Court Square Today

 

This morning I caught the bus and soon arrived at Springfield's Union Station. 

 

 

There are transportation centers in cities all over the Northeast called "Union Station." It was a fad after the Civil War.  Heading down Main Street, the old bar by the railroad arch is out of business, but the obnoxious mural on its side remains.

 

 

Hopefully a new owner will paint over it. What would help revive that bar, and that whole end of Main Street, would be the revival of the Hippodrome/Sanderson/Paramount Theater across the street. Alas, it has never looked more deserted. 

In fact, the entire block, street level and above, is utterly empty. 

There is a ray of hope nearby however. The building housing the legendary Fort Restaurant is due to have its upper floors, formerly business offices and also completely vacant, converted into apartments. 

That will help with the desperate need for more foot traffic on Main Street. It's time to finally admit the obvious - that the casino has failed to revitalize Main Street.

Across the street the Democrats have opened their regional campaign headquarters for 2024 in an abandoned lawyer's office.

 

 Meanwhile the White Lion is promoting their burgers. 

They are located across the street in Tower Square (known as Baystate West in better days). 

I'll have to stop by and buy a burger there sometime and let you know how I like it. Meanwhile, back in June I showed you how Court Square was fenced off for "renovations."

 

 

This picture I took this morning suggests there has been very little progress over the last three months.

The whole area is still completely fenced off, with blue plastic hung on the fence to prevent people from observing the work site. It makes the whole area look ugly and it is dangerous to walk on that side of the street because the fence blocks the sidewalk, thereby forcing the public to walk in the road. 

What is that blue plastic supposed to hide? It is primarily a landscaping job, so why is it taking all summer and into the fall? Are they polishing the statues with a toothbrush? A cynical friend of mine who works for the city suggested to me that it may be a manifestation of the old government contractor's creed of "Don't Kill the Job." 

The longer the job lasts, the more paychecks they get.

Who knows? But I suspect my cynical friend is on to something. 

 

Anyway, far from the big city my friend Jeff Ziff took this picture in the hinterlands of Conway in 2020.

 

He also took this 2020 picture of Springfield's Breckwood Shops on the Pine Point/16 Acres border. 

Beacon Hill. 

Our Massachusetts governor gives some people bad dreams. 

 

Political Display

 

Hey you political junkies! Head on up to the UMass library for a great display of some of the political memorabilia that the University has collected over the centuries. 

 

 

It features all kinds of wonderful stuff, including rarities that collectors would drool over, such as these obscure items from the 1968 campaign of George Wallace, an Alabama governor who ran as a third party candidate and carried five southern states.   

 

 

They have a magnificent collection of Kennedy memorabilia, some of which would no doubt draw many thousands of dollars on the collectors market. I never knew there was a Kennedy board game in which the First Family takes over Mount Rushmore. Notice that Carolyn and John-John are among the contenders.

 

The display is excellent with just one glaring omission - there is nothing in it about Calvin Coolidge! Since Coolidge was a former Northampton mayor, Massachusetts Governor and the only resident of the Pioneer Valley to be elected to the presidency, that is not a minor oversight. 

 

Meanwhile, yesterday I went to the Northampton Jazz Festival. 

 

It was cool, man, cool, like this chilltown ride parked by the curb.

 

Three flags in Florence.  

 

A truck in Chicopee. 

Former Massachusetts Governor and 2016 Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate Bill Weld has endorsed John Deaton in his race to replace Elizabeth Warren in the U.S. Senate. 

Lost Mural Found

 

Years ago there used to be a large mural that hung downstairs in the UMass Campus Center depicting the campus during the 1960's. It was a pretty cool mural that included an image of someone I knew on it. However, one day several years ago it disappeared completely and I could never discover what became of it. Then last week I was coming down the stairs in Bartlett Hall when suddenly I came upon it hanging in the second floor stairwell!

 

The mural features images from that controversial decade as it related to the University. Here is how the mural depicts the UMass library when under construction. 

 

 

A recent photo of the finished product. 

 

The mural was painted in the 1980's by students who were barely alive in the 60's and had no first hand memories of the era. Therefore this depiction of the Beatles swimming in the campus pond may not be historically accurate.  

The mural was a group project that incorporated a number of artists and historical advisors. Among them was the notorious Western Mass journalist Al Giordano, who although he wasn't a student at UMass, ended up as one of the models for the anti-war protest segment. Giordano and his mentor Abbie Hoffman were leading a lot of anti-nuke rallies around the Valley in the 1980's and Al was well known to campus activists.

 

But what caused the mural to be taken down from it's original very prominent location in the Campus Center, only to be relegated to the obscurity of a stairwell in the English Department? That relocation seems illogical.

Unfortunately, logic can seldom guide you in figuring out the ways of UMass. 

Anyway, at least they're always looking for laughs. 

 

 

The campus farmer's market is in full swing, featuring fresh produce from the student farm. 

UMass used to be known as "Mass Aggie" as in Massachusetts Agricultural College. It has evolved over the decades, expanding its offerings until it became a full fledged state university. But it's original agricultural background has never been eliminated and UMass still teaches agriculture to students who come from all over the world, many looking to bring back the latest farming techniques to their native country.

Meanwhile, in Northampton there is a wall of fake vegetables.

 

This morning I was in downtown Springfield, where of course I stopped for breakfast at City Jake's on the corner of Worthington.

 

 

Jake's has the best breakfast sandwiches in the city. 

A colorful neighborhood in Holyoke by Bill Pead. 

The French King Bridge is the three-span "cantilever arch" bridge that crosses the Connecticut River on the border between the towns of Erving and Gill. photo by J. Ziff

 

 

Full moon rising over Boston this week. 

 

 

 

New Hampshire does not want to become like Massachusetts.