Newton’s new city council holds its first regular meeting tonight (Tuesday Jan. 16).
In addition to a new president (Marc Laredo), vice president (David Kalis) and seven new members, it will be interesting to see this council without the presence of several long time veteran councilors (most notably Scott Lennon, Ted-Hess Mahan, Amy Sangilo, Brian Yates and, of course, Ruthanne Fuller). It’s also the first council which will be evenly divided between 12 women and 12 men.
What are your hopes for this new council? What do you hope will be accomplished? Are there any particular new members that you will be watching closely?
I’d like to see more advocacy for the Newton residents with less money. For instance, there are many of us without a place to park our cars overnight in the winter. Yet, the City isn’t really great if you want to be car-free because the public transit is spotty in most of Newton and there are many parts of Newton that aren’t touched by public transit. Traveling by foot is an option, but many sidewalks are in bad shape and lots of people neglect to clear their sidewalks of snow. Biking is an option, but I’m not comfortable going far with my kids in tow because it’s not bike-friendly, either. So, how are people like me supposed to get around?
Another thing is the lack of a summer meal program. The fliers that go out from the City of Newton at the end of the school year points kids in the direction of the free lunches provided by the Waltham Boys and Girls Club. How are these kids going to get to Waltham? With the exception of some parts of West Newton, kids who need these free lunches aren’t going to be able to get to Waltham. Nice of the City to try to push them off to Waltham, though.
There aren’t any new councillors that I am particularly watching closely, but I am more excited about the new school committee and feel cautiously optimistic about positive changes happening there.
I would like to see the roads improved, immediately starting with the West Newton Square and Washington Street projects, and quickly moving to the greater city.
I would like to see full day Kindergarten, and changes to start times in NPS.
I would like to see improvements in public transportation; Particularly I’d like the Newton rail stops to get upgraded to two-sided platforms for future expanded service, and some day, an expansion of the greater system with rapid transit into South Station, Allston, Cambridge, North Station (the MBTA’s Vision for 2024).
I realize this last one isn’t controlled by the city but by the state, and not happening. Sigh.
I’m looking forward to this council acting thoughtfully yet expediently on approving the new zoning ordinance Mayor Fuller has promised to deliver this fall.
And I hope that this council does not spend a lot of time debating political resolutions that do not directly apply to Newton.
Inclusionary zoning, which seems to have hit some type of road block…
What Greg said. I want the council to focus on city issues.
I want the council to do more to green the city and encourage conservation.
I’m also intrigued by Ruthanne’s promised zoning reform and Washington Street visioning project. Thoughtfully planning ahead will put our officials in the driver’s seat rather than ad hoc project proposals.
My hopes for this Council are dashed when the first thing I see put out there is their concern for taxing paper bags. Really? Are there not more important issues facing the City. Unbelievable.
The cities area councils are currently taking a critical look at the so called Pattern Book which is littered with false assumptions and mapping mistakes.
My own house in Waban, with a Waban postal code, is shown located in West Newton. National Lumber , 2 blocks from Newton Highlands Village Center is shown as being a part of Upper Falls. Our own City Hall is located in Newtonville. Four Corners is half in the Highlands and half in Newton Center divided down Walnut Street. What carpetbagger wrote this ?
This Architect sees zoning reform , based on subjective “Patterns”, as opposed to objective facts and dimensions, ( setbacks, heights, area ratios, postal codes etc. ) , as much too subject to personal or political interpretation. It’s way too development ( and developer ) friendly as evidenced upon reading the assumptions outlined in its first chapter and it glosses over the impact it would have on the individual investor/ homeowner.
Zoning was written initially as protection from adverse development next door not as a mechanism to promote same,.. which this document is forwarding.
The current attempt at rewriting zoning is way off target, much too hurried, and ripe for error and unintended consequence.
” If it ain’t broke don’t fix it !” Adjust the numbers, facts and figures maybe but don’t throw it out with the bath water.
I’m amused to read Blueprint Bill’s comments about the ways locations are grouped together incorrectly. I thought that was only a problem in Upper Falls and Waban where half of Waban was thrown in with most of Upper Falls and the rest of Upper Falls was thrown in with
Charlemont on the other side of Needham Street. After my repeated complaints, this was corrected but if there are similar problems elsewhere in the Pattern Book, maybe it should be rejected out of hand and a more specific list of zoning reforms like the ones proposed by last year’s City Council but never voted on should be considered. I hope the Pattern Book won’t wind up like the like the Village Study of a few decades ago, a lot of money spent for worthless and irrelevant recommendations.
Perhaps the best place to start would be bringing much more of the city into compliance with current Zoning standards. For instance , the current zoning use of right in most commercial districts is only two stories while there are three story buildings in virtually every village built before zoning. Why not legalize them and perhaps encourage property owners to add one or two stories to reach a reasonable limit that may have been abandoned in some cases during the Depression?
Same problem with the Waban map: at a quick glance, the Waban map should include Chestnut St all the way to Route 9. The old St Philip Neri lot is marked as commercial (it will be housing). In the Highlands map, the Newton Cemetery is included!!
Considering the map errors, how can the tables and pie charts be of any significance?
I hope Mayor R-A will disregard the pattern book completely. Probably those who spent money to buy it should be reimbursed.
@Brian – From what I’ve been following on zoning reform your example is in general one of the exact goals, if there’s an area where many properties are non-conforming for the same reason (stories, lot size, etc) then the zoning pattern should allow for that use. I don’t think the intent of the pattern book was to formally define village boundaries for zoning purposes as much as to provide an illustration of current state of housing/building stock through the general definition of villages. Regardless of how they define the village borders not everyone is going to agree, and focusing on that level of detail is missing the forest for the trees. The characteristics of a street or city block isn’t going to change if it’s moved from Upper Falls to Waban or vice versa.
Ah village boundaries!
I wouldn’t call these “mapping errors” or “mapping mistakes”. There are no official defined village boundaries in the City of Newton so every time virtually anyone makes a map or defines a village boundary, people always object. Some people insist that somehow the US post office district lines must be considered as the official city village boundaries. Others insist that “everyone knows” that X is considered part of Y village, etc.
Unless or until the city defines official village boundaries (not likely, unless someone is really itching to start fights) these are dead end questions. They can’t be definitively resolved.
Nothing but leafblowers seems to rile people up more than where people tell them they live.
A few years ago the US Post Office decided to move the boundary between their 02131 and 02132 zip code districts to equalize their delivery routes. All hell broke loose. Like Newton, Boston has lots of neighborhoods with well accepted centers and mushy boundaries between them. People woke up one morning to find that the federal government had moved them from Roslindale to West Roxbury and vice versa and nobody was happy.
And if that was the worst thing that happened to them that day, it was a darn good one!
It is good to know we have flexible village boundaries. The Horace Mann School in Newtonville has been moved to Nonantum; City Hall has been moved to Newtonville, West Newton has been subdivided. It goes on and on. An historic photograph of Nonantum Square is placed in Nonantum. However, the building shown, demolished to make way for the Turnpike, was in Newton Corner.
The Newton Pattern Book seems more an advertising tool for development than anything else.
If we really want to expand housing opportunities in Newton, perhaps we should convert all single family zones to allow two or three families, depending on the size of the lot.