It was great to see all those Village 14 personalities, especially the ones we’ve never met before. Many thanks to Terry Malloy for insisting that it was time to do this again and getting it organized. Next time we won’t wait so long till the next one.
The best thing about these get togethers is that you learn all sorts of things about people you didn’t know before.
Here’s tonight’s Village 14 trivia question: Which well known Newton resident was the agent that cast Julia Roberts in her first major movie – Mystic Pizza?
Trivia Question #2
Which V14 cast member is the insurance agent for Henry Kissinger along with a series of former Secretaries of State?
Here’s another .. which V14 regular produced a movie that Van Morrison did the sound track for?
What a great photo! Looks like everyone’s having a marvelous time. I regretfully couldn’t make it last night, but I look forward to the 10th anniversary gala in 2021. It will be a black tie affair, yes? It’s not too soon to start planning!
Thanks to Jack Prior for the great photo
That is Newton for you. The least diverse city in Massachusetts.
Pretty sad.
Sorry to miss this, folks. I had to be somewhere else last evening– next one, promise!
Peter, Newton is the 24th most diverse city/town in MA. Is it as diverse as Waltham or Boston? No, but your assessment is pretty off base. But I don’t think V14 is an accurate representation of Newton’s demographics. It obviously skews older, whiter, and male.
Mary, words have meaning. I specifically wrote “city” and not municipality. Show me one city with less diversity. I’ll wait.
Don’t let your insecurity get the best of you.
That photo says a lot about today’s Newton.
I’m sorry I missed meeting this great looking bunch of V14ers. I was looking forward to putting some faces with the names that appear there – real ones or pseudonyms – and learning more about everyone.
It sounds like I missed some good stories too. Is anyone going to answer that trivia questions or leave us non-partiers in the dark?
Peter, I’m diverse (a multiracial woman *and* a lifetime resident of Newton!) and I would have been there last night were it not for another commitment.
I think I know the answer to trivia question #1, Jerry – does he live in ward 8?
My insecurities? I’m in a mixed race marriage with mixed race children – my 4th grader goes to one of Newton’s public schools on the Northside where he is one of 6 mixed race children in his class of 19 (and 5 other kids are nonwhite – although to be fair one is a METCO kid), and the school itself is 57-59% white. I also work at a local nonprofit where I work with people of various races. Don’t tsk tsk me about diversity.
Again Mary, please tell me what city in Massachusetts is less diverse than Newton. You labelled my assessment as “off-base.” Do you care to back it up with any data?
Yes, newton is indeed far less racially diverse the many cities in MA ( said an old white guy).
That said, I’d guess that newton is more diverse than Beverley, Burlington and methuen that are all bigger.
To your initial point, yes that is indeed a lily white photo.
Peter, isn’t City/Town sort of a false split here. Needham, Weston, Wellesley, Amherst, and a bunch of other towns are far less diverse than Newton. Newton is 74% white. Other towns are far greater. Not saying we are hitting it out of the park on diversity, but I agree with Mary. My kids schools on the North Side are far more diverse than you’d expect (which probably says something about the south side…)
It’s nice that people got together. At the same time, I think that people who use a moniker and not their own names on V14 should have been wearing a name tag that identifies their moniker and their real name, who they really are. And for that matter, maybe everybody should have been wearing a name tag. Maybe for next time..
@Jane: the only thing standing between name tags and not last night was somebody remembering to bring them. Several of us last night said “I was planning to, but….”
Since there is assessment of skin pigmentation in determining a lack of v14 party attendee diversity, there are some categories where out of the total 23, greater diversity does exist, as follows:
1. 15 males, 8 females
2. 12 tall (>5’8″), 11 short (<5'8")
3. 19 head follicled, 4 follicle challenged
4. 2 bearded, 21 beardless
5. 7 spectacled, 16 unspectacled
6. 22 liberals, 1 conservative
So, expanded to these categories, V14 needn't be overly diversity shamed.
It was a lovely time and great to meet people. Jane H – several of us were happy to share our names (or, in my case, my last name) with others in person. And I would have been perfectly happy to only know people’s list monikers – the point was to enjoy talking in person with people we know only by electrons.
I was sorry not to say hi to Terry Malloy, whose flowing locks I could see across the room. 🙂
Based on the MA DOE reports the school population is 62% white thus the school population is more diverse than the overall Newton population. Thus this photo might say something more about an older age demographic or blogger demographic. Though you can’t always judge a book by its cover.
As far as schools on the North South divide, Newton South is actually slightly more diverse (61% white)than North (63% white). For middle schools in order of least to most diverse you have Day (66% white), Brown (64% white), Bigelow (51% white) and Oak Hill (56% white). I remember being at a incoming 6th grade parent night at Brown and John Jordan asked people to raise their hands on where the parents attended middle school and it was surprising but the majority attended school outside of the US.
Hi Jerry – actually, Newton has twice the population of Beverly. Not to mention that Newton abuts the biggest city in New England while Beverly is an isolated shore town.
Similarly, Newton has 3x as many people as Burlington and has comparable racial demographics.
Methuen is on the N.H. border and is also smaller than us.
@Peter Kay – Oops, was looking at the wrong table.
The composition of people in the picture mostly says a lot about who can make it to an event at 7 on a weeknight. Many younger people are parents who have to be home for their kids, or schlepping them to athletics or other activities. Those of us with grown kids or no kids find it easier – hence the older demographic. The gender balance was pretty good at various times, though it did skew more male.
Dear Fignewtonville,
My children attend Newton North so I’m not surprised at all by the dearth of diversity on Village 14 or in our city as a whole: racial and ethnic.
And I’m not sure if your invocation of Weston, Wellesley and Amherst was meant to be humorous, but if so, it is brilliant.
Still, guilt is not an effective organizing agent, and I don’t feel any shame for the demographics of a purely voluntary blog that doesn’t compensate its participants. Village 14 is what it is. It would be more useful to suggest a method to encourage other voices to chime in. In any event, I thoroughly enjoyed last night.
I have a different feeling about these new or projected developments, e.g. Northland, Riverside, Austin Street, and so forth. For me, their main justification, more important than the high-density/environmental angle, is their promise to provide housing for families of lower or modest income. Presumably, those families will make Newton more diverse in innumerable ways, including racially and ethnically and socio-economically. If the high-density projects overwhelmingly provide homes only for folks like those moving into McMansions costing several million each, we have been sold a bill of goods.
Let’s hope that the Garden City publishes data on the new residents of the Garden City. To start, who has moved into Austin Street (the demographics, not the names)? Does such data exist?
A lovely soiree!
Lots of laughs to be had and everyone was in great and super friendly spirits. In fact, Jerry Reilly was so involved in story telling (and hearing) I was able to eat his appetizer before he could notice.I owe you an appetizer Jerry! And I owe you a drink Meredith!
I remembered name tags as I walked in, but by then priorities demanded that I order a cold frosty.
Let’s do it again soon.
Cheers!
@Peter – you said “Show me one city with less diversity.” Here are 5: Attleboro, Westfield, Weymouth, Beverly, North Adams. Yes, they’re all smaller than Newton, and none are next to Boston. But you did not ask for one city with comparable population and location with less diversity, did you? Words have meaning…
Leave it to Village 14 to turn a photo of some people hanging out at a bar into a debate over something that’s not really debatable.
Jerry,
Back to the trivia question. I’m guessing Mike Striar for the movie with the Van Morrison soundtrack.
Bob Jampol-
As usual, you are 100% correct.
I have enjoyed your writing and musings for many years.
Not to say that you are “old,” whatever that means, but I feel that you bring much needed wisdom to a lot of the issues with which we wrestle.
I truly appreciate your gifts that you have shared with Newton.
Peace,
Peter
Peter, just a bit humorous. I did pick those on purpose. 😉
Sorry I couldn’t add to the diversity! Busy working the Julia Mejia recount on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday! Congratulations to Julia on winning by 1 vote!
@Blue – I’m sorry to say that Mike Striar wasn’t there. I would have liked to meet him.
Marie Jackson
@Allison Sharma – Yes he does 😉
As Tiny Tim might say, “God bless us, every one!” Happy holidays.
Speaking of diversity, I think my comment this morning got deleted.
@Matt Lai – I don’t see any sign of a deleted comment from you
My bad @jerry. It was the other post.
Apologies.
I know the answer to trivia question #1 because I had the pleasure of spending 2 hours with him at the ward 8 table during Saturday Night at the Races last month… Rick Lipof!