I was deeply honored when Brian Yates asked me to narrate his campaign video and when Julia Malakie asked me to provide a short video testimonial for her campaign. I also got a big kick out of watching two fantastically upbeat videos from Ward 6 Councilor Dick Blazar and from Ward 2 at-large City Council candidate Braden Houston, and a beautifully produced video about Julia’s approach to many policy questions in our garden city. I don’t post many items on Village 14, but I felt that hearing directly from these 4 candidates would be far more powerful (and entertaining) than anything I could write about them. This is a great five-part show that combines some deep and serious talk about real issues with some laughs and humor. I hope you enjoy it half as much as I did with being part of the production:
Videos of Yates, Malakie, Blazar, and Houston
by Bob Burke | Nov 3, 2017 | Newton | 34 comments
Bob, it seems to me that you’re abusing the privilege you’ve somehow acquired to start blog threads by posting these commercials for your chosen candidates this close to the election. So in the spirit of counterbalance, let me suggest that enlightened Newton voters should choose Jake Auchincloss and Susan Albright in W2, Andrea Kelley and Jim Côte in W3, Deb Crossley and Andreae Downes in W5. Unfortunately I don’t have a vote in W6 so I’ll stay out of that race but hopefully the new charter will pass and we won’t be stuck anymore with small-minded Ward councilors answerable only to their NIMBY neighbors rather than all voters citywide as they should be.
Thanks for posting Bob.
I am supporting all of these candidates. The videos are very informative.
@Gerry “enlightened Newton voters?”
This is exactly the arrogance that will sink Yes.
I agree with Gerry ‘s post about Bob posting videos for his chosen candidates. Up until this point the video links have been debates or links to videos on all the candidates (except the Nomadic Theater which is a different beast) so equal access. I feel that is is an unbalanced and thus unfair thread.
What Julia is doing for trees in Newton is unparalleled. However, her association with the NVA makes it difficult for me to vote for her. Still on the fence.
And I agree with Gerry about this post being inappropriate.
Bob could have just as easily posted the video links in the comments. Not seeing the big deal especially as there have been plenty of partisan posts over the last couple of weeks
PS I loved Dick Blazer’s video. Very schmultzy but genuine.
Why is Bob very transparently posting videos any different from Sean Roche starting numerous threads where he isn’t transparent about his agenda and treats it like news?
Karen,
I’m so flattered that you introduced me into this thread. Gave my ego a little boost.
Agenda? This is a blog. I have points of view on some of the topics of the day. I don’t hide my points of view, but I do try to be fair to both/all sides. It’s commentary, not news.
Now, you (and others) don’t often share my point of view. Your right. If you think I’m being unfair, let me know.
I do think we would all do well to assume positive intent more often. I don’t agree with you, but I don’t doubt your sincerity. In encourage you to try assuming that I’m sincere. See if it makes reading my stuff any more palatable.
He really shouldn’t have done it this way, but not a big deal in my mind. I’d argue for equal time, but I don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill.
Occasionally folks on both sides post partisan discussion posts, but this is the most blatant I’ve seen. For the folks supporting candidates like the above, please remember this post (and posts like the slam on Jake A. last month) when you complain about how slanted the blog is…
Gerry writes that “we won’t be stuck anymore with small-minded Ward councilors answerable only to their NIMBY neighbors rather than all voters citywide as they should be.”
I will be glad to show you how densely populated my neighborhood is (southern section of Ward 2 Precinct 1). My guess is that my neighborhood is a lot more thickly populated than Waban and Chestnut Hill. How about your area? Is it zoned single family? Multi-family? It gets very tiresome to hear NIMBY thrown at my neighborhood.
Village 14’s bloggers had agreed not to post any endorsement threads after this past Friday. Much to my regret I’m not sure Bob was included on that email so I’d like to apologize to him now.
Although he originally published this on Nov. 6, I’ve posted it back to last Friday.
BTW, all the other bloggers opted not to start personal endorsement threads following some added off-line discussions but again we may have erred not including Bob.
@ Gerry. Don’t worry, we will ;).
What I like about these C. Pitts videos is that they aren’t what you think of as glossy candidate profiles. They talk about issues in Newton and illustrate them with examples. I had no idea, for instance, before watching the Yates and Malachi videos that there is discussion on how to develop Marshall’s Plaza with one side going for high density housing and the others hoping for commercial development as corporate office space. This was very newsworthy for me, as were the visual portrayals of big multi-families and McMansions that are totally out of scale with the rest of the houses on the street. Regardless of how you feel about the candidates (and one can definitely view everything through their own perspective) these videos are examples of very visual and specific storytelling about issues in Newton. They also match faces and places to the issues that we usually only discuss in theory.
@Jerry
“small minded ward councillors”
Really? If anything they are respectful!
I decided that I couldn’t vote for Malakie after her blog post here about how we shouldn’t repair sidewalks because of trees. I hate to see a tree removed, but I think it’s our responsibility as a community to have safe sidewalks. There are sidewalks throughout the city in such bad shape due to tree roots that people in wheelchairs or pushing strollers can’t get through. It even forces them to walk on the road which is unacceptable.
@Greg. Greg. No need to apologize at all. I didn’t know of the rules against posting campaign videos, but I post so infrequently you had every reason to think I had dropped off the posting team. Thank you for reposting it back to Friday. We weren’t trying to pull a last minute coup by putting them up this morning. Ironically, I had hoped to post these on Friday, but the production volunteers had technical challenges with some of the videos.
I believe that those who know me will acknowledge that I don’t attack people or groups I disagree with. I spend what effort I can muster just discussing the candidates and issues I support because that’s generally the right thing and politically smart thing to do.
As such, all five videos are positive statements about background and issues from a diverse assortment of free spirits who don’t always agree with me or with each other. I treasure this kind of diversity and I think everyone in Newton should appreciate it too. I’m proud to be backing all of them, but I also respect those candidates on the opposite side of the street.
I want to thank both you and Sean Roche for establishing this blog and for keeping it going.
All the best
thanks Bob… and thanks to you for all you’ve done here and for our city over all these decades, including your famous Irish stew post.
@simon – Watch your ‘g’s and ‘j’s
That “small minded ward councilors” was from Gerry with a G 😉
@Jerry
Sorry about the incorrect reference!
Mary, Mary, where did I ever say sidewalks should not be repaired? I wanted them repaired with asphalt, not concrete. DPW themselves agree that they can make ADA compliant sidewalks with asphalt. And this is what they ended up doing with almost all of the Beacon Street trees. Of the trees originally posted for removal, the three that were removed were due not to sidewalk issues, but because the roots were pushing out the curbing, which DPW considers a hazard to their goal of “curb-to-curb” snow plowing, because plow blades can catch on them. (Personally, I haven’t witnesses a lot of curb-to-curb plowing. Lucky to get within six inches.)
I recall asking Shane Mark, DPW Director of Operations, at the June 16, 2017 Urban Tree Commission meeting, whether there was a life-cycle cost advantage to concrete over asphalt (I assumed the answer would be yes), and he didn’t really have an answer. This is the meeting audio, which I’m listening to again to see if I can find that question. https://yourlisten.com/NewtonTrees/urban-tree-comm-dpw-sidewalks-june-16-2017-pt-2
[Note: yourlisten is free but prone to popups, gotta keep closing them]
I also would like to see upheaved sidewalks repaired as soon as dead/dying trees are removed, when there is no conflict between putting in concrete, and preserving a tree. But I’ve seen several instances with Newton Tree Conservancy plantings, where someone wants a new tree to replace a tree that’s long gone, but they want to get their sidewalk repaired first and they’re still waiting.
Julie! You saved those trees on Beacon?? I love you! I did not know that
I was only one person concerned about the approach being taken. There was a massive response from Waban and elsewhere, including at the public meeting at the Waban Library (audio also on that yourlisten channel) that caused the administration to reassess.
I love Bob, but this is a slate of folks who want to look backward, not forward. The city is under a bunch of tremendous pressure: climate change, the regional lack of housing driving land prices through the roof, dreadful racial and economic diversity in the city. Their answer is the status quo. Their sympathies lie with folks who sincerely, but wrongheadedly, think the answer to our problems is to put “neighborhood character” above everything else. Brian and Dick have had plenty of terms to address the challenges our city faces. Their answers have been too small in scope, too modest in ambition. Their answers have left Newton vulnerable to being shaped by forces we should be controlling. Newton can do better.
Andreae Downs. Brenda Noel. Allison Sharma. Andrea Kelley. That’s how Newton can do better. New blood. Progressive women.
In the Urban Tree Commission audio, discussion of cost of concrete vs asphalt sidewalks extends from 1:12:38 to 1:22:35. I ask about life cycle cost at 1:13:19. Barbara Darnell asks about data on maintenance costs at 1:19:54. I ask about initial installed cost at 1:21:30.
Actually, this whole meeting was pretty interesting.
@Sean
Perhaps you should be a little more specific. Newton has consistently been voted one of the best places to live in America. Why is this? I would suggest it might just have something to do with the people we have elected right now!
Dying village centers. Land prices driving lower and middle classes out of the city. Few housing options for seniors and young families. Criminally low numbers of African-American and Hispanic/Latinx residents. Profligate car use. Completely inadequate bicycle accommodations. Opioid tragedies. Inadequate school capacity for present children, much less the numbers we should have.
I should say that I really like Julia Malackie and completely respect and am grateful for her work saving Newton’s trees. She is the Lorax. I am troubled by her participation in NVA, but she’s definitely the best of the worst.
@Sean
Remind me again how your candidates would resolve these issues.
I regularly attending zoning and planning meetings, I don’t recall seeing you on a regular basis.. That said most of the time it’s only a handful of people who attend any says!
The City already hired experts who told us we can not build our way out of this!
Whew! “I really like julia malackie … she’s the best of the worse”. What the hell was that?
Julia, you indicated that the need for good sidewalks is aesthetic. https://village14.com/2017/05/18/more-tree-carnage-looms/
If you don’t understand the importance of safe sidewalks, I don’t think you should be elected into office. I appreciate your tree advocacy, but being on the city council means you have a much larger responsibility beyond trees.
Simon,
First of all, the candidates would identify the issues I listed as issues we need to address and with priority.
“I really like julia malackie … she’s the best of the worse”. Wait a minute. This is acceptable? Others have comments removed (yours truly) with no real explanation and yet this is allowed. Hard to understand what exactly violates the supposed standards of the moderators.
Simon,
There are lots of roles to play in the civic drama beyond meeting attendee.
That said, I need to go to more zoning meetings. Hope to see you there!
Sean, please, get out of your neighborhood some more. Over in your area, maybe diversity is lacking. Not true in all sections. Just checked http://www.city-data.com/zips/02459.html for demographic data. Makes for interesting reading. Please denigrate your neighbors and not those in diverse neighborhoods. No area exactly matches the racial makeup of the Commonwealth but some areas do a much better job than your neighborhood.