Greetings, everyone. We hope you have been enjoying this wonderful New England fall weather as much as we have.
Brookline Day is a Success!
Thank you to the B4E Outreach Committee, especially Margot Molloy, and everyone who helped organize and staff the Brookline for Everyone Booth at Brookline Day. The weather was great, we met lots of new folks and had great conversations about how we can all make Brookline more affordable, diverse and equitable. A good time was had by all, as you can see here:
B4E volunteers and visitors checking out and discussing our ADU and Comp Plan engagement flyers.
B4E Outreach Committee volunteers Margot Molloy and Gary Shiffman at our Brookline Town Day booth.
Brookline Meetings of Interest This Week (both Monday)
- The Chestnut Hill Commercial Area Study Community Advisory Group will meet tonight, Monday, Sept 15, at 6:00-8:00 pm (or later, if needed to hear all the public comments). The hybrid meeting will be at Town Hall, Room 103, and via Zoom. Agenda here; Zoom registration here. This Study Area, along Route 9 near the Newton border, twenty years after being prioritized for study, remains Brookline’s best opportunity for mixed-use development, including housing, retail, and commercial uses. We urge the Town to move aggressively to allow mixed-use development that will make a significant annual contribution to our tax base. Only this kind of mixed-use development can provide the infusion of new tax revenue that helps fund our challenged budget while also adding critical new housing. Public comments (with a three-minute limit) will be allowed, scheduled for 7:45 pm. We urge you to attend to learn more, and to make it clear that we need action this year, not 5 or 10 or 20 years from now.
For more background, see our July 6 editorial where we called on Town leaders to act swiftly and constructively to support this important mixed-use development.
- The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee (CPSC) will also be meeting tonight, Monday, Sept 15 at 7:00-9:00 pm in room 111 at Town Hall and on Zoom. The agenda with the Zoom link is here. The Primary agenda item is “Fall Engagement Materials & Strategy Review with Agency Landscape & Planning,” However, no materials have been posted yet, so we don’t know any more details. Based on the July meeting, we expect that the CPSC will ask the community for feedback on a big-picture question: What kind of future do we want for Brookline, with multiple options to consider. As we understand it, a decision about which path to follow — or how elements of different paths might be combined — won’t be made until after community feedback is collected in the fall. Watch this space for more details once the opportunities for public participation are laid out by the committee.
Jeff Speck Draws Crowd of 250+ to the Coolidge Corner Theatre & Next Meeting of the Centre Street Lots Committee this Week
Regular readers will know we’ve been promoting Urban Planner Jeff Speck’s talk, “A More Walkable Brookline,” at the Coolidge Corner Theatre this past Wednesday. A large and engaged crowd came to learn some basics of urban planning for great neighborhoods, and then how best to apply them to visualizing a better future for the Centre Street Parking Lots and Coolidge Corner. For those who missed it, watch the recording here (courtesy of the Brookline Interactive Group, thank you!). We encourage everyone who wants to be involved in designing the future of Coolidge Corner to attend the next meeting of the Centre Street Lots Committee this coming Thursday, Sept 18 in Town Hall, Room 103 or via Zoom (register here).
And, for those interested in a deeper dive into Speck’s groundbreaking book, Walkable City, join us on October 15 at 7:00 PM at the United Parish Brookline for the first Brookline for Everyone Book Group Meeting. If you are interested in participating (no commitment required) you can register here. You can get the book at the library, online (we recommend Bookshop.org), or at Brookline Booksmith.
Fall Town Meeting Update
The Warrant and Article explanations for Brookline’s November 2025 Special Town Meeting are now posted on the Current Town Meeting Files page of the Town’s website. Town Meeting will begin on Tuesday, November 18 and will continue on Wednesday and Thursday that week (Nov 19 and 20), with additional dates reserved for December 2-4 if needed (we hope not — 3 full nights should be plenty!).
This Warrant contains 19 Articles, including eight changes to the general or zoning bylaws and seven resolutions. The most noteworthy one, from our point of view, is a proposal to rezone a former part of the Maimonides School (and former BEEP location) at 2 Clark Road so the building can be renovated to allow approximately 30 units of much needed multifamily housing. As always, some of the most important decisions and recommendations are made in hearings in advance of Town Meeting by various boards and committees (including the Planning Board, Housing Advisory Board, and the Advisory Committee). Watch this space for notices of hearings where your voice can make a difference, and for our endorsements on warrant articles that impact our mission of building a more affordable, diverse, and equitable Brookline.
Priced Out: Teacher Retention and Housing Costs
As we know, housing costs don’t just affect renters and homeowners, they also shape who can teach in our schools, and all our municipal employees who are forced to live elsewhere because they can not afford to live here. We’re excited about this upcoming event by our friends at Newton for Everyone for everyone concerned about the intersection of housing and education. There will be a presentation by Heather Peske, President of the National Council on Teacher Quality, on the impact of housing costs on teachers in Newton, and will certainly be relevant for Brookline as well. You can register here to attend in person on Tuesday, September 30 at 7pm at the Scandinavian Living Center, 206 Waltham Street, Newton, or via Zoom.
Thanks, and have a great week ~
Jonathan Klein, on behalf of the Brookline for Everyone
PS We often get asked if past issues of this newsletter are available, and the answer is YES, check out our Newsletter Archive here, with special thanks to volunteer Jonathan Phillips for faithfully keeping it up to date.