Jake Auchincloss, candidate for At-Large Alderman Ward 2, submitted this column to Village 14. After consulting with a few Village 14ers, we decided to post this as an experiment. We will post columns from declared candidates, as submitted and with no editing, but reserve the right to limit the number of columns or ditch this whole idea at any time. Candidates should not use this forum to say negative things about their opponents. (That’s what the comments section is for 🙂 )
Since the winter’s thaw, my campaign for alderman-at-large from Ward 2 has knocked on 3,000 doors towards my 10,000+ goal. Across all eight wards, I have heard from hundreds of engaged voters at their doorstep about what issues in Newton are important to them. Below is a brief summary of what I’m hearing, what I’m not hearing, and what I think it means.
I make no claims that this is a scientific poll, but the selection of representative quotations and the methodology has been consistent and unbiased. My own opinions I save till the end.
What voters are talking about: Housing, schools, and roads.
1) Seniors and young families alike are feeling squeezed by the Newton housing market. Approximately 25% of voters mentioned this issue first.
Representative quotations:
“My kids can’t afford to come back to Newton with their families.” – 68 year-old female, West Newton.
“I can’t afford the property taxes anymore. I will have to sell soon.” – 78 year-old female, Newtonville.
“Nobody wants a lawn anymore. The new projects are all house.” – 54 year-old female, Newton Corner.
“It already takes me ten minutes to even get out of the driveway in the morning; the new development will make it a mess.” – 58 year-old male, Newton Lower Falls.
“This street has totally changed in the last ten years. My parents left me the house, but most of my friends growing up couldn’t afford to stay.” – 38 year-old female, West Newton.
2) Young parents and empty-nesters alike are generally happy with the schools and wish to see funding for schools maintained, though there is a lively set of opinions about how, precisely, the city directs money for education. Approximately 25% of voters mentioned this issue first.
Representative quotations:
“We moved here for the schools and I’ve been really happy with the teachers so far.” – 37 year-old female, Oak Hill.
“I want the city to support the teachers. I think their happiness at work affects my kids.” – 42 year-old female, Newton Corner.
“There are too many aides in the schools – it seems like we spend so much on aides but then we can’t afford good buildings.” – 48 year-old male, Newtonville.
“The special education here is superb.” – 64 year-old female, West Newton.
3) Drivers and cyclists are not impressed with the roads. Approximately 10% of voters mentioned this issue first.
Representative quotations:
“I thought the city was pretty good this winter with the plowing. But in general the potholes are terrible.” – 59 year-old male, Newton Lower Falls.
“I broke an axle on Washington Street. Watertown and Wellesley’s roads look great, but you cross the line into Newton and it’s a different world.” – 62 year-old female, West Newton.
What voters are not talking about: The city’s fiscal policy
Very few voters bring up either short-term or long-term budgetary issues. To borrow a concept from business school, fiscal policy is not a “pain point” for voters. When my team or I put the issue forward, two representative sentiments are:
“I know the city has a good credit rating. That’s important.” – 62 year-old male
“Health care is a mess in the whole country. The city’s probably counting on being less of a mess than everywhere else [in regards to health care costs for municipal employees].” – 54 year-old female
What I think this means for Newton
The defining issues for the City Council over the next 15 years will be housing and the twin deficits in infrastructure investment and the employee benefits fund.
The voters are keenly aware of the development issue and are generally agreed that the city needs more attainable housing for young families and workable housing for seniors, while maintaining the character of a Garden City.
The mandate for Phase 2 of zoning reform is apparent though deeply difficult: Pull back the reins on the mansion-ization of neighborhoods that still have starter homes, moderately increase mixed-use density in village centers, and vigorously preserve green space in the city. I welcome this challenge and have the leadership and policy experience to help thread that narrow needle.
Conversely, there is unfortunately limited public pressure to responsibly fund our $600M+ employee benefits liability. The City Council needs to raise the volume on this unglamorous but momentous issue. I talk about it at every door I knock, and as a councilor-at-large I will work with Ruthanne Fuller and the administration to make sure our children do not pay our bills for us.
This is fantastic!!!!
If he wins, I hope he keeps doing this.
It verifies what we already know, but thats extremely helpful.
I like the idea of the Aldermanic candidates getting their messages out on Village 14. But…so it doesn’t become an unending Candidates’ Night, maybe we should talk about some limits…like 3-5 non-scripted entries from each candidate on whatever they find important, limited in length to that around Auchincloss’s article. Then, somewhat closer to the election, maybe we can submit a short list of questions to all the candidates and ask them to answer for us. Thoughts, anyone?
Are you volunteering to organize/manage it Sallee?
I would be happy to help! That doesn’t scare me at all!
Did candidate Jake Auchincloss personally knock 3,000 doors himself? or is this number the total for his “team?”
Well, Jake came by here about an hour ago. It’s possible.
Just sounds like political speak to me. No surprises in the issues. No solutions.
Unless candidates are talking about what they see the solutions might be and what approach they would take to attain those solutions I think it’s a waste of space. I’m not interested in just reading about what the issues are or in how they “welcome the challenge,” that they are leaders or how hard they will work.
It says he and his campaign knocked on doors. He says he heard from 100’s.
Dear Candidates and Related Teams:
Please KNOCK on the doors only, rather than ringing the doorbells. Talking to you is helpful, but not worth that kind of disruption.
Sincerely yours,
Newtonians with Dogs or Small Children, and Shift Workers
@Marti, happy to dive deeper into the solutions with you, as I do with voters at their doorstep every day (@Catherine, about 2,500 of those doors have been knocked by me.) I devoted this posting to a digest of what I’m hearing, as I thought it would be of interest to V14’ers.
Is there a particular question, Marti?
+1 on Marti’s comments. Political advertisements like this add no value to the Village14 website and make me less likely to spend any time here.
I’ve never had any trouble skipping posts I’m not interested in. If Village14 posts more of these, I’ll read some but not all – and that’s fine. Just like I don’t read every story on the newspaper websites, but that doesn’t mean I think they should get rid of sections I’m not interested in.
+1 on mgwa’s,comment. I welcome hearing directly from each of the candidates on V14. Thanks Jake.
If I eventually find candidate’s posts repetitive or vacuous I’ll stop reading them. In any case I would have learned something useful.
@Sallee The fact of the matter is that many people who post on here have already made up their minds and now spend a great deal of time flinging vile invective at Newton’s elected official, not just the ones in Ward 2. Why would you except them to participate in a process that you have designed when it will just result in raising the already unreasonable level of your anger? Just reading village 14 will tell you that most people here have no interest in reading or hearing anything that they do not agree with.
Also its important to note that either Jake or the people he is paying to canvass for him heard that Newton lacks affordable housing but yet he is opposed to building afforable housing. Or perhaps now that he has been told that Newton needs affordable housing he is no longer opposed to it.
@Sam Gordon – well said Prof. Gordon (clearly you have knowledge of political shenanigans and related jiggery-pokery). Beware of politicians bearing gifts, providing wisdom and valuable knowledge derived from polling activities. Have you ever thought about running for office? Just asking. You may have a bright future in government service here in the Commonwealth.
For those who enjoyed Jake’s political post or would like to become more engaged with the candidates, I encourage you to check out Jess Barton’s weekly blog posts on her website at http://www.bartonfornewton.com/#!blog/cd8i. These will continue through election day so as to give voters a full insight into who she is, why she is running, and why she believes she can do a great job if given the privilege of being elected to the Board of Aldermen.
That’s swell Tom, thanks.
However I hope Jess also will do what other candidates typically do leading up to Election Day, which is to post and respond to comments directly on Village 14. Oh, and also not rely on a spokesperson.
@Sam Gordon, I’m fine getting beat up a little bit on V14 as a rite of passage for any young Newton politician, for example when HL Dewey makes up residence issues without doing any research into my USMC reserve commitments, but I won’t accept you mischaracterizing a fundamental position of my campaign.
Newton desperately needs more attainable housing for young families and more workable housing for seniors; not only the voters but the data support that assertion. Show me developments that help young families, especially municipal employees, get a starter home, or seniors on a fixed income move from an empty nest to a 1-or-2 bedroom, and I am in support.
Austin Street is on public land and should serve the public interest in helping those two demographics most at need. It currently falls short.
Jake stopped by our house recently. I’m impressed. He’s hungry to serve and clearly engaging with the voters.
Even if we didn’t get into specific issues (we did — touched on topics including leaf blower ban, Austin Street, Robinhood Park and the looming 40B projects), you can learn a lot by chatting and seeing the candidate’s thought process. I liked what I heard, and it makes me wish more of the BoA were more engaged (some — including those that frequent V14 — are pretty accessible. Others — not so much).
I’m happy to see the last paragraph of the Auchincloss column regarding the importance of our OPEB liabilty.
So few At-Large candidates knock on doors-understandably, it’s a full time job- but I wish they all could.
I’m definitely looking forward to more candidate columns; no need for controls, bring ’em on! Like any other V14 citizen, candidates should speak as often and about whatever they want. We, the readers, can decide what we want to read, as we always do, and the more we get to know the candidates in more casual conversations the better.
And debates, let’s have debates!
So Jake is it just the public land aspect of Austin Street that bothers you? It does provide affordable housing and Newtonville will not loose parking spaces. Say a developer wanted to build in a large and increasingly empty office park and use that to provide affordable housing would that not be a problem for you?
Your views are so nuanced on things its hard to tell what you are for other then winning. You almost sound like John Kerry trying to justify why he voted for the Iraq war.
Based on what Jake said he heard from people I’m not sure why he opposes the Audtin Street Development.
Assuredly are my policy views on development nuanced. This is a complicated field, where data is critical but often misused. 51 units of $3K+ rent doesn’t help municipal employees or seniors on fixed incomes, and without a plan for parking during construction, local merchants will be in dire straits.
This is public land, we could get creative. For example, the city could make itself an equity partner in the transaction for all returns above a baseline rate, and use the funds to subsidize municipal employees in the market rate housing.
@Sam Gordon, I suggest laying off the Iraq War comparison. No one will die because of the Austin Street decision. (And when you recycle the line from the incumbent, your pseudonym falters.)
Jake, I still do not understand your reasoning the affordable units will be available for people with section 8 certificates. Half of the Newton Housing Authotities certificates are used outside of Newton because of high rents. The parking during construction is the responsibility of the developer and they should submit a plan that assures there will adequate parking. Many young professionals and down sizing seniors have told me the rental rates are comparable to those in other communities. What concerns me most is that I don’t believe you really oppose the Austin Street Development but are doing so solely for the reason the two incumbents do. If this is not the case you need to detail a more compelling argument against it.
No one project can meet every need or serve every public good. We have two public properties, Austin Street and Crescent Street, that together could better serve the public interests cited here, and other goals as well. Since 2007, when the Board adopted our Comprehensive Plan, I have wanted to see Austin Street developed as a mixed income, mixed use project that would provide affordable housing to low to moderate income as well as transit-oriented development in a village center. I would also love to see Crescent Street developed with 8-16 units of affordable housing for seniors in a single building, which would have a far lower impact on the neighborhood than an equal number of single family attached or detached dwellings in a cluster development, with a correspondingly smaller footprint.
Could the Austin Street project be better? Of course. And through the special permit process, it can be made better. But to oppose it because it does not meet every single need the city has for housing is letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.