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This will be a longer newsletter because it was a busy week, but I think there’s something for everyone. I have included a brief campaign update; a Linda Plaut Festival recap; a July 12 City Council meeting note; a detailed update on some critically important Programs & Services agenda items (including a Senior Center update); a public safety advisory; a Waban Square Village Vision Kit Walk opportunity; a review of newly filed docket items; and more.
Campaign update
We’ve reached the middle of this rather damp July and I’ve gotten through my first round of door-knocking in Ward 5 Precincts 2, 3, and 4 covering Waban and part of Newton Highlands, and I am now knocking doors in Newton Upper Falls.
This has been an invaluable way to find out specific neighborhood concerns and to alert city staff about problems. As usual, I recommend people file a report through the City’s 311 computer system whenever possible, but I understand that sometimes it’s easier to remember an ongoing issue when I happen to stop by and ask.
I will have an opponent challenging me for re-election this fall, according to paperwork filed with both the City of Newton and the state campaign finance system. I welcome your support as residents to continue my work in serving Ward 5 in a second term, so that we can continue building on what I’ve begun and not start over from square one. I would particularly appreciate people accepting campaign lawn signs for me, probably starting in mid-September.
In addition to half the City Council endorsing me for re-election so far, I’m gratified to have the support this year of my immediate predecessor John Rice. That’s a big vote of confidence in the work I’ve been doing to try to fill his shoes!
Linda Plaut Festival recap
Newton Community Pride last weekend hosted the annual Linda Plaut Festival of the Arts. They note that, “over 1,000 people gathered at 20 live and free performances for the 6th annual Linda Plaut Newton Festival of the Arts. It was a fabulous rain free weekend celebrating a diverse group of Newton musicians & genres of music. We look forward to building on the success of this year’s festival to bring you even more musical entertainment next year. Thank you to all who participated.”
I stopped by one of the early musical performances at the Suzuki School of Newton in Waban Square.
Keep an eye out across Newton soon for NCP to once again deliver painted pianos for public use to various village centers.
Little improvements here and there
Earlier this term, a resident noted to me that the Do Not Enter signage at the intersection of Beethoven Ave and Beacon St had a lot of confusing written exemptions and in fact did not actually aim to deny entry more than 90% of the time. That resident suggested the city should look into deploying electronic signs instead, which would only activate during the necessary hours of the day. I passed this idea on to city staff, and they reviewed the matter, and you can now check out the results with the electronic signs installed and operational.
If you have similar ideas for little improvements that would make things better in a part of the city you regularly pass by or live near, let me know, and I’m happy to look into it further to see if it makes sense to change.
July 12 City Council meeting note
A proposed total zoning ban on the firearms industry in Newton (as opposed to our previously passed significant restrictions and supermajority special permit approvals process) was affirmatively denied by a vote of 21-3 after extensive debate. It would have required a supermajority vote in the other direction to pass. Very few Councilors felt comfortable advancing a ban via zoning while the US Supreme Court has a pro-gun supermajority of justices. (That is my concern certainly.) Another attempt to pass a total ban by simple-majority vote on a regular ordinance, as opposed to a zoning measure, will apparently be considered, but it also seems unlikely to pass for the same reason.
Route 9 Drive-throughs in Ward 5?
On Tuesday 7/13, the City Council’s Land Use Committee held a public hearing on the first of two proposed coffee drive-through locations on Route 9 in Ward 5. This week’s hearing was for a drive-through-only Starbucks on the westbound side of Route 9 between Woodward St and Dickerman Rd. There’s already a long stretch of fairly complicated traffic patterns for residential areas on both sides of the MBTA tracks.
Everyone from the neighborhood who spoke at the public hearing on Zoom expressed a lot of important concerns, and I share most of those reservations, as I stated during the meeting along with my colleague Councilor Andreae Downs, who emphasized the inconsistency of a drive-through with our walkable development goals and our climate action planning. (In fact, most of the Land Use Committee also expressed very strong opposition.)
An upcoming public hearing will be about a drive-through proposal by Dunkin Donuts on the eastbound side of Route 9 at their existing location just past Elliot St and the CVS. I believe it will be at the 6 PM Land Use Committee meeting on Tuesday July 27.
To my knowledge, there are no drive-through food or beverage establishments currently operating or approved anywhere in Newton.
Programs & Services Meetings Recap
The City Council’s Programs & Services Committee met twice this week, on Monday 7/12 and Wednesday 7/14.
On Monday, we had a great Zoom discussion with Rabbi Leigh of Ward 5, a new appointee to the Commission on Disability, who is himself profoundly deaf, about how disability access advocacy benefits all residents, regardless of whether or not they have a disability. We were also reminded to be more diligent about ensuring that automated closed-captioning is turned on at the beginning of our Zoom meetings, and we have been doing so in the other meetings held this week.
On Wednesday we began by meeting jointly with the Public Facilities Committee to hear the latest staff recommendations on the new Senior Center at the existing Newtonville location.
We held straw votes for Councilors to express a preference for moving forward with a new construction design vs a more expensive and limiting renovation/addition design. The new design option received 6-0 support in Programs & Services and 6-0 support in Public Facilities. No Councilor of any committee, including others sitting in on the meeting, spoke against it.
This should mean the city is now basically ready to move ahead with the project.
Two key points were emphasized during the presentation and are in the written report available online since last month:
"Based on the overwhelming feedback in support of the proposed new construction option, and in light of the substantial shortcomings of the renovation/addition option, the Working Group is formally recommending that the existing Senior Center located at 345 Walnut Street in Newtonville be demolished and that a new facility be constructed in its place."
"Where feasible, historically significant elements on and within the existing building will be protected, salvaged, restored, and installed in a manner that respects their significance and pays tribute to the rich history of the existing building." (That includes stained-glass.)
On behalf of a constituent I asked for a recap on the latest parking plans for a new construction design of the senior center. There will be at least 75 parking spots either on-site or within immediate walking distance and a parking plan to help local businesses.
Our Committee took up a couple additional important matters. We are requesting the state legislature authorize Newton to make a 99-year nominal lease for the former Armory Property, where we are seeking to develop all low-income housing, so that any project developer would be eligible for federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. (These credits are actually a complex federal subsidy in practice, but they have some special conditions.)
We will be also recommending our ordinances be amended to increase the income limits for participation in the Senior Tax Work-off Program to adjust for wage and price inflation. We've been coming in well under our FY cap budgeted toward this program so we can afford this adjustment.
Additionally, we voted (at the request of the Clerk’s Office) to move two polling places (one in Ward 3 long-term and one in Ward 8 temporarily). Contact your Councilors from those wards if you need the specifics.
Finally on Wednesday, Programs & Services again took up #40-20 "Discussion with Department Heads regarding supportive services...for economically disadvantaged persons in Newton, including immigrants, seniors, disabled individuals and families with adult disabled children."
My questions for department heads (to consider and get back to us on) included:
- What is the future of the bagged meals program introduced during the pandemic? Can we make it an ongoing priority to permanently end hunger for children, parents, seniors, young adults, and all residents in Newton?
- Was there a handoff of Newton's emergency rental assistance recipients when the recent local program ended? (Yes, the Planning Department stayed in communication with recipients, and people still in need were handed off to Metro Boston for a new program.) I also asked us again to think about developing a permanent "crisis rental assistance" backstop program.
- How did the 2020 Census go in Newton? Did we face similar challenges or under-counts as some other communities faced? Were our immigrant communities in need of federal resources fully enumerated?
- What expansions in low-income disability services are we considering?
Targeted break-ins?
Last month when I was knocking doors and talking to a supporter who is Asian-American, she mentioned to me that there was a rumor going around about a third round of break-ins, this time all targeting Asian-American households. I encouraged her to bring this concern to the Mayor’s office and the Police Department, in case this was helpful information to potential investigations or to ascertain whether additional steps related to Hate Crimes prevention and response needed to be taken beyond typical response to a break-in.
This week, Mayor Fuller confirmed in a newsletter to the community that “The Newton Police Department is advising our residents that beginning last month, through this past Sunday, there were in total 5 residential housebreaks in the city. During the investigation into those housebreaks, important commonalities became apparent to our detectives…all break ins occurred during the daytime, on a weekend, with no one home, and with all victims being of Asian descent.”
Two of these homes were in Ward 5. Surveillance cameras captured partial images of the face of a single suspect at two homes, fairly widely dispersed.
It is not clear at this time whether this noteworthy similarity in the targets this time is due to racial animus or some other linking factor (such as someone who might know all the target families through a shared organization and determined when the homes might be unoccupied). The Newton Police encourages residents to let them know when a house will be unattended for more than 5 days, so patrols can swing by periodically to keep an eye on things.
The Newton Police Department also released its public advisory in Chinese. Please email me if you need me to forward you a copy for someone you know. I have requested that it be made available on the NPD website as well as soon as possible.
I want to emphasize once again that Newton remains an extremely safe community with very low incidences of crime, and it is likely that the recent break-ins will subside as economic conditions improve following the instability and high unemployment of the pandemic period. Crimes of opportunity by people we know are difficult to prevent and crimes of economic desperation are only deterred through improvements in the macroeconomy and social safety nets.
Waban Square Village Vision Kit Walk
The group Engine 6 is coordinating a village center walking tour in Waban on Wednesday August 25, from 5:30-7pm, to engage residents in the Tool Kit visioning process developed by Nevena Pilipovic-Wenger, as part of Village Centers Community Engagement. Meet up at 5:30 pm at the benches across from Starbucks, with comfortable shoes, water, or whatever you need. (A well-charged mobile phone or something to write with will be helpful to respond to Tool Kit questions or your inspirations along the way.)
You are also encouraged to spread the word to others now, so they will Save-the-Date to join the walk. If there are enough people present, the group will split up into smaller sections.
Engine 6 is also hosting vision kit walks in other village centers too, if you are interested in one of those instead of Waban Square. (If I get dates for other ones in Ward 5, I will try to put them in future newsletters.)
Docket review
I try to include information on newly filed City Council docket items that I find noteworthy for Ward 5 or which I co-sponsored. This week there happen to be five!
#267-21 Request for a discussion on rodent control in Newton - COUNCILORS ALBRIGHT, KELLEY, LEARY, BOWMAN, CROSSLEY, GROSSMAN, HUMPHREY, LAREDO, LIPOF, LUCAS, MALAKIE, OLIVER, RYAN, DANBERG AND WRIGHT requesting a discussion regarding rodent activity control related to construction activities and the creation [or update] of an ordinance that would require a pest control management plan for any application to obtain a building permit which includes demolition and/or excavation on public or private property.
#271-21 Request for a discussion on School Bus Transportation - COUNCILORS BOWMAN, CROSSLEY, DANBERG, DOWNS, GREENBERG, GROSSMAN, HUMPHREY, KALIS, KELLEY, KRINTZMAN, LAREDO, LUCAS, MARKIEWICZ, NOEL, NORTON, OLIVER, RYAN, LEARY AND WRIGHT requesting a discussion with the Newton Public Schools to review the school bus transportation program including expenses and fees charged to students and upcoming bus contract and as part of a comprehensive school transportation strategy.
#275-21 Request for Home Rule Petition to require electricity [i.e. not fossil fuels] in new or rehabilitated buildings - CHAIR OF THE PUBLIC FACILITIES COMMITTEE requesting a Home Rule Petition for special legislation to allow the City of Newton to enact an ordinance that requires new and substantially remodeled or rehabilitated buildings to use electricity instead of fossil fuels for heating and cooling systems and hot water appliances and for hot water by electricity or thermal solar.
#272-21 Request for quarterly updates on Task Force recommendation progress - COUNCILORS NORTON, ALBRIGHT, WRIGHT, LUCAS, KALIS, GREENBERG, BOWMAN, HUMPHREY, LAREDO, KRINTZMAN, DOWNS, AND LIPOF requesting quarterly updates from the Mayor and Police Chief to the Police Reform Task Force and Public Safety and Transportation Committee on the progress toward implementing Task Force recommendations.
#290-21 Request for public way improvements at Pettee Square - HER HONOR THE MAYOR requesting approval of the public way improvements at Pettee Square at the intersection of Chestnut Street and Oak Street as part of the Pettee Square streetscape enhancements in accordance with City Ordinance 26-51. Intersection improvements include pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular safety in keeping with the city’s complete streets initiative.