Recent years have seen the establishment of new elected neighborhood Area Councils in Upper Falls, Waban, and Newtonville, as well as an aborted effort to create one in Newton Centre. It looks like well before the rest of the villages get their own Area Councils, a new wave of hyper local democracy is breaking out.
In Upper Falls there’s a tight knit neighborhood up on the top of the very steep Cottage St, and Columbia Ave that locals call Upper Upper Falls. The residents from up on that hilltop have petitioned the Upper Falls Area Council to create a new Area Council for their neighborhood within a neighborhood. Says Upper Upper Falls resident Julie Irish, “We’ve got a different outlook from our lowland neighbors and we’d like to have our own representative body to deal with our unique issues up here where the views are better but the air’s a bit thinner.
Cross town a similar move is afoot in Newtonville. The boundaries of the Newtonville Area Council’s district spans the Mass Pike. Neighbors to the north of the pike are petitioning to create a new Area Council for North Newtonville. Says City Councilless Emily Norton, “we’d like to keep all of Newtonville together if possible, but being a North Newtonville girl myself, I do understand the concerns of my neighbors for better representation of their more local interests”. Said one Newtonville North resident, “there’s only so much talk about Austin St down in South Newtonville that I can stand”
But Newton Highlands will always remain a united entity despite the loss of two outlier streets to a deft winter incursion by the new Waban clique.
@Jerry. the Triangle is not negotiable.
The streets that screamed for inclusion in the Waban Council call themselves Lower Waban. So the remaining part of present-day Waban has decided to designate itself as Medium Waban so that it can expand its territory to Upper Waban on West Newton Hill. ;)
@Sallee – Actually, everything east of Chestnut St is “East Waban.” Kind of like East Berlin.
At the top of our beloved “Upper Upper Falls” there is a cottage that is being torn down (literally today if not this week) and from what we’ve heard, to be replaced with a huge 2 unit McTownHouse. Any helpful words of advice or past successes to counter this would be appreciated. :-)
@Matt: That’s horrible. At least 17 units would have fit.
Actually, Bob, I’ve been talking to a number of Newton Highlands neighbors south of Route 9. People are outraged because they don’t feel well represented by the Newton Highlands Area Council. It’s all anyone will talk about down here.