Fran Azzarto, Barbara Brousal-Glaser, Maria Manning and Jeanne Marrazzo met again last night for the Ward 3 Democratic City Committee’s forum. (At the Senior Center in Ward 2; I hope someday we’ll have the Allen House as a Ward 3 venue for this type of event!)
Great questions, interesting answers, some surprising, and a fair amount of humor. Although oddly, no budget or tax questions. I hope you’ll be able to listen here. Would have had this audio up 24 hours ago, but yourlisten.com was inexplicably not working; now it magically is. I did not see any video cameras. Where was NewTV?
Note: these audios don’t seem to play on smartphones or tablets; you need to be on a real computer – sorry.
Here is the NewTV 3 minute candidate videos, all in one convenient link. There is a clear difference between the candidates.
http://vimeo.com/104420996
From watching these videos, I can see why good, upstanding people in Ward 3 like Bill Heck, Traute Marshall and Sam Robbins all support Jeanne Marrazzo. Jeanne isn’t like the other candidates because she’s one of us. She didn’t move here from Brooklyn or Philadelphia like the other candidates did and as a result, she has a greater understanding of the needs of the people.
Good morning Joshua. I live in Ward 3 and think I’m fairly upstanding, whatever that is (we use our own names?). And I’m supporting Barbara Brousal-Glaser, although I like all the candidates personally and would be happy to go out for an ice cream with any of them (not being a beer drinker). My big issue is overdevelopment and loss of smaller houses and open space and trees. I’m happy to hear all four candidates say they’re opposed to mega-sized 40Bs, teardown-replacement houses that are out of scale with their neighborhoods, and the Austin Street proposal that we all saw the picture of.
The question is what each of them would do. I have the most confidence in Barbara, because wanting to be involved in zoning reform got her into the race. She wrote to the Tab on the development issue before she was even a candidate. (I could not find any such letters or public positions taken by any of the other candidates at the time the race started, although Fran says he’s written a lot of letters, so maybe they fell victim to the Tab server switchover archive loss.) But I do love that Jeanne got into the race because of the Ward 2 alderman’s comment at an Austin Street meeting that ‘if you don’t like what I’m doing, we have elections.’
Also, Josh, you didn’t mention that my name is on Barbara’s list of supporters that you posted a link to on the other thread. I guess that would have contradicted your theory that it’s the PIG (Political Insider Group) supporting Barbara. As one of the shadowy, secretive, khaki-pants-wearing Newton Villages Alliance people, I’m definitely not PIG. Maybe I’m POG (Political Outsider Group)? Or PUG (Political Upstart Group)? I am rather surprised to find myself on a list with the multiply-pseudonymed Gerry Chervinsky, but perhaps he just thinks she’s going to win and wants to be associated with the winner.
Julia wins my “best comment of the week” award.
Josh’s suggestion that people born here are better suited to understand the “needs of the people” wins my “stupidest comment of the week” award.
Greg’s comment shows how ignorant he is about this race, as well as other Newton related issues. Then again, during his tenure at the Newton TAB and now at the Newton Needham Chamber of Cronyism, he’s been a faithful supporter of the Newton Political Establishment’s agenda of more taxes, more government spending, more borrowing and more government control over citizen lives.
Thank you Greg! And that reminds me, I meant to say (but it’s probably just as well I didn’t in my already long comment) that Jim Cote, who I think Josh and I would agree is an excellent new alderman who really hit the ground running as they say, is a relative newcomer to Newton, who has maybe lived here about as long as Barbara.
I think having lived somewhere is gives one useful perspectives. For example, the first time I met Jim Cote at his getting-to-know people cookout last summer (hey Jim, could you do that again, those were good burgers), I asked him about the snow-shoveling ordinance, because people had been going into contortions here in Newton about how on earth could we do it, we’re old, we’re poor, we’re on vacation, the plows dump on the corners, the sidewalks belong to the city . . . And Jim told me how it worked in Worcester, which he knew from experience because he used to live there.
So that’s why Setti Warren was the best candidate for mayor, him being “one of us” and all? Disclosure: while I am a resident of Ward 3 and can actually vote in this race (unlike others who seem fixated on it), I am not “one of us”. I am originally from New York. There, I said it. But I am not now, nor was I ever, a Yankee fan.
Julia, I agree that Alderman Jim Cote is an excellent new aldermen. Cote did grow up in New England, in a working class family out in Attleboro. That’s a different experience than that of Barbara & Maria.
Alderman Jim Cote did not support last year’s override and is receptive to promoting fiscal stewardship.
Alderman Jim Cote served this country and I think he’s now the only veteran on the Board of Aldermen.
Alderman Jim Cote and I are two of the few people in this town that get along well with progressive, reform-oriented Democrats and Republicans interested in promoting fiscal stewardship.
As for doing things like other communities, Newton should be seeing what communities like Winchester, Hingham & Shrewsbury are doing. They’re able to do more with less relative to Newton. Then again, those communities are a little more disciplined when it comes to compensating their unions, whereas Newton just rolls over for the unions.
It’s bad enough that you keep comparing yourself to Bill Heck, but now you’re Jim Cote Jr.? Jeesh.
Josh – I’ve lived here longer than you’ve been alive. When do I get to be “one of us” or is this one of those birth certificate issues?
I am “one of us” and am proudly supporting Barbara.
I am surprised to hear some people still find Gerry Chervinsky relevant in local races. When the Village Idiots get all childlike and can’t resist from intellectualized nasty barbs at one another, I know it’s time to close my browser.
As Ward 3 residents and business owners (Artitudes in West Newton Square),
we support Barbara Brousal-Glaser for Alderman. Barbara has shown great
interest and concern for the problems in our West Newton community. She
will work tirelessly to resolve issues with safety and parking. We know
she’ll help make the square more beautiful and a more welcoming center for
our community. Barbara is extremely approachable and will welcome input and
feedback from her constituents. For these reasons and many more, we
wholeheartedly support Barbara Brousal-Glaser for Ward 3 Alderman.
Sincerely,
Valerie Miller and Gregg DiBiasso