Five-Minute Presentations, Best Practices Finalists

Two of the eight finalists for the Ad Hoc Committee on Best Practices withdrew their applications since the last council meeting: Bonnie Rose and Patty Morey-Walker. The remaining six (Lisa DiPiano, Wendy Foxmyn, Alex Ghiselin, Peter Hirschman, Kevin Lake, and Jim Palermo) campaigned one last time at Thursday's regular meeting.
Footage shot by Northampton Community Television; Primitive extract, trim, and upload by CRH blogmeister.

Lisa DiPiano


Wendy Foxmyn

Alex Ghiselin

Peter Hirschman

Kevin Lake

Jim Palermo

best practices committee

Alex Ghiselin, Lisa DiPiano, Jim Palermo, and Wendy Foxmyn were chosen last night by the City Council to serve on the newly-formed Ad Hoc Committee on Best Practices in municipal decision-making. The mood, as the meeting adjourned, was largely celebratory and hopeful.

See Fred Contrada's story on MassLive:
Ad Hoc Panel members Chosen

Mike Kirby: Back Row, Back Ward

Former City Councilor Mike Kirby is a political activist, a freelance investigative journalist, and author. His most recent book, "Back Row, Back Ward" examines the history of the efforts to redevelop Hospital Hill, former site of the Northampton Lunatic Asylum. He spins an arcane tale, involving public agencies, private developers, a string of mayors, and an Advisory Committee that caught the eye of the State Ethics Commission. It's an alphabet soup: the State Division of Capital Planning and Operations (DCPO), The Community Builders (TCB), The Citizens' Advisory Committee (CAC), Hospital Hill LLC, and the mysterious Northampton Development Corporation (NDC). He paints a picture of wishful thinking, back room dealing, pre-ordained conclusions, and disregard for historical values in the pursuit of profit.

Do you take issue with Kirby's interpretation of events? Well, tune in this Sunday, February 10. CAC member Jack Hornor will tell the story from another perspective. But not alone: he will be sharing the subterranean Valley Free Radio studio with Mark Roessler, who recently wrote a series for the Valley Advocate called "How Not to Save Old Main."

Two options for listening: click on direct links below, to play the file in your computer's designated media player, or use the embedded flash player below to stream audio from your web browser.

Track 1: 19th Century through Mid-Twentieth Century
Track 2: 1993: Formation of Citizens' Advisory Committee
Track 3: Studies; Mayor Ford's Committee
Track 4: Memorandum of Agreement
Track 5: TCB, Mass Development, DCPO, & the NDC
Track 6: Save Old Main

Northampton Weather, Outside the Cubicle

Editorial: Cheer Up

Greetings from the Bohemian Wing of the Progressive Party of the Paradise City of America, AKA Northampton, Massachusetts. Our historic Kirkbride 19th-century lunatic asylum on the hill got torn down in 2006, an airport hotel was chosen was chosen as the primary monument to anchor our most important public square, a highway expansion is planned that, if implemented, will cut a swath through the Connecticut River Meadows, a neighborhood of good old houses last year met the wrecking ball to enable the expansion of Smith College....The people are outraged, calling for an examination of "best practices" in municipal decision-making, but the process of creating the "best practices" committee itself has been marked by gothic maneuvering....




Oh, Cheer Up. Those in charge have your best interests at heart. Buncha Whiners. Get a coffee to go at the Haymarket and go stand outside of Thornes with your favorite local street musician and watch the world go by. Best Little Arts Town in America? Some things in life can't be bought.

Yes We Can

Northampton Women/Iraqi Women

Celia Miller is best known in Northampton (and throughout the northeast) for her work as a musician. Celia is shown below/right singing at The Elevens with Kim Zombik and the funk band Unit 7. But lately, she and a group of her friends have been raising money and raising consciousness about the atrocities being committed against women in post-invasion Iraq. Recently, they held a house party and raised $150 for the Organization of Womens Freedom in Iraq (OWFI). More events are planned, so keep your eyes open.


Yanar Mohammed is the founder of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. She is a powerful spokesperson in an international campaign to end atrocities against women in that war-torn and increasingly fundamentalist country. Rape, abduction, beheadings, and honor killings by family members have become far more common since the invasion. According to Yanar Mohammed, the Iraqi constitution sanctions Sharia law in family matters, leaving women little or no secular judicial protection. OWFI, as part of its mission, runs secret shelters and operates an underground railway to spirit women out of the country. Yanar Mohammed's life has been threatened repeatedly, yet she continues to openly speak out for women's human rights in Iraq. We spoke to Yanar Mohammed live on the air. Click on the arrow below to use the embedded player, or listen to the file in quicktime by clicking here.