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Five days of early voting both for the March 3 Presidential Primary and citywide Northland referendum begin this coming Monday, Feb. 24. You can vote early at City Hall, Monday through Thursday of next week (Feb 24-27) from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and also on Friday (Feb 28) from 8 AM to 5 PM.
Don’t forget on your Democratic primary ballot to vote for local party positions. I am running for re-election to the Ward 5 Democratic Committee as well as running for our local male seat on the Democratic State Committee. (You can learn more about that here.) I hope to earn your vote!
Coming Up (Feb 18-23, Partial List)
City Council meeting tonight (Tuesday, 7:45 PM): This is a very light agenda covering...
2 business signage changes
2 permit time extensions
8 commission or board or staff appointments or reappointments
Various small items from the Finance Committee and Programs & Services Committee that I recapped last week in my newsletter
Mayor Fuller / Governor Baker Announcement of Upper Falls MassWorks Infrastructure Grant (Thursday, 9:15 AM, 1234 Chestnut St B Entry): The state has approved a grant for an engineering and design study for transportation and neighborhood improvement projects to the Upper Falls Greenway and Pettee Square intersection. The announcement event there by Pettee Square this week will feature Governor Charlie Baker, Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Secretary Mike Kennealy, and Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller. The Mayor’s update describes the Pettee Sq project as follows “we are aiming for traffic signal replacements, roadway milling and new pavement, new concrete sidewalks, new ADA accessible curb cut ramps, upgrades to the drainage system, new pavement markings, lighting upgrades, new traffic signs, landscaping and streetscape improvements, and potentially a raised table intersection and raised crosswalk at the Greenway.”
Upper Falls Area Council (Thursday, 7 PM, Emerson Community Center): Agenda items include...
They are still looking to appoint a 9th member to a vacant seat! Come be part of your neighborhood government.
Planning the March 21 Upper Falls Soup Social honoring John Rice
Ken Newcomb Upper Falls Book Award
Update on the Christina/Oak/Needham St intersection lights discussion with MassDOT
Joint Office Hours in Waban with Councilor Downs (Saturday, Waban Starbucks, 10 AM to 11:30 AM) - check my website for any updates or changes to the time
Joint Office Hours in Newton Highlands with Councilor Noel (Sunday, Stacks Espresso Bar, 9:30 AM to 11 AM) - check my website for any updates or changes to the time
Docket Review - New Filed Items
This week in my review of newly filed docket items I wanted to highlight two specific items:
“#134‐20 Discussion on easing the tax burden on low‐ and fixed income Newton residents - COUNCILORS HUMPHREY, RYAN, BOWMAN, MALAKIE, WRIGHT, DOWNS, DANBERG AND NOEL requesting a discussion with relevant city staff and a representative of the Massachusetts Department of Local Services to explore possible local tax reforms with the goal of easing the tax burden on low‐ and fixed‐income Newton residents and shifting it to those residents who can comfortably afford to pay a greater share of revenues.”
This is my second item as lead docketer, and I’m joined by 7 other councilors so far. Not everyone in Newton is a very wealthy homeowner with a huge home and a big income, but some residents certainly are. A one-sized fits all policy on revenues therefore presents some problems. With city budgets tight and many residents – especially seniors who aren’t wealthy – struggling to keep up with taxes and home maintenance costs, it would be good to try to rearrange our taxes, if we can. Although cities in Massachusetts are funded primarily through property taxes, which are generally flat and not progressive by income or wealth, the state does allow some flexibility on how those are figured, and we in Newton use some but not all options available to us. Fortunately, it happens that the Department of Local Services has recently been working on educating municipalities specifically on these options. This item is docketed as a discussion, not an actual proposal yet, because we’ll need to figure out first what if anything could work for Newton that we aren’t currently doing. Then if there is something from a policy standpoint that would address our concerns – and not create unintended negative consequences as a byproduct – we will consider docketing a specific change.
“#121‐20 Request for a study on construction vibration standards - COUNCILORS ALBRIGHT, LEARY, DOWNS, LAREDO, KRINTMZAN, WRIGHT, CROSSLEY, MALAKIE, BAKER, NORTON, GREENBERG, BOWMAN, MARKIEWICZ, HUMPHREY, AND RYAN based on the Washington Place Liaison Committee recommendations, requesting the study, analysis, review of vibration standards related to construction projects as they affect neighboring buildings. The outcome of this analysis could be an amendment to the Noise Ordinance to include a vibration section, regulations on vibrations and/or a vibration section to be included in construction management plans.”
One of the big problems residents have had with all the recent construction in Newton from large projects down to home rebuilds next door has been the noise of it all and what hours or days of the week the noise is happening. Everyone would probably be a lot happier overall if the noise were better controlled and regulated, so this item seeks to figure out what should be done to that end.
My Week-in-Review (Feb 11-17)
NSHS Panel on Political Climate Action: I was asked by Newton South teachers to be a panelist to students on the topic of local political action on climate change during their teach-in last week. I focused on my experience not just as a new councilor receiving constituent contacts, but also my years of environmental activism and marriage equality activism, in figuring out how groups of citizens, including students, can identify and exploit pressure points in the government to move elected officials to change their position. My co-panelists were a representative from Citizens Climate Lobby on their approach to lobbying elected officials for a price on carbon and a representative from Communities Responding to Extreme Weather. The latter organization works to prove the premise (supported by scientific research into past extreme weather events) that together, as communities, in solidarity with our neighbors, we can reduce the death toll from extreme weather events related to climate change such as heat waves and flooding. Children and low-income, isolated seniors, particularly in communities of color, can be especially vulnerable to these events but research shows that the death toll can be reduced when our community ties to our neighbors are stronger and people check in on each other.
BC Fossil Fuel Divestment Rally: On Thursday afternoon of last week, Boston College student activists (backed by alumni) rallied as part of National Fossil Fuel Divestment Day before presenting their demands to the BC administration to divest the college's multi-billion-dollar endowment fund and other finances from the fossil fuel industry, arguing the investments are incompatible with Jesuit doctrine. Unfortunately the students say the administration has been very hostile to their protests and that they have been threatened with police action. This is especially remarkable considering Georgetown University, one of BC’s peers as a major Jesuit university, just committed to divesting from fossil fuels a few weeks ago. Councilor Emily Norton (Ward 2) & I were there in person to show our support on Thursday, but other Newton City Councilors and Boston City Councilors sent words of support as well.
Waban Area Council February Meeting: (My notes in brief here.) There was a big audience this week at the monthly meeting of the Waban Area Council in relation to the ongoing neighbor concerns about Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s power generation plans, but (as noted in the agenda) there was only a short update from Area Council President Chris Pitts for now to hold us over to next month – and no representative of the hospital present this month to address any other questions. The big challenge right now is a lack of clear communication and explanation of what exactly is or is not being proposed; so neighbors don’t have a good sense yet of whether or not there is a need for concern or what alternatives for stable power supply have been considered. I’m hoping to get clearer answers soon, just like all of you. I’m hoping with some clarity we will know what is actually even under consideration, instead of all of us trying to piece it together from conflicting information and rumors. On the rest of the agenda, Councilor Downs as Vice Chair of Public Safety & Transportation presented on the committee's recent public discussions on what priorities residents want the Council to work on for transportation and related safety issues. (Thanks again to residents on Chestnut St between Beacon St and Fuller St for recapping their safety concerns this month and pressing us to keep making progress.) And finally, a Waban resident noted that many of the street lights on Quinobequin are not functioning, but of course it's a state road with private utilities (not a city road with city contracts) so everyone is trying to push off the problem onto everyone else. Councilor Downs plans to look into it further.
Finally, City Councilor Maria Scibelli Greenberg (Ward 1) & I helped kick off the Bernie 2020 Newton door-knocking effort at the Newtonville staging location this past Sunday, and then I set off into Newton Highlands to talk to folks about why I’m supporting Senator Sanders for the Democratic nomination. If you’d like to know more or get involved, please let me know, and I will get you connected to the right people. As always, I have a standing offer to talk to anyone at any time to try to answer questions they might have about Sanders and his platform. And I’ll be out knocking doors on the weekends until we get to the March 3rd primary.