We were living in Detroit at the time and as a reporter I was covering the urban scene in that predominately black city. At the same time we were also looking forward to moving to Northampton to assume the job of editor of the local newspaper, so we were more than mildly interested in the Claude Brown conflict.

It is hard to imagine such a dispute fracturing today’s hipper Northampton the way the attempted book burning effort by Chief Whalen did then. Viewed from Detroit, the Northampton of 1971 seemed like a somewhat scary backwater.

Ultimately, cooler and more tolerant heads prevailed, and the chief, a political conservative, withdrew from the fray somewhat chastened, although he would never convey that.

And one would have to say that Claude Brown had more staying power and impact than Northampton’s police chief. According to the New York Times obituary writer, "Manchild" has sold more than 4,000,000 copies, been translated into 14 languages, is required reading in many high schools and college classes, and still sells some 30,000 copies a year.

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There was a time in the affairs of cities when any suggestion that municipal park land be snatched up for some other use would trigger a furious protest.

Citizens would pack meeting rooms and threaten to place their fragile bodies in the path of any heavy equipment that was dispatched to infiltrate any greensward. Elected officials learned that they would pay a heavy price if they failed to protect the tiniest scrap of park land.

Not so in the Northampton where the City Council in league with the Recreation Department and its passive director, Ray Ellerbrook, recently and happily allowed the paving over of perhaps a quarter of Sheldon Field for a parking lot, which is intended to be used for a park- and- ride program to speed citizens across the Coolidge Bridge.

The parking lot is finished, even though the bridge renovation is not, and a sea of macadam and granite curbing sits empty. It’s not as though the park land will be exchanged for some positive use: earth and green grass was traded for blacktop with white striped lines.

What is curious is that during the entire time last fall when Sheldon Field was under assault by earth movers and graders, there was not a single voice raised in protest.

Parking for the number of cars that will fit on the lot is minimal, in relation to number of cars traversing the bridge every day. What is lost are basketball courts, a skateboard park and green space. In another era less obsessed with cars and parking, Little Leaguers, their coaches and parents and pick-up basketball players would have stormed City Hall.

With similar public acquiescence, the City Council also agreed to yield up a portion of Veterans Field, off West Street, to the overflow of cars from Eric Suher’s Felt Building development. Not a whisper of protest. Park land. Who needs it? Parking, that’s the ticket, even though a community can never stockpile enough park land.

And now comes the latest proposal to shave off a section of Arcanum Field in Florence to clear space for a full-fledged, top of the line-intersection with full-frontal stop light at Bridge Road and North Maple Street. The lost park land will be taken to make the intersection more truck friendly, we are told.

There is an old Northampton tradition - one that does not exist in most communities - to allow various interests to eat away at public park land when its expedient or cheap to do so. Remember when the Hotel Northampton was given permission to occupy some of the lawn ringing the Hampshire Count Courthouse to create what is now a well-established outdoor cafe where young professionals consume over-priced drinks and nibble food while loitering on what had previously been - and may still be - publicly-owned land.

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One recent addition to the local on-line scene appears to be emerging as an important community bulletin board, keeping some of us informed about issues that we might not otherwise hear about.

It is called the Paradise City Forum at noho@yahoogroup.com and it is an outgrowth of the activism of community-minded and aware citizens - chiefly Greg Sandler and Nancy Whittier - in the South Street area who actually believe that public policy issues are worth addressing. Their concern grew of the fears that development at the State Hospital property would have a devastating impact on their neighborhood, not a baseless fear at all. So far, nearly 40 postings about community issues have appeared on the forum.

From its strictly parochial South Street concerns, the group has swept into its orbit other groups with other concerns - in fact, one posting on the forum site addressed the issue of the appropriateness of the Bridge Road intersection proposal, alerting visitors to the site to an upcoming hearing. And the beleaguered Leeds neighborhood confronting the Beaver Brook Estates gorilla has joined the forum.

I can foresee the Paradise City Forum becoming much more essential to the needs and interests of those city residents whose concerns go beyond the menus and venues of downtown restaurants which preoccupy so much mainstream media attention these days.