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I’m back with another newsletter after about a month where there was not much to report. (Shanah tovah to all who celebrated this week! And I hope everyone had a good Labor Day.)
Today’s newsletter covers various events this weekend, looks at the election calendar ahead for voter information, reminds interested people to request lawn signs now, provides updates on recent City Council business and improvements on Allen Ave, and more.
Earlier this morning I joined other Newton City Councilors, Mayor Fuller, the Newton Police Department, Newton’s Veterans Services director, and other residents at the memorial flagpole of the former L'Aroma Cafe in West Newton. Retired owner Haleema Salie spoke on the 20th Anniversary of her daughter's death on American Airlines Flight 11. Mrs. Salie noted that at the memorial service in 2001, the final remark by the person who gave the service for her daughter was that we should honor and remember those lost by doing good deeds and acting with kindness toward others.
There will also be a small ceremony this evening at 6 PM at the Newton 9-11 Memorial at the Newton Fire Department headquarters.
September 14 Voting Reminder
Don’t forget – if you have not done so already – to vote this coming Tuesday (9/14) in the Newton Mayoral Preliminary election. (There are no other contested elections on that ballot. All other races will be decided in November.) If you are not planning on voting at your normal polling station because you have an absentee ballot at home, those ballots must be received to a secure City Hall dropbox before the close of polls at 8 PM. Ballots sent through the actual mail and received after Tuesday will not count. You can also vote absentee “over the counter” in person at the Clerk's office on Monday until noon.
The regular polling stations on Tuesday will continue to have special pandemic precautions to minimize the risk of contagion inside. Vaccinated and masked voters and poll workers should be quite safe.
If you plan to vote by mail in the November 2 general election, you should make sure to apply now to receive your ballot early enough to return it with ample time. Or, there will be in-person early voting opportunities as well, but these have not been set yet. (Presumably the week beforehand.)
Shawn Fitzgibbons campaign event tomorrow
Tomorrow, Sunday Sept 12, I will be joining Councilor Alicia Bowman and other City Councilors to host a candidate meet-and-greet for our friend and School Committee Candidate Shawn Fitzgibbons of Ward 6. The 4 PM event will be a hybrid event with an outdoor in-person component and a zoom option for those unable to attend in-person events. I hope you will join us by RSVPing here.
I’ve known Shawn for almost eight years now, and I think he’s the clear choice to fill this open seat in a challenging period for our school system. I believe he will stand with not only our Newton students and parents, but also with the school system employees of every kind, who keep things running and support our youngest community members each day. Some years back, Shawn was an early voice rallying support for our Newton Public Schools custodians, when there was a proposal to outsource their jobs to private contractors instead of keeping familiar, reliable faces present for Newton kids. That’s the kind of character Shawn has shown.
Campaign update and reminders
Lawn signs will start to appear widely within the week. If you would like to request one to support my re-election, please fill out this form as soon as possible!
As of yesterday, I am now heading back out on the streets of Ward 5 once again, after making the rounds earlier this year in the late spring and summer, to make myself available to residents to help solve their local challenges, whether it’s a pothole or something much larger. You can always feel free to email or call me, rather than waiting for me to reach your home.
I’m also still continuing to raise money for my re-election campaign, as there have been fewer face-to-face opportunities this year to meet residents, and so I’ll have to continue relying heavily on mail-based communications to get my message out. Any amount you can donate helps!
(And I really appreciate the more than 300 donations I’ve received so far this term, totalling about $16,000. I put about a third of that toward constituent communications earlier this year and last year to keep Ward 5 residents apprised of major issues.)
Report on City Council business
The City Council met again this week after several weeks off, and we have a few updates for you:
- Without controversy in the end, we moved forward with approvals for the revised Riverside development plan, maintaining levels of affordable housing proposed, while swapping out hotel and office space for lucrative Life Sciences laboratory space and somewhat reducing the number of market-rate residential units. This should result in an even better project than we initially approved last year and we hope one more economically resilient to wider commercial market cycles. And the change in proposed uses should reduce the traffic impact, too.
- We finally hired a new permanent City Clerk / Clerk of the Council. Our choice in the end, after publicly interviewing and deliberating with three great finalists, was Carol Moore, most recently Clerk of a community in Washington state. She brings a wide range of skills, experience, and staff management from a long career in public service in various states, and we’re excited to have her join us.
- We also learned that contrary to previous reports based on unfinished preliminary Census data, the growing population of Newton actually remained relatively balanced geographically from 10 years ago, when the final data was received. The upshot of this is that while there will be some changes in specific precinct lines within some of the eight wards of Newton, we no longer anticipate major changes to the ward lines themselves. There will be a few small adjustments of a block here or there, but we now do not expect dramatic realignments of ward lines as first predicted from the incomplete data.
Allen Ave bumpouts
Have you driven or walked on Allen Avenue Waban recently and noticed some construction work at key intersections? As promised, the City of Newton is delivering on long-awaited safety features to reduce traffic speeds near Zervas Elementary School. The recent work on that street has been to install bumpouts to create pinch points that slow through-traffic. Thanks to everyone who kept up the energy on this effort.
New NARAL municipal pledge
Longtime supporters might recall that in my first campaign in 2016, for a different office, I received the endorsement of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts due to my strong support for abortion rights. The organization does not typically endorse at the municipal level in Massachusetts, but they have been working this year to raise more attention to the local angle on it.
While some voters might assume there is no local component to the current struggle for abortion access rights and reproductive freedom broadly, especially in Massachusetts, there are in fact regions of Massachusetts that are extremely far from those services. I happen to believe that these services should be freely available basically everywhere and that municipalities should not restrict against abortion healthcare providers. We have also seen in recent years, particularly with the current US Supreme Court, that we can never assume the status quo situation will remain intact, and therefore even a community like Newton might be called upon to take local action to protect these rights.
To that end, although it might seem right now like a remote matter, I took NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts’s City Champions pledge. Like several other Newton City Councilors, I’m proud to be a part of their inaugural class of City Champions. Newton residents can count on me to remain an unapologetic supporter of reproductive freedom, as I have always vocally been.
As your City Councilor, if it becomes a matter of local concern, I will work locally to protect every person’s right to access the full range of reproductive health options, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing safe, legal abortion.
I believe there are plenty of ways for city leaders to protect and expand reproductive freedom. Ensuring that the people of Newton continue to have access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care options is critical. As a NARAL MA City Champion, voters can count on me to fight for the seven policy positions articulated in the pledge.