tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22213795.post116232180826955899..comments2021-12-12T09:07:17.657-05:00Comments on Stephanie's Town Meeting Experience: October gave a party, TMers by hundreds cameStephanie O'Keeffehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13139345960579356043noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22213795.post-1162478826283507722006-11-02T09:47:00.000-05:002006-11-02T09:47:00.000-05:00So, driving empty buses around Town is going to he...So, driving empty buses around Town is going to help with global warming? I have tried the bus system and it stinks:<BR/><BR/>walk to bus stop - 15 minutes<BR/>wait for bus - 10 minutes<BR/>rid bus through out of town and through orchard valley - 15 minutes<BR/>sit at time point (to get bus back on schedule) - 5 minutes<BR/>ride bus to S Amherst Common - 5 minuts<BR/>walk home - 10 minutes<BR/><BR/>take car instead - 7 minutes<BR/>ride bicyle - 15 minutesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22213795.post-1162351654239202602006-10-31T22:27:00.000-05:002006-10-31T22:27:00.000-05:00Stephanie:I think you missed an important impulse ...Stephanie:<BR/>I think you missed an important impulse behind last night's vote on bus routes: climate change has jumped into the popular consciousness in a big way in 2006, even going from last spring to today. The problem has moved from the back to the front burner for a lot of us. I'm not saying that the vote last night was a perfectly intelligent response, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to vote against bus routes, when I believe that we are already well on our way into a global environmental emergency. It still sounds like Chicken Little stuff to many people, but I'm convinced now that it's not. <BR/><BR/>Part of the problem with the bus routes is information. If Amherst residents knew that they could take the bus into town for dinner and a movie and then get on a bus to go home, and have the trip take only, say 15 minutes longer, than it would in their auto, perhaps more folks would use public transportation. <BR/><BR/>Your skeptical perspective may seem more fiscally realistic in the short run. But, in the wake of Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth and some really good books this year on climate change (I read Tim Flannery's "The Weather Makers", but Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker also weighed in on the crisis this year), Amherst Town Meeting members may be having a hard time saying "no" to bus routes, knowing that, in the absence of some non-carbon form of automotive power, we are going to have to rethink established habits. I can no longer scoff at people in town who are thought of as public transportation fanatics.<BR/><BR/>Yes, the supply is out ahead of the demand, but I'm not jumping to cut bus routes any longer. The climate change problem will be at our doorstep a lot sooner than any future exhaustion of the global oil supply: it's that urgent. <BR/><BR/>Rich Morse, Precinct 7Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22213795.post-1162333495531642112006-10-31T17:24:00.000-05:002006-10-31T17:24:00.000-05:00A perfect report, as usual!A couple of comments:1....A perfect report, as usual!<BR/>A couple of comments:<BR/><BR/>1. Art. 3B (sewer fund): The fact that the differential in WATER-use rates was eliminated has nothing to do with the shortfall in the SEWER fund, confusing as this is, since the shortfall is due to the spectacular water conservation at UMass. They're two different funds, each with its own budget.<BR/><BR/> Also, while both water and sewer rates seem to get adjusted on a regular basis, this has to do with monitoring the fund balance. Because the enterprise funds are expected to cover both operating and major capital expenses, the town has long aimed at a balance of about $1 million in each. So the Sewer Fund balance is slightly low right now; hence rate adjustment soon.<BR/><BR/>2. Art. 8 (bus route through Echo Hill): I not only completely agree with everything you say. I thought some of the statements were downright misleading. I wish I had tried to get recognized to say that this article advises the SB to give preferential treatment to the Echo Hill area, regardless of budgetary considerations for other bus routes, or anything else. The Finance Committee's statement said something like that, but I somehow overlooked it on the back table and didn't read it until later.I do wish somebody had made that argument, though. I thought this was a surprisingly thoughtless vote.<BR/>EvaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com