What an election day for Brookline! With historic turnout levels for a May election Brookline voters spoke loudly and clearly for progress, for change, and for investing in our community. (And while we usually try to get our election recap out the next day, our election night celebrations kept us up later than we expected!)
As many of you likely already know Brookline voted overwhelmingly for change on the Select Board, electing both Amanda Zimmerman and Anthony Buono. We couldn’t be more excited for Amanda and Anthony to get to work implementing the policies necessary to move Brookline forward on our most pressing challenges — housing, climate, economic development, and safe streets for all. As Amanda reiterated throughout her campaign, Brookline has done a great job developing plans to tackle so many of our challenges but has lacked the leadership and political will to turn the plans into action. We’re ready to join them and the other Select Board members to make real progress for Brookline.
The best plans and leadership still need a strong financial foundation to build upon, and here again Brookline voters came through, voting YES on Question 1 by nearly 3,000 votes and 60% of the total vote. This override represents an investment in Brookline’s future — for our schools, for public safety, and for the staff we’ll need to help us build a stronger Brookline. This is one step in the financial foundation. The next step must be rezoning Chestnut Hill Commercial Area to allow for millions in new tax revenue, and then leveraging the Comp Plan to identify and pursue other housing and mixed-use development opportunities.
And in one final townwide race, Brookline for Everyone board member Jonathan Klein was elected to serve on the Brookline Housing Authority. This is a tremendous addition to the BHA Board of Commissioners, as Jonathan brings a ton of experience in affordable housing, finance, and working with tenant organizations over his career. (And thank you to outgoing commissioner Michael Jacobs for his tremendous service to Brookline.)
In Town Meeting races across Brookline, voters consistently chose pro-housing, pro-climate, and pro-people candidates everywhere they had the opportunity to do so. Brookline for Everyone endorsed 67 Town Meeting candidates, including 34 incumbents and 33 non-incumbents.
Overall, 95.5% of our endorsed candidates for Town Meeting were victorious on Tuesday.
All 34 endorsed incumbents won re-election to their seats, and 30 of 33 non-incumbent candidates won their races, adding 30 new (and returning) pro-housing voices to Town Meeting. This represents a net increase of 11 more Town Meeting Members focused on building a more environmentally sustainable, economically thriving, and racially inclusive Brookline. These results include 5-seat sweeps in Precincts 2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 17! Thanks to Brookline voters, Town Meeting is more pro-housing today than it was on Monday, a statement we’ve now been able to make 4 years in a row!
While election day felt great for many of us, the real work lies ahead. Stay tuned for how you can advocate for pro-housing and pro-economic development policies at the upcoming May Town Meeting and beyond, how to help us continue building the amazing community that makes elections like this possible, and how to get involved in helping develop the policies and proposals to create a stronger, more vibrant and welcoming Brookline for everyone!
Finally, and most importantly, we want to take the opportunity to say THANK YOU! Everyone who ran for office from Town Meeting to the Select Board, win or lose, you are making our community a better place to live. Everyone who volunteered this election season to talk to residents, pass out B4E lit, called & texted voters, stood at the polls shaking hands and convincing last minute undecided voters, emailed their friends and neighbors, donated to make this campaign possible, or simply voted for B4E endorsed candidates — victories like this don’t happen without you. Every election campaign since Brookline for Everyone was founded in winter 2019 our community has grown making this work both better and more fun.
We can’t wait to see what’s next!
The Brookline for Everyone Board
Jeff Wachter, Katha Seidman, Margaret Molloy, Margaret Robotham, Gary Shiffman, Jonathan Phillips, Elise Couture-Stone, Jonathan Klein, Paul Saner, Brian Ladd, Al Raine, Deborah Brown, and Amanda Zimmerman