Greetings,
The Town election has begun: early voting is underway, so please remind everyone you know that they can make their vote count immediately.
Early voting in-person hours:
Today (Sunday, April 26), until 4 pm, at Town Hall; Coolidge Corner Library; and Putterham library; Monday-Thursday, 8-5, and Friday, 8-12:30, at Town Hall.
If you have a mail ballot, don’t forget to complete and return it, or come out to vote on Election Day, May 5, at your local precinct polling place.
- Check our website for voting information and more about our endorsed candidates, starting with Amanda Zimmerman and Anthony Buono for Select Board.
- You can also Get the Facts to learn how the three Select Board candidates have turned their words into actions and votes.
- And if you have any time at all, please volunteer to help get out the vote.
- We welcome and can make good use of your DONATIONS, HERE.
Email your friends and neighbors to encourage them to vote for Brookline for Everyone endorsed candidates. This is an easy way to expand your impact, and your friends will truly appreciate the guidance!
April Happy Hour and Final “Get Out the Vote” Push!
Join us on Tuesday, April 28 at 5pm for Brookline For Everyone’s April Happy Hour at Esmai’s in Coolidge corner to show off your “I voted” sticker (but it’s not required), have a glass, some chat, and learn how you can help in the final push to get pro-housing votes. RSVP here!
Town Meeting Updates
This week should see the final recommendations for the all-important Special Town Meeting Warrant Articles 1 and 2 to rezone the Chestnut Hill Commercial Area.
- The Advisory Committee’s Land Use subcommittee’s third and (we hope) final meeting on the topic should result in its recommendation. Monday, April 27, at 4:00 PM. Note that this is not a public hearing. Zoom registration is here.
- The full Advisory Committee will then take up that recommendation on Thursday, April 30, at 7 pm. There will be an opportunity for public comment at the beginning of the meeting. Agenda and Zoom registration here.
- The Select Board will hold a public hearing, discussion, and possible vote on Tuesday, April 28, at about 8 pm on its long agenda. See that agenda and Zoom registration here.
What we’re reading this week
Not EVERYTHING is about housing, yet mostly it is: Although two recent opinion pieces in the New York Times addressed completely different issues, both zeroed in on housing:
- A discussion on population growth heavily skewed toward red states featured the assertion that “lower housing costs because of fewer constraints on building has been the biggest factor in the shift away from (blue) coastal states and to the (red) Sun Belt for decades.” (The citations are to economics journals.)
- Samuel Moyn laments our national “gerontocracy” that, among other things, restricts the availability of housing. Is Brookline Town Meeting a gerontocracy? We are blessed with great riches of senior talent. Along with it, though, can come a resistance to needed change.
- But if we can overcome obstacles, we can make a difference: a new report from our friends at the Urban Institute measured the effects of neighborhood-scale upzonings in Philadelphia and New York: they worked.
Thanks, and have a great week,
Brian Ladd, for Brookline for Everyone