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I hope everyone is staying warm and safe in these unusually cold few weeks.
Don’t forget to clear your sidewalks of snow within 24 hours! DPW also asks me to remind constituents that if they wish to report an uncleared sidewalk somewhere, they should use the City of Newton 311 system to do so. Call it in to 617-796-1000 or download the 311 smartphone app.
Remember to get your ballot for the March 16 citywide special elections.
Upper Falls residents have opportunities at this Thursday's virtual Upper Falls Area Council Meeting and next Monday's legally-mandated virtual community meeting to learn more about the proposed retail marijuana site for 1185 Chestnut St in the Upper Falls village center.
In today’s newsletter I have a few updates about our City Council meeting tonight, as well as some other points of community interest.
(If you are looking for information on covid-19 vaccinations, please subscribe to the Mayor’s regular email updates or call the City of Newton’s main number. I am not including that info in my newsletter, since the situation changes regularly and the City Council has no role in that, so I don’t want to give out incorrect or dated info.)
Winter Parking Ban Suspended This Year
You probably already heard that the City of Newton’s wintertime overnight parking ban (except for snow emergencies) has been suspended for the entire winter season this year, due to unusual circumstances related to the pandemic. This has once again raised the perennial question as to whether or not the wintertime overnight parking ban should be repealed completely (again, except for snow emergencies). I hear this from quite a few Ward 5 residents, but I also hear from people who support keeping the ban. Not every neighborhood in Newton has the same circumstances. Some areas of the city do not really have enough garage and driveway capacity. But one of the (intentional) side effects of the seasonal overnight parking ban is to ensure that Boston College students and residents of all the new housing developments across the city are not leaving their cars all around the surrounding residential neighborhoods.
So, what do you think about the wintertime overnight parking ban: Should it remain on the books or is it time to repeal it?
Key items before City Council tonight
Grace Church: This Episcopal Church in Newton Corner has requested around $1.4 million in Community Preservation Act funds for historic preservation to make emergency stabilizations to their belltower/steeple. This has become a controversial request on the City Council, not only for the scale of the request, but also for the legal and constitutional questions around it. Unfortunately, I will have to vote no on this request, given its religious purpose and my unwillingness to pick and choose which religious institutions and projects are deserving of public funds. I believe a steeple is religious in form and function, unlike a church playground and unlike the secular community functions that the church serves, as noted by supporters of the request. And we aren't acquiring the church building (or even just the tower) for public use and secular preservation.
Many, many churches in this state and our city specifically are struggling for members and money. If churches are a big part of our historic landscape in Newton, which I think they are, then I think the city needs to develop a comprehensive plan and formula for preservation of religious architecture in Newton so that we aren't put into this ad hoc decision-making position again. The government shouldn't be in the business of picking and choosing active and ongoing religious sects to support or not support as they encounter financial challenges, which is why we should probably stay out of aiding religious sects at all, at least insofar as that support is for their religious maintenance, not secular uses unrelated to religious function, form, services, or programming. And if we don’t wish to remain completely out of it, then we need a comprehensive formula and criteria for awarding aid without discrimination.
Garages ordinance: After a failed reform effort five or six years ago, and after many months of revisions and public input, the City Council is close to passing a zoning reform specifically to the rules around the design and construction of garages. The objective of this seemingly minor reform remains the same as the previous attempt: Limiting the dimensions and dominance of garages in new construction should act as a lever controlling the size, look, and feel of new “mcmansion” houses around the City of Newton. Many of these new single- and two-family homes came to include enormous garages that took up a huge percentage of the front of the house and often included extremely large driveways and wide curb cuts. It remains to be seen how much effect this will actually have in practice – and there will likely be some further tweaks in the next year or two to adjust for unusual “edge case” scenarios like small lots or accessory dwelling units over garages – but for now this seems like a positive step forward to address something we get a lot of complaints about from residents. (Proportionally, Ward 5 has some of the highest demolition rates for new construction in the city recently.) We hope that this will return the focus of house design to housing people, rather than emphasizing housing cars.
Emergency rental assistance extension: In January 2021, nearly 200 Newton households were still receiving emergency rental assistance in response to the pandemic. So far $1.6 million has been distributed. The Community Preservation Commission is recommending an additional $1.2 million to extend help through June 2021. The City Council should be voting on this tonight. I remain firmly in support of extending this program, and I think many of my colleagues agree that we will probably need to extend it again beyond June, given the very slow pace of vaccinations and job recovery. This program is the difference between having a place to live and becoming homeless for some of my constituents. (If you need to apply for rental assistance, do so here. If you need to apply for utility bills assistance, there is more info here.)
Reform for research & development: Newton’s Economic Development Commission and our city’s Planning staff requested a minor clarification in our zoning ordinances with regard to laboratory research & development businesses to promote the booming life sciences industry in Newton, as well as robotics, sustainability, and more. (We will only be voting today on changes to non-residential zones, deferring questions on this issue in residential zones for a later date.) They believe that these changes clarify the intent of the original language, but spell it out more explicitly, and that the changes support the goals of the city’s 2019 Economic Development Strategy. That document included the following related goals: “Increase lab space to capitalize highly-skilled workforce with science background and regional economic trends.” “Increase office space in Newton … to attract and retain companies and increase the commercial tax base.” “Target growth sectors based on Newton’s strengths – bio/life sciences; healthtech; professional and technical services (including IT).”
Docket review: “Vote 16”
Near the end of 2020, I introduced the following “home rule petition” from the City Council to the State Legislature, which if passed by the Council and signed by the Mayor would seek to obtain state permission to allow 16- and 17-year-old residents to participate in our municipal elections. This was introduced at the request of the Vote 16 Newton student coalition.
The goal of this change would be to help younger residents have more of a voice in the community and become and remain regular voters before they head off to college. We also believe that they are directly affected by many of the policy issues debated by the School Committee and by the City Council (especially on long-term issues like environmental policy). They also already work in our community and spend money here!
#494-20 Request for Home Rule Petition to provide legal voting rights in municipal elections for residents aged 16 and 17 years old: COUNCILORS HUMPHREY, RYAN, BOWMAN, NOEL, GREENBERG, DANBERG, DOWNS, KELLEY, LEARY, and NORTON requesting a home rule petition to provide legal voting rights in municipal elections for City of Newton residents aged 16 and 17 years old.
The mechanism we will be proposing at the advice of our recently retired City Clerk and Election Commissioner, David Olson, is very simple: The city would use the already-existing state “pre-registration” system for 16- and 17-year-olds to create a list of teens who can participate in city elections before they turn 18.
January’s The League Presents (the NewTV show from the League of Women Voters Newton) features a discussion with NNHS junior Olivia & NNHS senior Coral, co-chairs of Vote16 Newton, a non-partisan, student run campaign dedicated to lowering the voting age in Newton to 16 years.
Waban Library To-Go
The volunteer-run community library at the Waban Library Center now has contactless pickup of its resources during the pandemic. Even if you don’t live in Waban, you can still get a card for the Waban Library and participate in this new system during the pandemic. Online ordering and to-go pickup hours are all available on the Waban Library Center website. Additional information is posted on Village 14. As a reminder, the Waban Library Center is not part of the Newton Free Library system.
Wyman St Fire
On January 24, the Newton Fire Department responded quickly to suppress a rapidly spreading fire at one of the Newton Housing Authority apartments on Wyman St in Waban. I spoke to Chief Lucchetti several times afterward. The fire is believed to have originated from a candle, which is a good reminder to all of us to be very careful with candles at home and keep them far away from walls and curtains, as well as not leaving them in a room unattended. Four households were displaced at least temporarily by the fire, smoke, and water damage. There is an online fundraiser by the Newton Housing Authority to help replace personal effects for the displaced families. The fundraiser met its $12,000 goal in a couple of days, but I’m including the link just in case anyone still wanted to help pitch in.