News Archive

Greetings, We want to start out with a thank you and an update on the Chestnut Hill Commercial Area Rezoning. We are grateful to each one of you who signed the petition urging the Select Board to place the Chestnut Hill Commercial Area articles on the May Town Meeting Warrant without change. The response was tremendous: 118 Town Meeting Members…

Greetings everyone, It’s a busy week (see below), but we want to start by welcoming five new members to our Board of Directors, each bringing energy, expertise, and a deep commitment to making Brookline a more welcoming, affordable, and inclusive place to live.  Elise Couture-Stone is a cultural strategist and museum professional who centers equity, placemaking, and community well-being in…

Greetings, everyone. This newsletter goes out as we shovel out of one of the biggest snowstorm in years. Rest assured, we aren’t asking you to go anywhere. This week we offer Zoom meetings plus online reading and viewing. Stay safe and warm. We enjoyed seeing many of you–some for the first time–in person at the Book Club last Wednesday, where…

The new year’s town business is buzzing by now, but still mostly behind the scenes. The prospect of an override vote to avert drastic budget cuts is concentrating the collective mind. It will, among other things, draw extra attention to possible new sources of revenue–such as the Chestnut Hill West project, topic of the week’s most important meeting (see below).…

Greetings everyone, As we greet a new year with cautious and vigilant optimism, we at Brookline for Everyone hope to direct your attention to issues that matter locally and, especially, to actions we can all take to make a difference in our town and beyond. We will be following several efforts to expand housing opportunities and preserve livability, especially through…

Greetings everyone, As the holiday season begins, Town activity ebbs. But we are asking for your participation in one important meeting this week. On Wednesday, December 17, at 7 pm, on Zoom, the Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing on the proposal under Chapter 40B to replace the vacant Citizens’ Bank building and parking lot at 429…

Last week saw elections in many places. Although Brookline and other Massachusetts towns did not vote, local cities did, and the business publication Banker and Tradesman sees the results as strongly pro-housing. Elsewhere, it’s worth noting that New York’s new mayor will be able to make use of three winning ballot propositions that smooth the path to new housing construction,…

Greetings, everyone, as we all adjust to early sun (mostly good) and early darkness (which can be a difficult adjustment). Some good news from the Zoning Board of Appeals this week, as it approved a proposal to add 10 residential units above existing retail space at 1020-1024 Beacon Street (a project we reported on earlier). Our zoning makes it difficult…

Greetings - we hope everyone has been able to enjoy this sunny autumn weekend. There was lots going on in Brookline, including Pumpkinfest at the Lincoln School and a “grand re-opening” of Putterham Woods, a natural park adjacent to the Brookline golf course. The newly renovated park includes 14 acres of lovely wooded trails with two entrances, one from Hammond…

Greetings, everyone. This past week saw the launch of Brookline for Everyone’s Book Club. We gathered at United Parish Church to discuss Jeff Speck’s acclaimed Walkable City–rightly acclaimed, seemed to be the consensus. The discussion flowed into questions about how to apply its lessons to our own town. Our next meeting, probably in January, will look at the recent book…