In a different thread, fignewtonville suggested a possible new feature for Village14 – “A weekly open post where folks could bring up issues, which a moderator could highlight in a separate post”.
I’m a bit wary about the idea but I thought it’s worth trying out. My wariness stems from what I’ll call the “what you should do” syndrome. Occasionally people will contact me and say something like “you should write a post delving in to the city’s proposed budget” or “you should write a post about the proposed new zoning overhaul”. While the suggested topics may be more than worthy of discussion, I don’t know anything about the topics and couldn’t write anything useful about them with out investing a lot of time and energy to educate myself.
My reflexive, internal, juvenile instinct is “oh yeah, well what you should do is … write it yourself.”
But let’s give this a try, with the understanding that we’re in this together and that Village14 readers are not editors handing out unwanted writing assignments to their staff.
So feel free to suggest any under-discussed topics that you would like to start a conversation about. The more information you can contribute yourself to help start the conversation, the better. Better yet, if its a topic you know a fair amount about, consider writing a Guest Post instead.
So have at it … What topic would you like to see discussed here on Villager14 ?
I want to discuss the supervision of playgrounds, basketball courts and tennis courts.
What steps do we need to have those open?
-distancing, distancing and distancing.
Why not reopen all those with some patrolling. I don’t see what the Police is doing these days: they don’t stop speeders; they could be patrolling and making sure people are distancing.
What about crossing guards? School janitors, school secretaries (are they working?) teachers who are teaching less than one hour a week (Yes, I have heard of some!)
Those courts are essential for psychological well-being. Teenagers love to shoot baskets by themselves, it provides a relief of all the (you cannot do that). Tennis players are mostly reasonable and careful; why should they be punished because of a small foolish minority?
Kids need to climb: they could wear gloves not to touch metal parts; or the Ciyty could disinfect the structures. Tweens have been seen in groups of four: a fine to their parents would stop that quickly.
Let’s be open to responsible behavior!!!
Newton Schools have FAILED. No formal online learning. All optional. Other towns hit the ground running with 4 to 5 full days and homework. Newton should be the leader, but is way behind and has failed its students. The Superintendent should be accountable and should have been gone a long time ago. Moreover, the high school fields are filled with dozens of students playing ball and hanging out without any social distancing. Its time to hold people accountable and fine them. The selfish and entitlement Newton attitude must stop.
Hi Jerry:
Nothing against the two posts above, but I actually had something a little less intense in mind with this idea. I’ve seen some blogs and forums have a weekly post that was just open to general community comments, which then spawned topics, not that every post required a moderator to spawn a topic. More organic discussion that would get moved to a full post.
Some forum’s refer to it as happy hour posts. Every few days a blank post community post goes up, with a simple heading like open community discussion comments/happy hour, and folks post comments and thoughts that don’t belong in any particular post. If there is any discussion generated, a moderator can upgrade the discussion to a full post.
Also, I’d fully understand if this type of post, in either form, is too much work or too uncurated in topic to continue. I give credit for trying new things…
Fig
I agree with Fignewtonville about V14 offering a “pure” open thread on some sort of regular basis: There’s a blog I often browse that is mainly devoted to discussions of national/international political and social issues, but every so often a poster will declare an “open thread,” and others will follow up with anything from K-pop videos to culinary adventures to a TV show or movie they recently saw and hated (or liked) — other posters might, or might not, respond to these as they see fit.
I know that, every so often, I see or hear something while I’m in and around Newton that piques my interest or curiosity, or I have some random memory burst about a Newton event/issue/etc., and wonder what other Newtonites might have to say. An open thread would be perfect for these kinds of musings.
I also agree with Fig that this might wind up being too much for moderators, or other readers, to handle. If so, quite understand the reluctance to try it out.
I like the idea too and here it is …. the first of our weekly Open Threads so feel free to comment away on any/all things Newton related.
Going forward I think I’ll do what I did here. If I see something in the Open Thread that looks like a more general, under-discussed topic, I’ll move it to its own thread, otherwise feel free to post whatever you like right here on this thread.
Henceforth Monday is Open Thread day on Village 14. So Essteess give us a random Newton memory burst ;-)
Gee, thanks — put me on the spot why dontcha? I’m sure I can come up with something…
Here’s my own random Newton memory burst. Ever since we moved here 11 years ago there’s been a crumbling, near derelict house right out our front door. The owner Rudy died more than a year ago and its been vacant ever since. The house recently came on the market and there’s been a steady stream of people coming by to see it in recent weeks. What’s particularly curious is that the house is in such bad shape that the realtor is not even showing the inside of the house. People just pull up, walk around the property, peek in the windows, etc. Whatever happens next, we’re destined to have a big demolition/construction project across the street in the not-too-distant future.
Here’s a memory of the first time I set foot inside that house and a memory of a man that puts a smile on my face whenever I think of him,
Jerry: Interesting parallels to our own experience here. One of our abutting neighbors lived in a house similar to the one you described — it was the home where he grew up, and became his own when his parents passed away. Whatever its past glory, the place had become shabby and ramshackle, and he littered the yard with all kinds of junk.
We kind of kept our distance from him for the first several years, but over time got to know him better. He was quite friendly, and as we developed a rapport, he showed himself to have a fine, good-natured, bust-your-chops sense of humor. Barely graduated high school, his self-care was pretty lousy, and his views on aspects of race and society were, frankly, rather unenlightened, but he read newspapers, watched TV, listened to the radio, and he and my wife enjoyed getting into polite, good-spirited arguments about current events and issues.
His health worsened, and eventually he couldn’t stay in the house and went to live with relatives a few towns over. But he refused to sell the house, and so it just stood there, continuing to decline (although he did arrange to have at least some renovation work done). He would call us every now and then, and hired my wife occasionally to do the yard work; she often did it of her own free will, anyway.
Finally, a few years ago, he decided it was time to sell. The new property owner promptly demolished the house and wound up building a massive structure that towers over us — we get it, that’s just how things are nowadays.
As far as we know, our former neighbor is still alive, but we don’t have contact info for him anymore. For all his faults, we enjoyed living near people (another neighbor also was a Newton native) who had the perspective of having been born and raised in the city.
I’ll post something to brighten folks day. Bullough’s pond has a set of 5 baby goslings near the Otis bridge. Just remember to social distance from each other AND the mama goose.
And a question: Does anyone know if they are stocking the ponds around Newton with fish this year? I see a ton of young kids learning to fish now and I don’t see anything being caught.
And an observation: Whomever is in charge of the slow but steady improvements around Bulloughs pond should be given a virtual huzzah. the path around the public half of the pond is nice, the seating is improved, and it is a real jewel. Now if we could just get a picnic table and some Adirondack chairs…
My wife has been making daily pilgrimages to Hammond Pond to visit “her baby goslings” just off The Street parking lot. I’m sure she’ll want to go visit your Bullough’s Pond birds.
Fig,
Crystal Lake should have been stocked with trout by now. It’s on the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife website’s list with a stocking date of “Spring 2020”.
@Fig they definitely stocked Crystal Lake with Fish
@Jerry Reilly interesting story. I am always fascinated by houses like the one you described. I always wonder about the back story. There are two house that currently tweak my curiosity. One is the green house with the barn across from Bob’s subs where I’ve heard coyotes have a den in the barn. Looks like it could be a cool house. The 2nd is by Newton South close to the corner of Brandeis and Greenwood which also has a deserted barn.
@Newton Highlands Mom – Bob’s Subs is just up the street from me but I’ve never noticed the house. I’ll definitely be checking it out soon.
It’s probably just me but ….. “coyotes have a den in the barn” conjures up a vision of a bunch of coyotes sitting round a table in that barn playing poker ;-)
Topic suggestion: bicycles and cars.. what Newton can do to help folks get to work.
Eventually, we will need to travel back to work. What can Newton do to help. It’s quite predictable that people will be wary of Public transportation (the MBTA was never great) so people have 2 choices
– cars
– bicycles
– walk
cars: Should parking rules be relaxed around business areas so people can feel comfortable driving to their destination unless a vaccine is avail? Could downtown boston even have enough parking spaces to accommodate the new preference?
buses: should MBTA schedule a crazy number of buses such that people can stay 6 week away on the bus? a bus only lane newton and on the pike to accommodate the volume.
bicycles: assuming most want to bike to work, how quickly can bike lanes be painted(with separation poles)? Are they easily removed once people return to public transportation?
or so we assume most office workers are just going to work remotely until a vaccine is avail? What about those who ‘have’ to present?