From Other Sources: News For And About Amherst.  This Week, Local News Roundup, The War On LGBTQ+, And Affordable Housing

Here are some local stories from the last few weeks that we were unable to cover in the Indy as well a mix of interesting news and commentary that is worth checking out.

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Featured Story: (view)
Can The New England Town Meeting Fix American Democracy? by Adam Reilly (4/23/23). The town of Lee in Western Massachusetts is about to switch from a representative to an open town meeting for the first time in more than 50 years. Susan Wright, Lee’s town meeting moderator, joins Adam Reilly to discuss the impetus for that switch, which involves a major environmental battle curretly playing out in town. Reilly is also joined by Susan Clark, an expert on town meetings who moderates the annual gathering in Middlesex, Vermont and is also the co-author of “All Those in Favor: Rediscovering the Secrets of Town Meeting and Community and Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing Decision Making Back Home.” (WGBH)

News From Amherst
Finance Committee Recommends Small Pay Raise For Town Councilors by Scott Merzbach (6/20/23).  Annual stipend increases for those serving on the Town Council are being recommended by the Finance Committee, but the adjustments fall short of a proposal brought forward by councilors in March. The Finance Committee late last week voted 4-1 to support a raise from the current $5,000-a-year stipends for councilors, established when the charter was adopted five years ago, to $7,500 a year, and the council president’s stipend to rise from $7,500 to $9,500 a year. Council President Lynn Griesemer said the compromise proposal, following extensive discussion by the Finance Committee at recent meetings, would minimize the impact on town spending when the adjustments begin in January 2024. Under this plan, if adopted by the Town Council through a financial order, the half-year increases would total $16,000, increasing to $32,000 in the second year. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

The Joys Of Overcoming: Juneteenth Event Remembers, Confronts, Moves Forward by Bob Flaherty (6/19/23) Shaking off the rain that canceled Saturday’s Ancestral Bridges’ Juneteenth walking tour, the legendary all-Black Peter Grace 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment of Civil War fame began their march in the backyard of the Amherst Woman’s Club and made their steady way through the crowded house. People of many colors and persuasions craned their necks and whooped from hallways, outer rooms and halfway upstairs. “HALT!” commanded First Lt. Ronald Brace. “Left face!” And the troop, celebrating its 160th year, took seats by the podium as emcee and Amherst native William Harris, president and CEO of the Houston Space Center, proclaimed Juneteenth, the 1863 day when America’s slaves were emancipated, as “bringing people together from across the country to create a better life.”  (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

OML Compliant Filed Against Amherst School Committee Over Staff Disparagement by Scott Merzbach (6/19/23). Criticisms and disparagement directed toward members of the Amherst-Pelham Education Association during a public meeting in mid-May is prompting an Open Meeting Law complaint from a representative of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. In the complaint filed with the attorney general’s office June 14, Paul DeMarco, identified as a representative of the state union based at the Holyoke Regional Service Center, contends that violations occurred at a joint meeting of the Amherst Regional School Committee and the Union 26 Committee on May 16, when comments were made about members of the union, including teachers, paraeducators and clerical staff.“During that meeting (Union 26 Chairman Peter) Demling allowed the reputations and characters of multiple individual members, and elected officers of the APEA, to (be) disparaged, and complaints lodged against them without any prior notice provided to them and without any of the rights that should have been afforded them” DeMarco wrote in his complaint. He cited provisions of state law that require an executive session to be held if such comments are to be made. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Amherst Fifth Graders Testify In Unison At State Capital Hearing In Favor Of Plastic Bag Ban by Sophie Hauck (6/19/23). What started as a campaign against single-use plastic at Crocker Farm Elementary School became a lesson in political advocacy for fifth graders Nina Hirschberg and Bailey Millay, who testified on Beacon Hill in support of anti-plastic legislation last week. Hirschberg and Millay accompanied Rep. Mindy Domb, D-Amherst, to convince lawmakers why they should support Domb’s bill (H 784) proposing the state ban retail stores from distributing single-use plastic bags. The pair delighted lawmakers during a hearing for the Joint Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources when they recited what Millay considered to be “the more important parts” of their testimony in unison. “You may have revolutionized giving testimony,” Rep. Dan Cahill, D-Lynn, said to the girls once they finished reading their prepared remarks. “If everyone [spoke] at the same time, it would be much appreciated.” (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Neighbors Step Up To Help Family After Amherst Dairy Farm Fire by Scott Merzbach (6/5/23). A cattle trailer departing from J&J Farms in North Amherst on Monday morning brought four cows to Allard’s Farm in Hadley, ensuring the last of the 50 cows from the town’s only remaining dairy farm will have a temporary place to stay. Their journey to another area farm follows the late Friday afternoon fire that destroyed three buildings, including the stable for the milking cows and their milk house and associated equipment, and also caused significant damage to the home where Joseph Waskiewicz, the family patriarch, has continued to live. None of the cows were injured during the large blaze that Amherst firefighters blamed on a lightning strike, which quickly spread on the 324 Meadow St. property due to radiant heat. “It was a blessing all were safe and sound,” said son Mike Waskiewicz, who with siblings Joseph “Butch” Waskiewicz and Jane Supernant coordinated getting the cows safe and keeping farm operations, and the crops that need be tended to, going throughout the weekend. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Valley Bike Likely Grounded Until Next Spring by Emily Thurlow (6/1/23). It looks like the popular ValleyBike share program will remain grounded until next spring. Northampton officials announced Thursday that they are on the hunt for a new vendor to run the regional bike share program after the main service provider, Bewegen Technologies Inc., of Saint-georges, Quebec, Canada, defaulted on its contract. Northampton is the lead community for the program, which also has stations in Easthampton, Holyoke, South Hadley, Amherst, Chicopee, Springfield, West Springfield and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. (Amherst Bulletin)

Amherst Schools To Undergo LGBTQ+ Trainings After Discrimination Accusationsby Irene Rotondo (5/19/23).In response to allegations of discrimination against transgender students at Amherst Regional Middle School, a prominent activist group for LGBTQ+ youth announced it will train educators, students and families in the public school district at the start of the 2023-2024 academic year. The Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth, through its Safe Schools Program (SSP) for LGBTQ Students, stated it will partner with the Stonewall Center of UMass Amherst for the trainings, in consultation with Amherst students. The organization’s trainings come after an article in Amherst Regional High School’s student newspaper was published Tuesday, laying out claims of discrimination against transgender students at the middle school, and an investigation involving Title IX, a federal statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, which the district opened last month. (MassLive)

UMass Ordered To Pause Privatization Of Advancement Jobs For Legal Review by Sarah Robertson (5/18/23).  The state auditor’s office called on the University of Massachusetts Amherst last week to pause the privatization of over 100 jobs within the school’s Advancement office until, as is required by law, the contract is put out to competitive bid and it is proven that the move would save taxpayer money. Earlier this year, university officials announced their intention to outsource jobs from the marketing and fundraising office to the private nonprofit UMass Amherst Foundation, saying the move was necessary to comply with state retirement laws. Unions representing Advancement office employees, the Professional Staff Union (PSU) and University Staff Association, have held rallies opposing the plan, which could end members’ participation in the state pension system as well as their union membership. “The Auditor has made clear that the privatization of this state work cannot move forward at this point,” PSU co-chair Andrew Gorry said in a written statement released by the union. “Our Advancement employees must be allowed to continue their work at UMass, and the foundation must immediately stop all attempts to perform this state work, including hiring for these positions, and reverse all existing effort towards privatization.” (The Shoestring)

Amherst Adjacent News
A Big Cup Of Co-op: After 30 Years, Dean’s Beans In Orange To Become Worker-owned by Domenic Poli (5/15/23). Change is brewing at Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Co., which is set to become a worker-owned cooperative on July 1. Dean Cycon founded the business in 1993 and, having recently turned 70, is ready to hand the reins to his 16 employees. “Who better to carry on the mission than the folks who’ve been doing it all these years?” he said this week. “Some of the employees have been here 20 years.” Cycon started Dean’s Beans as an experiment after years of working as an environmental and Indigenous rights lawyer, and he set out to prove that through ethical business practices, a for-profit company could improve the lives of workers and consumers. He said that as he approached his 70th birthday he considered selling to an entity that would carry on his company’s progressive legacy and business model. (Greenfield Recorder)

The War On LGBTQ+
2023 Trans Legislation Tracker by Translegislation.com.( Last Accessed 6/21/23). 2023 marks the fourth consecutive record-breaking year for anti-trans legislation in the U.S. In just one month, the U.S. doubled the number of anti-trans bills being considered across the country from the previous year. We’ve seen familiar themes: attacks on gender-affirming care, education, athletics, birth certificates, religious discrimination, and other categories documented in our 2022 anti-trans legislation overview. However, in 2023 we’ve seen an escalation on healthcare, as states like Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Carolina introduce bans on gender-affirming care that extend into adulthood—up to 26 years old. In educational settings, bills like AZ HB1700 encourage parents to report and ban books which “promote gender fluidity or gender pronouns.” Others like AZ SB1001 require that both a guardian and teacher approve of a student’s pronouns. (Trans Legislation Tracker)

Understanding Targeted Misgendering and Deadnaming As Hate Speech by Leanna Garfield and Jenni Olsen (6/7/23). Alongside inflammatory mischaracterizations of transgender healthcare and baseless assertions of trans and LGBTQ people being threats to children, the practice of targeted misgendering and deadnaming has emerged in recent years as one of the most common modalities for expressing contempt toward trans and nonbinary people across social media platforms. The trope is extremely popular amongst high-follower anti-LGBTQ accounts and is especially utilized to bully, mock, and harass prominent trans public figures (Admiral Rachel Levine, Dylan Mulvaney, 16-year-old Zaya Wade to name a few), while simultaneously expressing hatred of trans and nonbinary people in general.* 
(Tech Policy Press)

Protecting Trans Youth by the editors of Rethinking Schools (no date). The Right has declared war on trans youth.The disastrous impact of these bills was described by Chase Strangio of the ACLU on Democracy Now!: “Right now on the ground, we know that families are being investigated solely because they have transgender children. Teachers are being asked to report transgender children and their families to child welfare authorities and providers have cut off healthcare across the state. So the practical impact is catastrophic, and people are suffering.” (Rethinking Schools)

Roundup Of Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation by Cullen Peele (5/23/23).  There have been more anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in state houses this year than in each of the previous five years; with the increase in LGBTQ Erasure bills, bills that strip away dozens of legal protections and rights for LGBTQ+ people, coming as the newest form of attacks on the community More than 125 bills would prevent trans youth from being able to access age-appropriate, medically-necessary, best-practice health care, in addition to more than 45 bills banning transgender students from playing school sports and more than 30 “bathroom bills,” a figure that exceeds the number bathroom bills filed in any previous year. Some states that have been the most aggressive in advancing anti-LGBTQ+ laws include Florida, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas  (Human Rights Campaign)

Why Is The GOP Escalating Attacks On Trans Rights? by Kate Sosin (5/20/23). Survey after survey show that Americans support LGBTQ+ equality, and Republicans are no exception. Still, Republican-dominated states have seen a blitz of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation since 2020, particularly anti-transgender bills. That dissonance — between the reality of the electorate and the priorities of Republican lawmakers — may seem counterintuitive to many.Randall Balmer, a Dartmouth professor who was raised evangelical, has spent much of his career researching those kinds of contradictions. His book, “Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of Religious Right” traces the rise of the evangelical voting bloc from nonexistent in the 1960s to the single most important interest group for any Republican candidate in the 1980s. In a conversation with The 19th, Balmer said that rise was driving Republican support for anti-trans legislation now. (PBS)

Affordable Housing
Denting The Housing Problem With Dorms. Colleges Could Play A Big Role In Addressing Constricted Supply by Jack Corrigan (5/27/23).  We could incentivize colleges and universities to house their own students, instead of loosing them upon the private housing market. Building more dorms is not a new idea. As far back as 2001, a report from Northeastern University’s Barry Bluestone and others recommended that colleges and universities in Greater Boston build 7,500 new dorms in five years, and Mayor Walsh outlined a plan in his first year in office, 2014, calling on schools to build more than 3 times that many student housing units in Boston alone. Exhortation, however, has proven to be insufficient in generating enough action.   One reason the rent is so damn high is that so much of the housing stock is taken by students. (CommonWealth Magazine)

Just Build Homes.  Public Housing Is About To Make A Comeback by Daniel Denvir and Yonah Freemark (5/22/23). It’s no surprise that the debate about how to solve the housing crisis has become one of the most contentious issues in city halls, state legislatures, and on your Twitter timeline. Thanks to rising mortgage interest rates, persistently high rents, and inadequate housing availability, finding an affordable home is harder than it’s been in decades. Much of the recent debate has focused on reducing barriers to housing construction through a process called upzoning, or allowing developers to build more and more densely. Upzoning, for example, could allow homeowners to add rental cottages behind their houses or allow developers to construct midrise apartment buildings near transit where previously only single-family homes were allowed. Some on the left, once reflexively skeptical of developers, are now agitating to lift regulations on them. Others remain highly skeptical. (Slate)