Ayer and Shirley: America's Newest Food Desert

The following is the text of a commentary airing mostly on Liberty & Justice 1640:

Hannaford Supermarket in Ayer is now gone. Hannaford management wanted to bring the store up to 21st century standards. The local land owner said "no."

The Ayer Farmers Market is no longer operating on Saturdays during the Summer and Fall. Why? The local land owner said "no." He also said "no" to rail commuters who need access through "his" land to reach the few job pools in the region still able to sustain middle class life. He also said "no" to the parking needs of nearby small businesses. After all, he is *The Land Owner.* If he unrealistically expects his slice of downtown to remain as pristine as an acre of remote northern Maine woods, that's his prerogative under capitalism, isn't it?

And finally, lest we forget, we do (or did) have a local farm stand in Ayer. But it's only open from July to Labor Day and only during years when the owner feels like opening it.

Welcome to Ayer and Shirley, where narcissism and eccentricity have produced America's newest food desert.
      
To anyone even casually familiar with the recent departure of Hannaford Supermarket from Ayer, as well as the small seasonal venues for fresh vegetables that either no longer exist or are no longer reliable, it should be obvious which groups are almost entirely responsible for their demise: selfish land owners, greedy real estate developers, and dysfunctional town zoning boards.

Food that is nourishing enough to sustain health is essential to human life. Maintaining local retail sources of food should be of such importance that it warrants intervention by town governments, even to the point of exercising eminent domain, when private land owners repeatedly demonstrate self-centered, pathological behavior with no sense whatsoever of the greater public good. Yet, this behavior should be no surprise. Just look what the local real estate developers and land owners have given Ayer and Shirley over the past 15 years. They have destroyed nearly all of our remaining viable agricultural land and filled it with cookie-cutter, energy wasting McMansions that fewer and fewer people can afford. What, you want new organic small farms? That's for those hippies out in western Mass. and New York state. What, you want zero net energy homes? That's for those hippies on Devens... or something like that. And for all you working poor people who make up the bulk of the population of these two towns, don't you just love those rents which have more than doubled over the past 15 years? Don't you love how easy it has become to pay your bills and stay out of debt, thanks to the local land owners?

"Hey, get me to the money with as little effort or thought as possible! And those poor people, they deserve what they get."

Of course, it's easy to think that way if you have the time and money to climb into a $50,000 vehicle and go food shopping in Leominster, Lunenburg, or Acton, or better yet, have a servant or employee do it for you. But most low income working people in Ayer and Shirley do not have such options. Many do not own even an old, beat up vehicle. The local landlords and business interests have made sure that most are within a 10 minute walk from all the alcoholic beverages they could ever want to drown their sorrows. But a nice bunch of health sustaining, organic kale? You have to hitch a ride out of town for that one, boy!

If you think town governments will finally rise to the call and seize these vital, limited properties until truly appropriate buyers emerge who will end the food desert, don't hold your breath. In the early years of this century, a plan to expand Roux's Market to two stories and vastly increase their grocery offerings was shot down by the Shirley zoning board. But a year or two later, that same board had no problem allowing a chain franchise like Dunkin Donuts to come in by knocking down a classic, residential building in otherwise good condition.

As long as idiocy, eccentricity, narcissism, and greed continue to persist in the local real estate industry and in town governments, the Ayer-Shirley Food Desert may persist for many years to come. So, brace yourself. But for every month it continues, the more and more likely the two towns will become the laughing stock of the state, especially considering that most surrounding communities avoided such problems by exercising sanity, vision, and common sense.

Special programming on 95.1 The Voice of the Resistance through Christmas week

It was the most censored video on YouTube from mid November to mid December 2014. Lenny Pozner, alleged father of Noah Pozner, filed a groundless copyright infringement complaint in an attempt to keep the public from seeing it. But they couldn't suppress it forever. And now we have it here. 95.1 FM has been reactivated to air "Let's Talk About Sandy Hook," the documentary soundtrack in its entirety, playing repeatedly though at least Sunday, December 28th. A live stream of the broadcast is also available. Regardless of your views on gun legislation, childhood mental health screening, psychotropic drugs, or the pharmaceutical giants that push them, give it a listen and decide for yourself where the truth lies.

Troubadour 1700 AM and 97.9 FM will begin airing continuous folk and instrumental Christmas music beginning Wednesday morning the 24th.We wish you a peaceful, rewarding holiday season and we look forward to 2015 where my goal will be to bring our micro transmitters to downtown areas in North Central Massachusetts, the Nashoba Valley, and possibly Metro West. Stay tuned. 

Yet another change in the audio streaming URL's

First, an apology to all on line listeners over the fact that the audio streams had been down for weeks before I discovered the problem. That is how busy I have been with other matters! Emails from my host that were sent a month in advance warning of a change in audio streaming servers somehow never made it to my Inbox. Here are the new URL's to bookmark in your favorite computer based player or Wifi radio:

Troubadour 1700:
http://69.80.74.84:7010

Liberty & Justice 1640:
http://69.80.74.84:7012

Personally, I hate URL changes in audio streams. They outdate your streaming bookmarks so fast, that even just a year later, half of them no longer work. But this was a business decision by my host and it is beyond my control. All audio links on the websites should be updated by the time you read this. Our pages on Tune In should also be working again shortly, as well as listening over the phone through Zeno Radio. Our phone numbers for listening remain the same:

Troubadour 1700:
1-786-265-1649

Liberty & Justice 1640:
1-786-265-1650

AM Stereo Experiments had mixed results

After an experimental period of several weeks operating in C-Quam AM Stereo, Troubadour 1700 has gone back to mono operation with the installation of a second new SSTran AMT-5000 transmitter. But in retrospect, I may have been too critical of the ASMAX-1 AM Stereo transmitter I had been using for the experiments. It did sound very good and provided excellent stereo separation and competitive signal range. I had to modify the ASMAX-1's audio input to give it the "SSTRan sound" that has been a trademark of Minimum Wage Media's AM signals. But after the installation of the second new AMT-5000, a few anomalies and artifacts that I had blamed on the ASMAX-1 were still there.

The trickiest part of our AM operation is the fact that we have two transmitting antennas only 12 feet apart in distance and only 60 kHz apart in operating frequency. A major adjustment or tuning on one often effects the efficiency, range, and behavior of the other. Plus, ground conductivity is never the same, especially as the seasons change. So to get both stations at absolute peak antenna tuning and at equal maximum signal output is a difficult challenge. But I am happy to report that we are pretty much there at this point and certainly better than through most of our history. So the current setup will remain as it is through next spring, minus the AM Stereo, unfortunately. During the winter months, I will need to concentrate on the goal of vastly expanding our network of transmitters throughout north central Massachusetts and the Nashoba Valley region with the creation of an Indiegogo fund raiser to help make it happen.

Live Coverage of the People's Climate March in New York City

95.1 FM, the Voice of the Resistance, will be reactivated again this weekend to make WBAI's coverage of the People's Climate March conveniently available on any FM radio in the Shirley Center, North Shirley, and Woods Village neighborhoods. So as to not miss any pre and post-march interviews, we will begin carrying WBAI starting Saturday morning and continue until at least midnight on Monday morning. The actual march is scheduled for 10:30 AM to 1 PM on Sunday.

Special 9/11 Broadcast: The 9/11 Truth Film Festival

We will be reactivating 95.1, The Voice of the Resistance, for this special broadcast, live from the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California. The broadcast starts at 4 PM Eastern on 9/11/14 and continues until 2 AM Eastern on 9/12/14. There will be no audio streaming from us. For both on line video and audio, go to the source, No Lies Radio, and make a contribution. If you listen to the Liberty & Justice broadcast on 95.1 FM, and find it rewarding, please also sent us a token $5 for our efforts.

The Choices in this Tuesday's Massachusetts Primary Utterly Suck!

Listen to my on-air commentary.