Links that you will find useful
Transportation related links
Massachusetts Highway Department has a section their website that has ADTs 
[average daily trips--car counts] for most roads in the state. You can use this to compare the traffic in a potential new neighborhood with a place you are familiar with. CLICK HERE.
Sustainable initiatives related links
New England GreenStart is New England GreenStart is part of a program called GreenUp that is being 
offered by our local utility, National Grid. GreenUp allows you to choose cleaner, healthier electricity right on your regular utility bill and is available to all National Grid residential and small commercial customers. New England GreenStart is a blend of 100% renewable energy resources all located right here in New England. You can choose to match either 100% or 50% of your electricity use with renewable energy sources. Want to know more about why to choose New England GreenStart? CLICK HERE
Just Soap is a hand-crafted, all natural soap blended by bicycle! Why the bicycle? Traditional soap making demands hours of stirring! So founder Frederick Breeden - a biking enthusiast and environmentalist - had plenty of time to dream up a more efficient and eco-friendly method of mixing the soap. He shared his vision with a bicycle builder, and the result is a one-of-a-kind bicycle-powered soap blender. This is the soap we provide in the guest rooms at our Bed & Breakfast. CLICK HERE
Pedal People is a human-powered delivery and hauling service for items under 300 pounds in Northampton, It was started in December 2002 and is now an incorporated cooperative business with eleven active workers as of June 2007. They have five bike trailers in the fleet. Four are six-foot long Bikes At Work bicycle trailers with a hitch that attaches to the rear chainstay. The bed of the trailer is 19" wide and 64" inches long. It has a capacity of 300 pounds. They recently purchased an eight-foot trailer as well. For pictures and more information, see the Bikes At Work web site. What kinds of things have they hauled on the trailer? Besides recycling & trash and groceries, they've hauled bicycles, couches, washers/dryers, futons, tables, computers, cats, friends, laundry, a king-size bed, lumber, windows, memorial stones, refrigerators, solar panels, a 100 square foot greenhouse, CSA shares, trees stumps and trunks, sand, leaves, and compost.
RunAbout Cycles Inc; has been building electric cycles and serving the alternative transportation community since 2004. We specialize in crafting electric human hybrid tricycles. Our staff offers quality support for a wide range of electric cycles, including electric tricycles, bicycles and motorcycles. RunAbout Cycles’ recumbent electric human hybrid tricycles are fun, healthy, and environmentally friendly. With our electric-assist, you can ride wherever you need to go, be it to the store, to work, or into the country, with a range of up to forty miles, on battery alone.
Full copying and finishing services you can count on--for over 20 years. [and my favorite copy shop.]
General links about the area
The Northampton Chamber of Commerce. The Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce creates, maintains and promotes a vital, thriving climate for business and supports the civic, educational and economic well-being of greater Northampton. Whether your business depends on visitors or on customers and employees who live here, you need our region to be economically healthy. CLICK HERE
Hidden-Tec is a group of over 600 tech and other professionals who have chosen to live here in the beautiful Pioneer Valley-usually leaving a large metropolitan area behind and work from home--using the broadband internet to work productively. It all started to expand with a report that Amy Zuckerman wrote for the Boston Globe in the Spring of 2002.
A virtual tour of Northampton by Historic Northampton. Historic Northampton is a museum of local history in the heart of the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts. Its collection of approximately 50,000 objects and three historic buildings is the repository of Northampton and Connecticut Valley history from the Pre-Contact era to the present. The museum maintains a permanent exhibit chronicling the rich history of Northampton in its main gallery and features changing exhibitions in its rotating exhibit space.
The area's best web-based jobs listing site. Looking to advertise a local job? Looking for a local job yourself? You've come to the right place! NohoJobs.com is dedicated to serving the employment needs of Northampton, MA and neighboring towns. Free for job seekers. Free for employers. CLICK HERE
Eastworks, a great reuse of an old industrial complex. Located in the Connecticut River Valley, at the foot 
of the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, Eastworks a growing community of businesses, artisans, and other professionals, all sharing an historic mill building. ClICK HERE
The Florence History Project. Sojourner Truth lived in Florence, Massachusetts before the Civil War and had a major impact on the community.
Downstreet.net is a great series of essays and behind the scenes information 
about what is happening in Northampton/Florence. All the stories behind the latest stories in the paper.
Visit Northampton.net is a site that helps newscomers learn about all that is Northampton and the Pioneer Valley.
221 Pine Street in Florence is the home of the Arts and Industry Building. One of the country's frirst successful business 'incubator' projects.
A site dedicated to the history of the old State Hospital in Northampton.
My websites in my various realms
A site devoted to the restoration of a beautiful old truss bridge in Northfield, MA
The Schell Memorial Bridge is a 515--foot long steel cantilever truss bridge donated in 1902 to the town of Northfield by one of its leading citizens, Francis R. Schell, who hoped to obtain easy access from his chateau in downtown Northfield to the East Northfield Railroad Station.
Lack of funding for maintenance and rehabilitation are ongoing threats to the Schell Bridge. The town never had sufficient funding to maintain the bridge and by 1985, it was so deteriorated that it was closed. In 2003, the Schell Bridge was submitted to PreservatiON Mass, for inclusion on the state's most endangered list. After careful consideration, it was included on the high profile list and shortly thereafter, Friends of Schell Bridge, Inc. was formed to be the entity advocating for its restoration. They are now gaining traction.
Sugar Maple Trailside Inn, is our bed and breakfast near Smith College. In fact, we are the closest bed & breakfast to Smith College and regularly win "Best in the Valley" awards from the Valley Advocate. The building itself is a recently restored 1865 Colonial home with Italianate characteristics that in 2003 was awarded the City of Northampton's Historic Preservation Award. The restoration and the interesting stories behind it were also the subject of a segment on House & Garden Television’s (HGTV) acclaimed series, RESTORE AMERICA.
Northeast Greenway Solutions (NEGS) is a small, but capable consulting firm set up to bring cogent solutions to communities considering trail development. NEGS partners with other non-profits, engineering companies, communities or grass-roots trails organizations, helping to bring fresh ideas to the difficult questions surrounding trail development. Some of the tasks that NEGS is equipped to perform include: assessing former steam railroad or electric trolley right-of-way, deed research, rail-w-trail feasibility projects, industrial archaeology along a corridor, neighborhood outreach and/or training of grass-roots groups.
A new land protection entity has been formed in Massachusetts. Central Highlands Conservancy L.L.C. [CHC] has been set up to buy former railroad corridor that will prevent possible sales to adjacent landowners who would fragment the corridor. CHC will then work with local land trusts to raise the money through many different sources including private funding in order to put the land into protected status. If no land trust is in the needed area, CHC will help to create one and/or help with a capital campaign to raise the funds needed to buyout CHC. CHC is primarily interested in, and will focus on, former railroad corridors that can become a part of a regional network and have the capability to provide an off-road connection between schools, downtown areas, city/town services and recreation areas. CHC will hold onto these corridors for safe keeping so to speak and will sell them later to the land trust--or community--for cost + expenses. [No mark-up]
We Can't Build That.com. Too often, developers take the easy route and build modern retail in a way that excludes pedestrians and only caters to automobiles. In many places today, this type of development has led to the demise of local downtown areas as viable places to do business. In some places, citizens and local officials have tried to build something better. Of course, in most cases, the developers have said "NO!" "We can't build that!" This site shows that in some cases developers have built what some call "New Urbanist" construction to house the modern retail entities we are all so familiar with.
MassCentral Rail Trail An intrepid adventure traveler can still find traces of it in the wilderness. A 104 mile railroad line was shattered by a hurricane in 1938. The line once stretched from downtown Boston to Northampton, MA. Now, almost seventy years later, dedicated volunteers, property owners and our government agencies and business partner in 24 communities are working to dig it out and open it up. Instead of trains there will be tourists and locals, bed & breakfast inns, cross-country skiers, bicyclists, hikers, joggers, and babies in baby carriages.
Mill River Bridge
New Haven and Northampton
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