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I am Tony Baye

by R. Joshua Mobley | Jan 17, 2010 1:30 pm | Comments (2)

It was well after midnight in the early hours of 2010, nearing three in the morning. An after-hours party had manifested at the tiny two-bedroom downtown apartment I share with my wife Jessica, and revelry and libations were abundant.

We did not worry about the neighbors (many of whom were present) or whether or not there was enough alcohol to go around.

What mattered to the forty-strong crowd was that we were there, safe, shedding the tired, cracked burden of the Aughts—a decade that began with the “hanging chads” of Florida and ended with our quiet little “Paradise City” being held hostage at the hands of a serial arsonist.

Our best friends were there, some familiar strangers… and Tony Baye.

Tony Baye.

A name now synonymous with fire, terror, fear, confusion, and anger.

But I called him “Tone-Loc.” A high-five, man-hug or fist bump always followed his Cheshire cat grin. I met him at a party a few years back; a party very much like this one.

He and I possessed that infectious rapport of poet-charlatans. We finished each other’s jokes, ogled at passing lasses, and spat Red Sox jargon.

Tony was cool.

Although I was nearly ten years his senior, I looked up to him. He had the bravado and confidence that men needed and women wanted.

His pretty-boy looks and egalitarian charm allowed those who flocked to his side the freedom to be themselves. He was a lover of life.

It is not my place to speculate upon whether Tony was the culprit of some fifteen arson incidents, or the purveyor of two tragic deaths occuring on the morning of an unseasonably wet and balmy December 27th. It is also not my place to try to “paint a picture” of the 25-year-old Northampton native. I was not his Little League coach, high school teacher, best friend, or co-worker. In fact, I didn’t really know him well.

But we, as a community knew him. A sum of the parts we are, and Tony was the squeaky wheel.

*

The city’s reaction was threefold upon hearing the news of Tony’s arrest on the morning of January 5th:

1) From those who knew him – shock.

“My jaw dropped, my heart sank and I felt numb. He is such a sweet guy with a great heart. In fact, days after his arrest a fairly affluent member of the Granby community who employed Tony very briefly and only knew him a short time was willing to set up a legal fund in his defense. The whole thing is just so sad.” – Jenna Ziemba, friend and co-worker of Tony’s.

2) From many of those who did not – either a “lynch mob” mentality or relief.

“This is a tragedy for all involved. If it is discovered that this “Aspiring Rap Star” is linked with physical evidence he should be hanged on the town common!!!!!!! Or just burned like his victims……………….” – posted by realityflash from MassLive.com
bq. “THANKS TO ALL THE INVESTIGATORS AND OTHERS INVOLVED THAT WORKED DAY AND NIGHT TO SOLVE THIS CASE!” – posted by mn09117 from MassLive.com

3) From those who focused on the community at large rather than on Tony’s guilt or innocence, who garnered support for the arson victims and defended justice and due process for the accused – hope and sympathy.

“The presumption of innocence is a legal right of the accused in criminal trials. It places the burden of proof is on the prosecution.”

“OUTSIDE of a criminal trial, citizens can freely speculate and presume all we want. We CANNOT pursue vigilante justice, but we are free to believe someone is guilty based upon what we’ve seen, read, and think.”

“Of course, my sympathies go out to everyone hurt by the fires, including the Baye family and, if he is innocent, Tony Baye. If he’s guilty, I can still muster some small sympathy.” – posts from the Facebook group Friends Of Northampton’s Arson Victims.

*

The morning of his arraignment, our cell phones turned to alarm clocks. My wife and I stumbled through a haze of disbelief. We searched the Internet for the most updated story, hit refresh, made coffee and watched the television. Upon the first glimpses of a grey-cloaked scruffy haired “Tone-Loc” being escorted into Northampton’s courthouse, my wife cried and I vacantly stared into my light cream heavy sugar.

Hours passed and I realized that just a few days ago, amidst the clamor of a new year’s toast, Tony was standing right here, in front of our fridge. Exactly where I was standing now while we watched our handcuffed friend exit the free world.

I made a light breakfast and Jessica went back to sleep – a defense mechanism against stress. She worked with Tony at Sierra Grille and always enjoyed the shifts that they shared. I decided to walk the streets of Northampton, hoping it would look different.

I shuffled along, my head swirling in a profusion of emotions. The passersby who all were once suspects in those unsettling days after the fires walked past me; almost every overheard conversation that trailed behind them had the key words of “they caught him” and “arsonist” and “Tony.”

Tony. Anthony Baye. Tone-Loc.

I sat down on a bench and thought of him. I thought of his mother. I thought of the handful of friends I knew that grew up with him.

A friend walked by chatting on his cell phone. His face was animated, as he was most likely reiterating to whomever was on the other end the morning news. He noticed me on the bench and mouthed ‘crazy, huh’ as he walked on by.

Crazy, huh.

Soon thereafter a police officer walked by. Cops. Generally my reaction is to not make eye contact, look the other way, and cross the street. But this morning, something inside of me said out loud, “Good job.” He tipped his hat and walked on.

Why did I say that?

Was I part of the aforementioned category two? Relief? In a way, I supposed I was. I lived in the midst of the deadly blazes, my six-year-old son even closer.

But what if Tony was innocent? In just the few hours since his arraignment I heard so many conflicting reports: first that he confessed to lighting the fire on the porch of 17 Fair Street, and then that he pled innocent in court.

I heard several times that he was pulled over in the vicinity of the fires smelling of alcohol and soaked in water. It was raining and it was after the 2 a.m. last call. Anyone who was out in the rain for more than a minute and had been at any of the dozens of bars in town could have been regarded as a suspect.

Both Mayor Clare Higgins and District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel stated that arson is an extremely difficult crime to crack, with only 11% of all cases being solved nationwide. So given that statistic, how did they come to arrest Tony a mere eight days after that fateful evening? Is law enforcement in this area really that good?

I toiled over these questions then as I do today. The who, what, why, when and where will trouble us for the next couple of months before his next court date, and perhaps months after.

My heart is still heavy, and only the passage of time may make it lighter.

Who are you, Tony?

Who are we, Tony?

Next to the bench, spray-painted in enthusiastic yellow on the side of a Main Street mailbox, were the words We Are Who We Are. That seemed to do just fine for now.

—R. Joshua Mobley

Ed Shanahan: So Stimulating

by Guest Columnist | Nov 25, 2009 7:57 pm | Comments (0)

So Stimulating:

Put the Road Builders to Work, But First Cut Down the Tall Trees

This article originally appeared in Edward Shanahan’s weblog, www.downstreet.net.

There is a good deal of debate over how successful the federal “stimulus” program has been in terms of creating jobs by undertaking various public works and other civic projects.

Which brings us, of course, to the construction of an expanded sidewalk as well the addition of a new access ramp from and to the existing bike trail at Jackson Street.

We don’t know how many jobs this project is creating, but it certainly is stimulating the rearrangement of the landscape. I recently read about the earlier work of the CCC during the Great Depression, and one of its greatest legacies was to plant—rather than remove— millions and millions of trees.

If I were Daniel Polachek and family whose house, front lawn, and a large stand of nearly 60-year-old blue spruce trees are feeling the effect of the construction, I’d feel pretty much as if I was under assault.

But in talking to Dan recently, I got the impression he is reconciled to the inevitable, although not entirely happy with what is going on in front of his home. Given the federal and state nature of the road project, whatever land and countless trees had to go to make way for the widening project, so be it. He said he did not get much sympathy about his plight in response to his calls to his city councilor and the mayor’s office. That bugs him a little.

The 10-foot-wide sidewalk being built in front of his house is gobbling up a good deal of frontage, and in some sections actually causing a narrowing of the Jackson Street roadway by about a foot, which could create future traffic bottleneck for an already heavily traveled, narrow street.

Meanwhile, Dan has been able to prevent the cutting of the remaining towering spruce trees, also originally planted by his father-in-law John Gare, in 1951, along the frontage from his home to Barrett Street. Anticipating the recent loss of so many of the other mature trees, he has planted a total of 500 tiny spruce seedlings in his side yard. In time, perhaps several years, they should be ready to transplant along the frontage of his property and eventually will provide excellent protective cover from Jackson Street traffic for his home, perhaps sometime by 2030 or 2040.

Dan and his family should be around to enjoy them then, although some of us who value old growth trees will be long gone.

-Edward Shanahan

-Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Hampshire Gazette from 1971 to 1986, Shanahan has worked as reporter and editor at the Berkshire Eagle, Congressional Quarterly, the Winston Salem Journal, the Detroit Free Press, the Quincy Patriot Ledger and the Torrington Register Citizen. In 1990, he and his wife opened a bookstore , which they ran for fourteen years. Shanahan posts at www.downstreet.net, a web journal that he founded in 2003.

La Prensa Endorsement Dishonors Real Victims

by Guest Columnist | Nov 2, 2009 4:51 pm | Comments (0)

Feminists say the personal is political. But when politics gets too personal, it’s usually a sign of a campaign that’s run out of ideas.

Today, Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins’ website prominently displays an endorsement from the Latino newspaper La Prensa that accuses challenger Michael Bardsley’s supporters of sexism and homophobia. Such vague slanders do not belong on the website of an elected official who has sworn to represent all the citizens of Northampton, not only those who give unquestioning allegiance to her policies. The mayor could have noted the endorsement without perpetuating a climate of fear and misinformation—unless, of course, she would like to distract the voters from the real issues.

The La Prensa editorial states:

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Feldman’s Slate

by Rick Feldman | Nov 1, 2009 5:32 pm | Comments (2)

Rick Feldman, former Chamber of Commerce President and 2005 mayoral candidate, has been a regular contributor to NorthamptonMedia on the topic of the upcoming municipal election. Feldman, a Higgins supporter, here presents his preferred slate of City Council candidates. Surprise? Feldman likes Ward 7’s Gene Tacy, a Higgins nemesis.

Casting votes begins in a couple of days. Thankfully, our local process doesn’t come close to the national and even state theatrics—I understand that the total expenditure of all parties and participants for the election of President in 2008 exceeded $1 billion, spent over a 30-month period. Add in the Senate, House, and Governor races around the country, and we come to realize that political campaigning is its own industry. Northampton races combined will likely not reach $100,000 and the timeline is a more humane ten months at most.

Nonetheless, we will all celebrate the completion of the process Tuesday night, even if we aren’t all celebrating the results. I want to close out my series of columns for this campaign with my selection of City Council candidates. In the Council, I’m looking for both the best candidate and for the balance of perspectives and opinions that will help the city through its current challenges.

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On Progressive Leadership

by Guest Columnist | Oct 30, 2009 8:28 pm | Comments (1)

This year’s mayoral race in Northampton has prompted many comparisons between Higgins and Bardsley, from “analytical driver” vs. “amiable expressive” styles to “truth-in-advertising” vs. “mythic-image” approaches and even “leader” vs. “social participant.” This leads to speculation about which of the two “progressives” will be better at solving the City’s problems. And the assumption seems to be that City Hall is the power that makes all things happen, with the mayor as the fixer/savior. Northampton still seems to be invested in the old paradigm of leadership: “We’ve elected you, now it’s your job to take care of us.” It shows how far there is to go in envisioning true democracy.

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Debate Season: A Critique and Some Recommendations

by Rick Feldman | Oct 22, 2009 7:03 am | Comments (0)

At the current rate of public forums and debates for the Mayoral Race in Northampton, I might have to start writing brief dispatches rather than analysis. By the time this piece goes live, at least one more debate will have occurred!

I thought the Valley Free Radio/League of Women Voters forum at Northampton High School and the Chamber of Commerce’s forum on economic development were particularly well constructed and well-run events. I didn’t attend the debate/forum on the environment but did catch it on television; what I saw suggested that it, too, offered good opportunities to the candidates. These are the sort of public forums that strengthen the entire democratic process.

The challenger in a campaign must be willing to take some greater risks by going beyond catchy phrases and blanket promises. In this case, people have given Michael Bardsley the rarest of opportunities to stand at a public podium and challenge us with specifics. He needs to start making the most if that opportunity.

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Myth, Rage, and the Mayor’s Race

by Rick Feldman | Sep 29, 2009 12:13 pm | Comments (4)

The week after Mackensie Phillips’ memoirs took the headlines away from the economy, health care, warfare, and congress, it’s almost a pleasure to be back to normal with a headline telling us that Social Security is now in the red. For many of us “boomers who still want to believe that ours was a morally enlightened era,” it may come as a severe shock that The Mamas & the Papas were not angels, but for us and following generations the status of Social Security is far more significant.

Fortunately, here in Northampton we have a local discussion about civility to bring us back to reality. Coming on the heels of loud public outbursts about health care reform around the country and a congressman shouting insults to the president during a speech to congress, discord during the councils’ “open mike” session seems especially disturbing. Add this to the threatening symbols painted on a family’s house, and we have reason for concern.

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Northampton, We Have a Problem

by Benjamin Spencer | Sep 27, 2009 9:08 am | Comments (1)

Northampton, we have a problem. The disparity between the words in our planning documents and the actions of our officials is striking. Documents produced for Vision 20/20, the Sustainability Plan, Best Practices and documents from the Citizen Advisory Committee and Planning Board all say the City of Northampton will enter the future with a vision and a plan. Would that it were so.

Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the recent decision by the Planning Board and the Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC) to jettison years of planning in order to accommodate the monolithic Kollmorgen plant on the land formerly known as “Hospital Hill.” Long-standing plans for Village Hill Northampton—a public/private development located on former state hospital land— have deviated dramatically from their initial intention in recent years. Changes made to the hill’s master plan by the CAC alter it to such a degree that it now fails to achieve its own stated goals.

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Deforestation: It Can’t Happen Here, Right?

by Guest Columnist | Sep 24, 2009 7:39 am | Comments (0)

By Don Ogden

In ancient times some places we now know as vast arid deserts, or desert-like plains, were deeply forested and thrived with abundant wildlife. What happened? Human populations pushed the envelope too far. The human race has a distressing penchant for clear-cutting great stretches of forest to feed fires, build cities, sail fleets, graze herds, or do whatever. Making matters worse, we seem to have had little interest in replanting, or better yet, intelligently managing such forests. Some gruesome examples include the once “Fertile Crescent” in the Mideast; the ancient Mediterranean;Haiti in the Caribbean, but also in the more recent past, giant swaths of the Amazon.

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Off To The Races

by Rick Feldman | Aug 26, 2009 8:23 am | Comments (3)

This week’s Sunday Boston Globe (August 23, 2009) had a headline about Mayor Menino of Boston, and I couldn’t help but think about the Northampton mayoral race as I read the article. The Menino article describes a big-city boss-type of mayor, the kind we used to read about in school text books. He seems to come out of the old Richard Daley mold: tough, assertive, in charge, outsize personality and temper, and, when it suits him, nasty. There are allusions to friends and supporters getting more than their share of deals and rewards while critics get nothing. Boston becomes an extension of the Mayor’s personality and vision, and he seems to control every facet of planning and decision making.

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