We have invited all candidates running for contested seats in the upcoming Newton election to submit a guest post to Village 14. The format and content of the post is entirely up to them.
City Council candidate Maria Scibelli Greenberg who is running for the ward seat in Ward 1, has submitted this column and video (produced by her son Matteo Greenberg):
Constituent Services has been one of my top priorities as your Ward 1 Councilor. Let me help you navigate the City’s permitting process, plant a tree in your berm, fill a pothole, or even help you hunt for a lost snake! I’ve worked with neighborhood groups to implement traffic calming measures for their streets and I’ve addressed safety concerns and improvements for our parks.
Local, neighborhood issues have been my primary focus and I will continue to work hard for the villages of Ward 1-Nonantum and Newton Corner. I have also been honored to be endorsed by the Newton Teachers Association, Progressive Newton, Sierra Club and Engine 6/Livable Newton. I’m asking for your support and vote on Nov. 5th. Thank you
I love the simplicity and directness of her message and video … though I’m not a ward 1 voter
BTW – love that drone footage of Newton Corner. Is that Matteo Greenberg’s handiwork too?
Hi Jerry. Yes, Matteo has become quit skillful in using his drone to make videos. Proud mom.
What a nice, refreshing, approach.
Not sure how much this tells me about how effective a city councilor Greenberg is or will be, but I love Matteo’s photography and video production work!
I wrote an endorsement for Councilor Greenberg that I planned to submit to the Newton TAB. Because I had already written an endorsement for another candidate this election season, and because of the newspaper’s “no two submissions by the same author in a 30-day period” policy, there wasn’t time for it to be published, to my great disappointment. Moderators, may I have your permission to share my letter here, i.e., in a comment to this post about Councilor Greenberg? It’s under 350 words.
@Laura J – go right ahead.
Thank you, Jerry! Here it is:
Want solutions, Newton? Reelect Councilor Greenberg.
“Whenever the situation is really, really bad, you call in the woman,” said Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, during a guest appearance on “The Daily Show” with Trevor Noah last June.
Motor vehicle traffic on the section of Washington Street in my Newton Corner neighborhood has been really, really bad since the 1960s, when the construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike changed our village forever.
So bad that not even two instances of catastrophic injury to a child after being struck by a speeding driver in the 1970s—an era when the number of cars on the road was a fraction of what it is today and drivers weren’t distracted by mobile phones—could persuade our city leaders of the day to put reasonable traffic-calming measures in place on Washington Street.
However, in 2018, after more than five decades, and generations of parents calling for something to be done so that our children could more safely walk and bike to three Newton public schools, it was two women on the Newton City Council representing Ward 1, Maria Scibelli Greenberg and Alison Leary, who finally answered.
Thanks to their efforts, common-sense changes to the road, including adding pedestrian crosswalks and bike lanes, repainting the travel lanes, and consolidating parking, will, at last, be made in my neighborhood in the coming months.
In less than two years, Councilor Greenberg helped us achieve what no previous city leaders, neighborhood associations, or advocates ever could: restore a sense of order and security in my community that disappeared a half-century ago.
What she’s accomplished in her first term is extraordinary and unprecedented, and I anticipate even more success in her second. I’m confident she’ll continue to bring about long-overdue and much-needed improvements to the village of Newton Corner, and that her contributions will benefit the entire City of Newton long into the future.
I hope you’ll join me in reelecting Maria Scibelli Greenberg as Ward 1 councilor on Tuesday, November 5. Her service has been phenomenal.
Laura Johnson
Washington Street