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Alderman Brian Yates’ website could use a wee bit of updating but his new lawns signs are the best.
Best campaign sign. Ever.
by Greg Reibman | Oct 16, 2013 | Newton | 17 comments
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That looks like that’s an old web site (and photo). The one on his campaign card is AldermanBrianYates.org and it looks a bit more up to date.
Wow. Looks like Brian is covering all his bases. After I took this photo I noticed a number of older, more traditional lawn signs too. And now it turns out he has two websites too: one featuring the young debonaire alderman of days gone by and one with the dignified elder statesman look.
I think it’s becoming increasingly clear that two votes per voter in the Ward 5 contest isn’t nearly enough.
Groovy signage. Personally, I’d like to be able to display a “Bullet Brian” sign on my lawn because that’s how I intend to vote. Crossley or Steele, no difference. However, both of them winning at the cost of losing Brian would be an incredibly bad thing for our city.
I like the new lawn signs and the new campaign website.
Written from Istanbul, Turkey. It’s raining cats and dogs here in Turkey, so I thought I would check in to see what was happening in Newton generally and the Ward 5 race specifically. One of the many great things about the Yates campaign is that his supporters can choose from among 5 different lawn signs. I have a “Yes to Yates” sign on my lawn and plan to leave it there for the duration of the campaign.
BOB BURKE, posting from Istanbul. Remember this interaction over government-subsidized senior housing?
http://village14.com/netwon-ma/2013/09/two-views-on-the-sheffsequira-campaigns/#comment-37053
My comment to you.
BOB BURKE,
I hate to burst your bubble, but there are a lot of people with serious financial issues in the world, including around here. For Newton to arrange “more affordable senior housing” that you and your wife “can afford while still continuing to travel, sail and do some other things Joanne and I enjoy doing”, seems pretty inconsiderate. I don’t do those things in general because I can’t afford them and I accept my lot and don’t expect others to cover me. I think you need to re-think what you expect your government to do.
Your reply, claiming you don’t spend money on entertainment
“I don’t own a boat and I don’t sail much outside of Boston Harbor and Dorchester Bay. I sail at Courageous Sailing in Charlestown where I race with members of the Umass Boston Sailing Team who taught me to sail when I hit 70 6 or so years back. That’s a real joy at my age. The yearly senior membership is less than $500.00 and I can take out 3 different kinds of sailboats anytime I want except I don’t because I’m a bit old to solo in the Harbor. We can go a lot of different places. When we and other seniors leave Newton, this community will be the poorer for it. Maybe this will explain why I thought Jackie’s statements about senior housing were right on target.”
Barry, why exactly did you feel, just for taking a vacation, that Bob Burke should get the works? That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
Adam,
Read the blog and read the post. It seems to me you didn’t grasp the point of what I was saying. I don’t give a hoot if Bob travels. It’s great. But, I don’t want my tax money or anyone else’s to subsidize his housing so that he has enough left over to travel. That’s not a situation of NEED. That’s a situation of GREED. Get it?
Istanbul, Istanbul…
Adam –
Best blog musical reference ever!
@Barry – I don’t think Bob ever suggested anyone giving him tax money to subsidize his housing. There’s many things that the city does, particularly in zoning rules, to influence what type of housing gets built. Current rules unwittingly encourage the construction of very large and expensive single family houses that don’t serve the needs of our elderly population No one’s giving tax subsidies to build those big houses, they’re just encouraged by the intersection of zoning rules and market forces. Different zoning rules and market forces will encourage different types of housing
This isn’t just a matter of housing tax subsidies.
Maybe the Highland’s Area Council is investigating ways to make the area more attractive to sellers of lamb kababs and baklova. That’s rather charitable of Mr Burke to help out.
Jerry,
The discussion I had with Bob was about something called “affordable housing”. In the blog it is a euphemism for government subsidized housing. It’s a term that HUD uses when determining where to put its projects. If you want to talk about building lower-priced housing, that’s a different discussion. But, that’s being done all over the place for seniors in the form of over-55 housing complexes. They are all over the Greater Boston area. They just need to be in more rural areas where land is less expensive. In Newton, developers buy a million-dollar house, rip it down, and put up a 3 million dollar house, because the land is so valuable. I don’t see it as a civic responsibility subsidize housing so that the same thing can be done in Newton.
Bob, can you give us a report on the Taksim Square trees?
Barry, I think you’ve twisted what Bob was talking about to fit a political argument. I believe he was talking about the lack of affordable (meaning within one’s financial means) housing options for seniors in a town where almost all new construction is McMansions or high-end townhouse developments. You turned it into a discussion of capital “A” capital “H” Affordable Housing. He actually brought it up in the context of having to move out of a house due to “health or mobility issues” – there are things the city could do to encourage the development of more affordable, accessible units near shopping and transportation centers that would be appeal to seniors looking for single-floor, car-free living in Newton. It benefits the city when long-time residents can remain in the community when circumstances change. And they do change, for all of us. Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.
Tricia, why they changed it, I can’t say. People liked it better that way.
Tricia,
I could be wrong about what Bob meant. However, there were references to HUD-type affordable housing on the blog, the idea of such housing has been a big topic of discussion on this and the TAB blogs. Now, Bob did say this in the same blog
“And yes, I think there are things other than market forces that are needed for a healthy community. If that makes me a Democrat, so be it. I’m pleased my values aren’t Tea Party values. I’ve found a lot of people over my 77 years who stopped thinking they “should be able to solve their own problems” when it became apparent to them that they could not.”
So, draw your own conclusions as to what he meant. But, I’ve made the point that there is lower cost housing even in Newton. If it simply means, less expensive things like basic apartments, okay, but I’m not sure a developer would do such a project in Newton. But that’s a developer’s decision, unless it involves subsidies.