If Village 14 were to name a Person of the Year, who would you nominate? Who affected the most change or made the greatest impact or helped put Newton on the map?
Was it Mayor Setti Warren for successfully selling three overrides to voters?
Or Ted Hess-Mahan for challenging the mayor for reelection?
How about Village 14’s own Jerry Reilly for his efforts with the Upper Falls Greenway and Newton’s first citywide bike tour?
Or somebody unfamiliar to most people on Village 14?
Peter Smith
One of the founding stalwarts of Green Decade Coalition; Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce Environmental Committee; Communities Without Borders supporting the education of AIDS orphans and the communities of their caretakers in Zambia; and just a good all-around neighbor.
I would vote for Jerry Reilly for the multiple local civic-oriented projects he has led and/or assisted with the lead in 2013. He also maintains an overall positive attitude when commenting on this blog; something many other contributors can improve upon in 2014.
Can I please nominate a persona that hoped to start a family in Newtonville but met his demise while leaving a message about diversity and such? The bear shot out of the tree. If I picked a person, I’d probably be a bad judge of character and as far as anyone knows the bear was a good boo boo.
I think the override passage represents the “Event of the Year” for two reasons: it marks our voter’s renewed trust and engagement with local government, and it funds school and city needs that are critically important. Mayor Setti Warren was the Salesman in Chief, and risked his reelection by starting the year with a significant tax increase request. He got the override through, and then there was that trivial thing of getting 70% of the vote in his reelection. For these, I consider him Newton’s Person of the Year.
I’ve been mostly away from the blogs for the last six weeks or so. When I finally check back in, I find myself nominated for “person of the year”. I think I’ll stay away more often 😉
My nomination would be for Seana Gaherin for masterminding the most magical Newton event of 2013. If that’s not enough for a nomination than we could throw in at least a half dozen additional qualifications for Seana – everything from competing and winning the local charity Dancing with The Stars competition, to her recent election to head the Chamber of Commerce, to starting the Buddies on Bikes delivery service for shut-ins, to running one of the friendliest and best restaurants/pubs in the city, to sponsoring virtually every neighborhood activity in Upper Falls.
Seana Gaherin of Dunn-Gaherin’s, for all her civic contributions including the Feast of the Falls, as well as being elected chair of the Chamber of Commerce.
Steve, I have to disagree with your thesis that Setti risked his reelection. Considering that he is backed by Newton’s Political Insider Group and considering that Newton Republican City Committee Chairman Tom Mountain is a good close personal friend of Setti Warren, he was likely going to win re-election with bi-partisan support. Further, many northside swing voters voted for Setti Warren because they were voting against Ted Hess-Mahan.
I will say that the override was the most notable event of the year. I’m not impressed with the fact that they got a 55-45 victory simply because that was the margin of the 2008 override defeat. With the overwhelming advantages the tax-hikers from BNF had versus the citizen activists of Moving Newton Forward With Fiscal Responsibility regarding money, manpower and organization, MNF should have only had received 4% or 5%, not 45%. My leadership made it closer than the tax-hikers expected and even proponents of the 2008 override recognized that.
The one good thing about your hosannas to the mayor and his override is that it gives me something to point to when I meet with my group. It enables me to point out that if we want to bring about change in Newton city government, we have to successfully defeat overrides otherwise cheerleaders of Setti Warren such as yourself will interpret passage of the overrides as a mandate to rack up more debt and to hold infrastructure projects hostage to higher taxes, more spending and more borrowing.
I would think that you would heed your former colleague from Newton 20/20 Geoff Epstein when he said about the override “This was a narrow victory. This was just a five percent victory. So we can see that people are saying “We’re going to trust you this time” but I think it says that there is still a lot to be done. The people running things shouldn’t sit back and say “we got all this money and all our problems are solved”. They should say “We’ve got to work harder and use that money wisely and do even better”. He was very relieved when the vote came in YES-YES-YES. Unfortunately, you don’t seem to be interested in pursuing further fiscal reforms and improvements.
Once accused always under suspicion !
Newton Upper falls Jerry Reilly is my person of the year !
His thankless devotion to our community is priceless , he really is the most amazing ,dedicated , compassionate, honest citizen I have ever met !
I marvel at Jerry’s down to earth approach to neighboring , and love for his fellow man … He expects nothing , and gives everything .
He likes to be part of our NUF streets and he is always ready to help serve our streets ,just come find him .
Jerry Reilly! In addition to all the things you know about Jerry, he volunteered an hour of his time for 16 weeks to mentor 3 students in my web design class at Newton North.
Shawn Fitzgibbons, in a negative way, for revealing in his TAB column about the Tea Party how much we have to fear from the dogmatism and anger of the secular progressive Democratic left in the US. Before it was more tacit, and we couldn’t be sure how far people like him would go to silence his political opposition. Thanks, Shawn, for enlightening us.
Margaret Albright and Emily Norton for challenging the Newton Machine and winning seats on the SC and BOA respectively.
I want to suggest a member of Setti’s office, Aaron Goldman. I have found several folks who work for the city to be accessible and responsive but Aaron really demonstrates how it should be done.
Margaret Albright.
How many people would dust themselves off after two defeats filled with personal attacks, laugh off their wounds, cling to their values and vision and continue to run again against the historically vicious Newton insider political status quo? Margaret often cites the determination she gained battling infertility as the proving ground that formed her mettle. Personally, I think that it is her strength of character, hope for what’s best in the world and quixotic perseverance that resulted in both the birth of her son and her School Committee victory. This woman doesn’t give up, and all of Newton will be the better for it. In her School Committee victory, it’s because she believes in education as the key to the American Dream, and united a broad spectrum of political support from liberal to conservative that shares this tenet. Because Margaret stepped up to represent the aspirational interests of thousands of Newton parents who don’t have household incomes over $200k and are really feeling the pain of fees and lack of educational basics such as real full day kindergarten (which has become standard in most other Massachusetts communities) we will become a stronger and higher-performing school district.
Margaret’s victory was the victory of the informed voter, who could look at a debate and see the difference between a genuinely qualified candidate and a connected, establishment-endorsed one.
I hope that she continues to change the game. There is no one that I would trust more with my children’s educational future.
The civic contributions of Peter, Jerry and Sheana represent the deeply meaningful effort and engagment we hope for from our citizenry. The political ascendencies of Margaret and Emily demonstrate that hard work and dogged grassroots campaigning can defeat strong political organization. But using Time Magazine’s standard of acknowledging a person, group, idea, or object that “has done the most to influence events of the year”, Setti Warren wins hands down.
“Person” of the year has to be Setti Warren. He got 55% of the voters to raise taxes on themselves and then went on to get 71% to vote for his re-election. That’s quite a feat.
“Citizen” of the year is Jerry Reilly (non-city-payroll category). He enjoys making things happen while staying out of the political scrum. Shades of pre -Alderman John Rice. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jerry and John in the same room. Hmmmm
Great distinction between person of the year and citizen of the year Terry. I’ve been waiting for someone else to think it through and write up something that I could just agree with. Thank you for doing so.