Sign up to receive Ward and political newsletters by email here.
One of the shortest weekly newsletter editions yet! But I have a few brief, time-sensitive updates on my constituent office hours, a new public outdoor leisure spot in Upper Falls, the first Ward 5 cannabis store opening, Chestnut St road work, gun control, and more.
Office hours
Tomorrow morning (Saturday), I will be hosting joint office hours with Ward 6 Ward Councilor Brenda Noel in Newton Highlands at Rodney Barker Square (corner of Lincoln St & Hartford St) from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Come meet us and discuss your top city issues or neighborhood concerns! We hope to see you there!
If you aren’t a Newton Highlands resident, you can still drop by to chat with us, but I would also be happy to schedule a separate session for you. Additionally, I am continuing my door-knocking around Ward 5 to check in with people where they are, and I’ve already stopped by about 400 homes so far.
Martin Poetry Path
The “Martin Conservation Area Poetry Path” is opening in Upper Falls this Sunday, June 27 at 11 a.m. with a ceremony. Poems written by neighbors of all ages will be displayed along the path that goes through this small patch of Newton Conservation Land donated by Edna Martin. Second graders from Mason-Rice Elementary School have also painted rocks that will be placed along the trail. There will also be readings from a few featured poets!
A reminder to conserve water this year
This week, I received a rain barrel via the team at the Department of Public Works that I purchased as part of Green Newton’s discounted barrel initiative! The barrels are meant to help reduce water bills by conserving water.
Using rain barrels is just one way to conserve water, but I encourage residents to work on water conservation this year through other methods such as using less intensive landscaping and implementing bioswales or rain gardens – natural plant and rock landscaping techniques that reduce uncontrolled water runoff.
Though this barrel sale was a limited-time initiative, I hope that we can do this again soon for other residents, now that we'll have so many testimonials from the initial round of buyers.
Cannabis store opens next month on Elliot St
Along with several other City Councilors, this week I toured the retail cannabis store opening next month in Ward 5 on Elliot St near Route 9. It’s called “Redi” and it was approved by the City Council during the previous term, before I was elected.
The management offered us this tour before it opens (and in fact before it’s stocked with anything) to be able to answer any lingering questions from members of the public and to provide reassurance that this will basically be a normal business in our community, albeit with strict regulations of course. It was an interesting tour, and I agree that it will blend in pretty quickly. In fact, my main takeaway was that this facility basically looks like an ordinary pharmacy like you might find attached to a doctor’s office, but with some Silicon Valley startup aesthetics.
If you are a Newton resident and still have questions for the management of this establishment, please let me know, and I will pass them along. In my experience, this particular group has been some of the most responsive to the public’s concerns and open to dialogue. But I am still expecting that this business will be relatively low-profile after the initial novelty wears off.
Chestnut St update
The road work on Chestnut St continues next week, but we are in the final stretch for the Route 9 to Beacon St project, as the “cold-in-place recycling” paving treatment (described in the newsletter linked there) moves forward – weather permitting as always. If the weather does cooperate, the current hope is to be wrapping up around July 19. Trash and recycling pickup should remain on a normal schedule during this final phase.
Gun control update
A public hearing was held on Monday by the Zoning & Planning Committee regarding a total ban of the firearms industry. Though some other Councilors support this ban, I have explained in my newsletters published on May 28 and May 14 why I oppose this proposal from a strategic standpoint. Very few people attended this public hearing compared to the one held on the strict regulatory approach, and very few of those who attended spoke in support of a total ban.