Here's public comment from Thursday night's city council meeting.
Big questions: Should the landfill expansion go to the voters? Should the city of Northampton impose a local option meals tax? This is more fun to watch than to read about, so here y'are. Have chopped it into 4 sections.
Many thanks to NCTV, who were happy to have me hang about the studio and extract web-quality video from their raw file this afternoon. The transcode took about two hours, which provided an opportunity to catch up w Al Williams, Bryn Francis, and their new access coordinator, Ben Brown, who seems, as we used to say up in Maine, wicked smaht.
In general, lots of unhappiness about the city council gag order (the city council has been told by the city solicitor not to speak with Northampton citizens about the landfill expansion), and a generally-expressed wish for transparency from city hall and the council. Watch Alex Ghiselin at the beginning of clip four; he makes an interesting proposal.
Lots of restaurant and hotel people--owners, managers, and workers--came to speak out against the local option meals tax. The best comment was made by the owner of Viva Fresh Pasta, who suggested instituting a therapy and lawyer tax if the city is going to tax restaurant meals. "We're all in the same service industry," she remarked. She noted that restaurant owners are under pressure to pay a living wage, and described the plight of a dishwasher slogging away till one o'clock in the morning, whom she would love to be able to pay more than eight dollars an hour.
Tax and fee advocate Pamela Schwartz, who's running for city council, spoke in favor of the proposal. "Northampton does not have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem," she opined. The city council apparently agreed, as it approved the meals tax proposal later in the evening.
There was a great music scene happening at Sam's on Thursday; several who left the meeting after public comment ventured across the street to buy a slice of pizza, hang around on the sidewalk, and listen to the local jazzers play. What a beautiful town.
above: suzanne beck, dan yacuzzo, mansour ghalibaf
10 Arrested at Protest
14 hours ago
Thanks so much for posting these clips.
ReplyDeleteThat's speedy work, Mary. NorthAssoc.org has just put up video from this City Council meeting as well, all 3 hours and 54 minutes of it.
ReplyDeleteMary, thanks for doing such a great job keeping this critical issue on the front burner. It really concerns me that the Mayor and some on the Council are going to continue to push ahead on the landfill expansion while keeping the public in the dark. I can think of no single issue that imperils the health of our city more than this one and am deeply disturbed by the gag order. How are they even allowed to get away with this?. Your continued excellent reporting will help ensure that we force the political leaders of this city to respond to the desires of their constituency.
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