my Dad died in December is to go and visit his grave in Saint Michael's cemetery in ol' Pine Point. Saint Rose is the name of the cemetery lane he is buried on. 

I was surprised to realize that he was just recently buried!

I had forgotten that here in New England, where the ground in winter is ice-hard, they often wait until spring to bury those, like my Dad, who died in the dead of winter. I also saw that the year of death has not been put next to my father's name. He had his birth year and name put on the stone about ten years ago, leaving the year of his departure to be filled in. 

I had to leave the cemetery earlier than I wanted to because a terrible thunderstorm came up. It rained the whole bus ride back, but when I got to UMass the rain stopped and the sun came shining through, creating a beautiful rainbow. 

A rainbow reminds us of God's promise that after something bad must come something good. 

Sarno's 100 Days

The first hundred.


Mayor Dominic Sarno

I've been meaning to post about the passing of the first 100 days of the Sarno mayoralty in Springfield. It is an arbitrary, though traditional ritual of American politics to judge a new office holder on the basis of what trends are indicated by the first one hundred days of their administration. By no means definitive nor always fair, it's still a worthwhile appraisal. Here is what I think are the most important things about Sarno's administration thus far.

1. No ethical challenges - The first 100 days of the Ryan Administration were filled with radical change, as Charles V. Ryan began his term with a widespread cleansing of City Hall as incompetents, hacks and crooks, some of whom had bled the city for decades, were quickly fired out the door. The biggest fear was that Dominic Sarno would reverse that, and invite the bad guys back inside City Hall. Such fears were magnified in the campaign by Sarno's close association with the notorious sleaze Charlie Kingston and the scandal plagued former State Rep. Ray Jordan. There were even rumors that Brian Santaniello might return as Election Commissioner. None of it has come to pass, as Sarno has successfully kept his shadier contacts at arms length. Critics claim that Sarno is merely afraid of the Control Board and will invite the bad boys back once they leave. However the fact is so far those who predicted that the election of Sarno would lead to a new ethical crisis have not been shown correct.

2. Biggest campaign promise not kept - The most dishonest aspect of Sarno's campaign was the implication that he could do something about the city's unpopular trash fee. Actually that is under the sole authority of the Control Board, which as anyone could have predicted has shown no interest in repealing it. It was a promise voters should have realized Sarno had no power to carry out in the first place. However, Sarno depended on the the voters not to understand this, and no one ever lost an election by relying on the stupidity of the Springfield electorate.

3. Fitchet gets top police post - This is a good thing and a bad thing. It is a good thing because Fitchet is an insider and is unlikely to change anything to harm the department. It is a bad thing because Fitchet is an insider and unlikely to change anything to improve the department.

4. Shows some backbone - Critics claimed that Sarno was a lightweight who would be pushed around by local power players. Yet there's little evidence of that as Sarno has pretty much set his own policies, made his own choices and strongly defended them. One can argue over the wisdom of those choices and policies, but those who predicted that Sarno would be merely a figurehead mayor or a puppet for others are clearly wrong.

5. He's no Charlie Ryan - No matter how good Sarno turns out to be, we already had an old pro at the helm. Local historians will forever shake their heads over why Ryan was shown the door.

6. Good humor - Sarno has held up well in the face of endless corny jokes about his hair. A sense of humor is an essential requirement for leading Springfield.


In conclusion, after 100 days the jury is still out on the Sarno mayoralty, but in general he's off to a solid start and the fears of his worst critics have thus far proven unfounded. 

Here is a picture I found online of the first Earth Day celebration at UMass in 1970. Dig the geodesic dome!



It's funny how little UMass changes over the decades. If you went to that exact same spot today, and erected a geodesic dome, everything would look exactly the same.


Blues-tinged soul singers Avi and Celia raised a ruckus on Main Street in Northampton the other day by performing on the sidewalk for free. As shown in this humorous video, passerby threw them change, not realizing that the duo were performing later that evening at the Iron Horse for ten bucks at the door.

 

Valley Politics Photo Review

Look back and remember.

Recently I was rummaging through my vaults and came across these old pictures. Most of them originally appeared in The Baystate Objectivist and are now out of print. In a Valley in which, politically at least, we too often stumble down Amnesia Lane, let these pics help us to reclaim our past.

This 2004 photo was taken at the second meeting of the state-imposed Financial Control Board and shows then Mayor Charlie Ryan and City Council President Dominic Sarno. If Charlie seems to be looking at Sarno a little apprehensively then he may have had good reason - Sarno would eventually take his job!

The old veteran teaching the young pup as FCB Chairman Alan LaBovidge walks past in the background. 

This photo shows the Sampsons, father and son, at their Pine Point music shop, shortly after it was robbed at gunpoint. The crime was never solved. In the left hand corner notice a poster for Tony MacAlpine, one of my classmates at The World Famous Thomas M. Balliet Elementary School who went on to have a successful career as a West coast rock star and sessions musician. 

 

Here is legendary Springfield activist Bob Powell (husband of Karen) and Pete Sygnatore, who has earned rave reviews as the man who cleaned up Springfield's notoriously corrupt Liquor License Commission. I believe this picture was taken at Charlie Ryan's 2004 inaugural. 

I think this picture was taken at the same inaugural. It shows in the back row State Senator Brian Lees, State Senator Tommy Petrolati, State Sen. Buoniconti, Superintendent Joe Burke and former Springfield Mayor Ted Dimauro. In the front row are City Councilors Jose Tosado, Kateri Walsh and Bud Williams with City Clerk Bill Metzger. 

Here is former Clerk Metzger taking notes at a Control Board meeting. The FCB ultimately decided that City Hall could not get a fresh start or create a new culture as long as such an old-timer like Metzger was around, and he was gently forced out. This picture captures a sense of his growing isolation during his last days. 

Oh wow, it's the beloved Playtown, where many a Springfield school skipper squandered many a quarter!

A motley crew gathers at STCC: Springfield City Councilor Bill Foley, his cousin Congressman Richard Neal and Councilor Bud Williams in 1999.

 



Longtime Springfield civil rights activist Attorney Mickey Harris at a MassGOP convention in 1994.

The old McNamara's bar at Stearns Square. It was a classic longtime establishment forced out of business by the Albano Administration in order to hand over the location to a cartel of Albano insiders. Remodeled and renamed The Pour House, it became notorious as the preferred hangout for the sleaziest elements of local politics, in particular the Ardolino Gang. 

The dean of Western Mass TV broadcasters, Ray Hershel, at a Police Commission meeting during the Meara era. I don't recognize the person next to him. 

Activist Eamon T. O'Sullivan, who is best known for attacking local pols with his answering machine messages, relaxes at Russell's Restaurant in Pine Point with the owner, Sandy Russell in 2003. 

 



Eamon used to occasionally come on The Tony Gill Show on WAIC. Here he is advising former Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos during a commercial break. 

In City Hall, insurance guru (now School Committee member) Chris Collins watches as finance guru Mary T. walks past in 2004. 

Today Bo Sullivan is best known as WHYN's long-running morning co-host. At the time I took this photo of him at the WHYN studios he was the producer for The Dan Yorke Show in the mid 90's.

I'll be searching through my vaults periodically and showing whatever other gems I find.