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Amherst is anti-business, and is becoming more so every year. On this July 17th 2006, the Select Board will meet to talk about raising the parking fines again, intentionally for the purpose of fundraising for a bus route. Apparently, my talks, the articles that I have written to the Amherst Bulletin, and this top ranked site about Amherst Parking has done nothing to change their wrong minded thinking. Strong businesses in Amherst will make more money for the town then parking fines. Abuse of parking enforcement for the purpose of fundraising drives customers away from the town center and the businesses located there.
Businesses that serve the permanent residents of Amherst have all but been driven away, hardware stores, pharmacies, and food markets, to be replaced with businesses that only serve student interests, beauty salons, tattoo parlors, and comic book shops. These stores have thrived because students can walk into town from the University and so for them parking is not an issue. As far as the Town of Amherst is concerned, every other business in town is just a lure for collecting more parking fines. These are the businesses in the town center that would benefit from parking provided by the town.
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