We hope everyone connected to the schools has enjoyed spring vacation week. The election is only 2 weeks away and mail-in ballots are being received, so we’re focused on talking to voters about electing pro-housing candidates while keeping up with important ongoing legislative and planning discussions. Here’s how you can join in:
Election Day is May 7th — and We Need Your Help
Join us for Pizza at the Polls for early voting on Sunday, April 28 at 11am – 2pm! This is a great opportunity to remember to vote, as well as connect with pro-housing candidates and neighbors. We’ll have games and activities as well! Encourage friends and neighbors to come out and enjoy a (hopefully) nice spring day with Brookline for Everyone!
Volunteer to help campaign with B4E! We need folks to help us talk to voters in Coolidge Corner, to help Town Meeting candidates knock on doors and chat with folks in the neighborhood, call and text voters, and more! It’s easy and fun, and we’ll provide expert (but very short) training and back up. Let us know if you can help by filling out this simple volunteer form.
Watch and share our campaign video that articulates our vision for a Brookline where housing options meet our changing housing needs.
Help us spread the word! Share it directly on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
We’re working hard to connect with as many voters as we can, and we need contributions to make this happen. If you are able to donate to Brookline for Everyone’s campaign activities, please do!
And finally, you can still register to vote at the Town Clerk’s Office (Town Hall, 333 Washington Street, 1st floor) until Saturday, April 27 at 5:00 pm, and early in-person voting starts the same day and runs until Friday May 3 at 3:30 pm. If you are not sure, you can check your registration status here, and if you are a US citizen with a Massachusetts driver’s license, you can register or update your address online here. And let your friends and neighbors who may not be as engaged in Town politics know as well! It’s not too late for their voices to be heard.
Contribute Your Perspectives to the Chestnut Hill Commercial Area Study
The Chestnut Hill Commercial Area Study has been tasked with incentivizing new commercial growth, and enhancing the livability and identity of the neighborhood along Boylston Street just before the Newton line. To this end, they’ll be holding an “In-person Community Workshop Event” on Wednesday, April 24 at 6pm at the Lynch Municipal Golf Course. This will be an opportunity for neighbors and community members to offer their thoughts on how they’d like this important part of Brookline to grow and change over time. The committee’s advisory group is heavily slanted toward anti-growth, status quo voices, so it is important that Brookline residents with a different view show up and encourage the Planning Department to create rules that allow for a growing, vibrant neighborhood to flourish. If you can’t attend Wednesday’s session, a virtual community workshop will be held on Wednesday, May 8th. Click here for more information on both community workshops.
Other Meetings of Note
- The Zero Emissions Advisory Board (ZEAB) will be meeting virtually on Thursday, April 25 at 6pm. They’ll be holding a public hearing on Article 13, which will update our Accessory Dwelling Unit rules to make it easier for homeowners to build one. Allowing more smaller homes to be built in Brookline is great both from a housing affordability and a climate action perspective. We encourage you to participate and encourage ZEAB to support the article as proposed by the petitioners. Click here for more info and to register.
- At the Thursday, April 25 meeting of the Planning Board at 7:30pm, there will be public hearings on a handful of zoning approvals. One of note is 12 Williams Street (Precinct 9), where the owner is looking to demolish a single unit building to replace it with a three-family home. This property is in an ideal location for adding homes – 150 feet from Harvard Street, essentially across the street from Bakey, and just a block from the nearest 66 bus stop. We encourage folks to submit a comment to the Planning Board by emailing imapure@brooklinema.gov and asking that the board move as quickly as possible with approvals or changes necessary to allow this project to move forward. The agenda and Zoom link can be found here; more info on the project can be found here.
Upcoming
The comprehensive planning process is set to commence later this year, and the Select Board and Planning Department are looking for volunteers to serve on the steering committee to help guide the process, garner and synthesize public input, and make recommendations to the Select Board and Planning Board on future land use decisions in Brookline. Let us know if you’re interested and we can provide more information. And everyone can be sure that we’ll be highlighting opportunities for community participation as the process unfolds.
What We’re Reading This Week
Brookline resident and executive director of B’nai B’rith Housing Susan Gittelman has an op-ed in the Banker & Tradesman calling for increased state action to address our housing shortage. She notes how other states have implemented state level rules to encourage more homes to be built, and, crucially, calls out recent studies suggesting that more of our young people are considering leaving the state due to the high cost of housing. As she concludes in the piece, “We need to stem the tide and create a lot of new housing. As other states have done, we must embrace a bolder housing vision and build political support to enable the commonwealth to use its powers to seed the housing we need, in every community and at scale.” We certainly agree.