Note: Village 14 is happy to post a guest column by any candidate announcing a run for local office. This one is from Bryan Barash who has stepped back from blogging on Village 14 as he announces his run for City Council.
At a time when so much of our politics are divisive, when we’ve just been through the most grueling election of our lifetime, we need to come together as a community to meet the needs of our city and be an example of collaborative government for all. I believe strongly in the power of kindness, the impact of compromise, and the decency of the people who live here, values we need to hold onto even tighter as the pandemic strains our families and our mental health. I am running now, at this moment, because I know that the depth and breadth of my policy experience and my work in both state and local government will serve our city well as we navigate unprecedented times together.
Like so many cities across the country, Newton is facing what Joe Biden has called four historic crises, all at the same time: there is a deadly pandemic threatening our health, our financial stability, and our children’s education; an economic downturn straining our city budget and putting the small businesses at the heart of our community at risk; the impending threat of climate change that has gone unaddressed for too long; and racial injustice and policing policies that have created the most compelling call for racial equity in a generation.
In these trying times, and precisely because there is so much distrust for the government at this moment, it is more important than ever to run a campaign of, by, and for the people of Newton. I commit to running a clean, positive, grassroots campaign. To that end, and because I am so concerned about the pernicious influence of money in politics at all levels, I am refusing contributions to my campaign from municipal lobbyists and developers.
My website includes an ambitious agenda that I have developed through thousands of conversations with voters, elected leaders, and community leaders over the past months and years. My decisions will be informed by years of work as the General Counsel to State Senator Harriette Chandler, as a member of the Newton Human Rights Commission, and as a board member of the New Art Center and the Bay State Stonewall Democrats. You’ll know where I stand because I have been in the trenches, doing the work, and have the track record to prove it. I am guided by my progressive values and driven by a desire to give back to this community which has given me so much.
I cannot wait to talk with each and every one of you about our shared vision for Newton’s future, and how we can get there, together. It pains me that the pandemic will force us to have many of these conversations over the phone and on Zoom, and while I wish I could be standing at your door or in your living room, these conversations are no less important.
Together, I know we can help navigate this city we all love through troubling times. I am asking you to put your faith in me to help lead us by giving me your vote to be the next City Councilor at-large serving from Ward 2. I look forward to talking with you and I ask for your vote.
Sincerely,
Bryan Barash
Bryan, what is your position on the re-opening of schools? Would you push to accelerate the current pace? Would you have signed on to the recent letter written by several city council members to the school committee?
I read your website’s section on schools, but you don’t mention any of these topics. Some more specificity on the topic of schools would be appreciated.
Bryan, your “priorities” page looks great – I’m in strong agreement with 99% of what’s there, but could you please delete “And we should explore creative solutions to our traffic and transportation problems including transportation networking companies (TNCs) such as Uber & Lyft”?
Shame on anyone who does business with Uber & Lyft, who’ve generated $100bil in market cap by a) arrogantly ignoring existing taxi and livery laws and regulations; b) exploiting, underpaying, and deceiving their workers; c) abusing the environment; and d) buying themselves a law in California (Proposition 22) for $200 million and having the gall to insert a clause requiring that any changes to the law be approved by a seven-eighths majority of the California Legislature. They’ve literally bought themselves an exemption from the democratic process, and now they’re busy trying to replicate it in all major markets.
Newton and Massachusetts should be outlawing both companies, not exploring creative solutions with them. I’m disappointed by this ubiquitous brand of suburban “progressivism” that consistently defers to amoral tech-based corporations like Uber Doordash, and Amazon, whose goal is to make middle-class suburbanites feel rich by providing them with under-compensated and exploited servants speeding around town at breakneck speed in fossil-fueled, limited-liability vehicles. Not nice.
But I strongly support everything else on your website.
Are candidates required to disclose the source of donations/funding?
For transparency, the last thing we want is a slate of candidates all funded by real estate developers.
Bryan, I’m so excited for your upcoming campaign. As a young person in Newton, your campaign is very inspiring and accurately reflects many of the things i’m passionate about, especially the climate crisis. Good Luck!
I agree with Tim’s question above about reopening the schools, and Bryan’s stating whether or not he would have signed the letter to the School Committee from the City Council? It’s wonderful that Bryan has chosen to run, but this is a litmus test issue for many of us with children in our schools, and really everyone due to the linkage between perceptions of our schools and housing values, and our tax rates given the size of the school system budget.
For me, not supporting the letter translates to not getting my vote. I hope that every current City Councillor understands that I’m not alone in feeling this way.
Bryan,
What will you personally do to speed up full, in person schooling in Newton?
Thanks
I’m excited to see Bryan running for City Council again! I was impressed by his last campaign, and I think his voice will be valuable on issues concerning equity, climate change, and government transparency.
As a former teacher in Newton, I hear the community clamor to fully open schools. Education does go better in classrooms…but it must be safe. Safeguards, ranging from enforcing rules about social distancing and mask-wearing to providing clean air systems, should be brought to bear, not to mention many other measures. The dangers are two-fold: students themselves getting sick (the numbers are inching up) and asymptomatic young people infecting their vulnerable elders, including teachers .
I just biked by Lincoln Park (Waban Field) and watched briefly as over a dozen teenage boys were playing touch football. Not one was wearing a mask, and social distancing was nonexistent. Yes, they were outside, and sporting activities are certainly safer outside then inside. Still, the sight gave me a taste of the inherent dangers we all face ahead. If Newton invests the resources to improve school safety and the backbone to enforce the necessary rules, then we can open schools while minimizing the spread of the virus.
Ava Harrington,
Ppl who genuinely care about the environment would not drive to work when public transportation ( pre covid) is readily available
Ppl need to ask these hard questions to separate talk from action
Don’t worry Bugek; Barash will get Sean and pretend to run into him on the bike path for a photo op again. More importantly he got the ever-important straight, white male endorsement from Needham Mike.
Almost 24 hours and still no response on the school question. Is this the first time he’s thought about it?
A comment has been removed for name calling.
I am hoping Tarik Lucas competes for that seat
For unionists like Mr. Jampol, it will never be safe enough to open the schools.
Hopefully Mr. Barash will run on a platform committed to following what the experts recommend and not the chickens little.
maybe this should be another thread:
Yesterday; 5-6 girls playing around the swings at Angier: no masks.
On our dead-end: 6-7 boys riding their bikes, stopping, talking loudly and laughing: half of them with no masks.
I know it takes a village to raise kids. However, shouldn’t there be some enforcement of the law? Or is it up to the villagers to speak up and risk being labeled crotchety?
Dear @Elmo, I’m not sure why you choose to disparage Bob Jampol for his opinions by tying him to unions. It’s one thing to disagree with his conclusion. It’s another to assert that his opinion is based on his view of labor relations. Bob is as well-meaning a citizen as you will find in this city. Please, try a little respect and kindness.
@Isabelle add in the people at the tennis courts at Newton South yesterday, I saw mostly adults there. Courts filled and only one person wearing a mask. They didn’t have masks on their chins or visible elsewhere in case they needed to put them on, Maybe not as easy to spread on the court but Bakers directive as of last Friday was masks even outdoors.
Bryan needs to understand that it’s a huge pain in the derrière for self-absorbed suburban parents to have their kids in the house. Consequently, I demand to know what Bryan is personally doing to promote high school COVID outbreaks through in-person learning.
https://theswellesleyreport.com/2020/11/spike-in-covid-19-cases-forces-wellesley-high-to-go-remote-through-thanksgiving/
@Michael it is not our kids being a pain, it is our City unable to provide our kids with in-person or very limited in-person learning despite our city meeting public health criteria that warrants our kids being in school. It parents being angry seeing what their kids are receiving for education. Zooms and “independent” work. They will pay the price for this lost time. The School Dept was inept about reviewing the HVAC systems until the City Council put some pressure on them. The CC has been trying to hold the School Committee including the Mayor accountable.
Michael,
You are welcome to think and spout whatever foolish nonsense crosses those synapses. For the vast majority of Newton voters, no leader who was anything less than vocally and actively working for full in person schooling will ever get their support.
Allowing vulnerable 80 year olds to dine maskless in restaurants while Newton North sits empty is so unbelievably stupid that it will taint the current leadership in Newton for the rest of their careers.
I’m excited to vote for Bryan in the special election!
His professional experience in the state legislature will be a unique asset to the City Council. Bryan’s leadership will be invaluable when the Council must deal with the choices that state legislators make about local aid over the next few (challenging) fiscal years.
Thanks, Qunnipiac! Suburban voters so crazy. Similarly, I recently learned that the “vast majority” of Needham voters support the town’s 900-decibel train horns (Source: the Needham, MA Facebook page, which is frequented mostly by victims of lead poisoning and/or chronic traumatic encephalopathy).
Any thoughts on the Wellesley High closure? You smug Newton parents seem to believe that COVID, like head lice and herpes labialis, only happens to kids in Republican towns. Not true!
I’m a little concerned in that I saw Bryan advocating for not opening the schools back over the summer. This is a wildly unpopular opinion. I like Bryan, but if that’s still his stance I think his campaign is DOA.
MMQC. It all makes sense now. That explains why, after two full days, Bryan has not answered Tim’s simple questions.
@Craig @Tim. Yes! We need your position on this issue Bryan. Will you advocate for the thousands of students and parents whose kids are not in school while every neighboring town is open? Yes-Wellesley closed until Thanksgiving but their plan is fluid and they will return to hybrid after two weeks, and they have a plan. Newton still has no plan. That’s a true statement. Epic failure Newton still has no plan to get the students into the high schools. Please let us know your position
We are lucky that Newton’s high schools have not been forced to go all remote like those chumps to the West.
We did it by choice! They’re just catching up to us!
I spoke with a dad of two high schoolers in Wellesley yesterday. He is unhappy that his daughters are not getting the education that they should. When he talks to other parents about this, they shrug it off by saying, “at least we don’t live in Newton.”
Barash is waiting for his people to tell him what to say. Be patient.
@Jeffrey Pontiff. That is exactly right. Newton is a joke.
Yawn, the same half-dozen disciples of Scott Walker and Matt Bevin hijacking every thread. You guys remind me of Bobby Fischer, who before he went stark-raving cuckoo would respond to every non-chess-related statement by asking “What does that have to do with chess?” If your goal is to have V14 jump the shark then you’re doing a fine job.
This is a blog about someone running for office in Newton. The person with the most number of posts (in responding, I tie), posts under the veil of anonymity, does not live in Newton, and will not vote in this election. This person, whose children are not NPS students, is miffed that actual Newton parents are concerned that their children are not in school. He throws insults at these “self-absorbed” parents and, with absolutely no shred of knowledge, falsely smears them as being “disciples.” He compares them to an anti-semitic “stark-raving cuckoo.”
Who is the hijacker? Is there any value in this discourse whatsoever? Why does V14 condone this?
A sign of leadership (NOT) = slinking away when hard questions are asked.
Remember this when its time to vote
@jeffrey thank you. The schools being closed is honestly the most pressing issue in Newton. It’s important to a large population in Newton and it’s certainly fair game to question a candidate after he announces a run for office about this issue. I am so grateful for the CC members who wrote to Ruth Goldman.
@Michael – Scott Walker and Matt Bevin are SO 2019. We have since rebranded to the “Ron DeSantis Appreciation Society”. Meetings begin with a ritual circle dance around a red MAGA hat. Join us, it’s fun.
In all seriousness (yes, the above paragraph is SARCASM) – I do hope Mr. Barash addresses the topic of school re-opening, whether on this thread, or in a different forum. I care because I am the children of immigrants and grew up with little. But the one thing my parents drilled into me every single day was the importance of education. And so education was the only thing that made a difference to our family (no trust funds or parent connections for us!). When our kids were school age, we moved to a community that seemed to also value education highly.
What’s happening now is frankly worse than anything we could have ever imagined. And perhaps what’s most scary is that NPS is on the verge of a downward spiral. Several families on our street have either pulled their kids out of NPS in favor of private or parochial schools, or are considering doing so for the next academic year and will start applying out soon. And when they leave, their funding and political support follows. So yes, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to ask a candidate for city council for his views on school reopening, and I look forward to his reply, regardless of the forum.
I look forward to Brian responding to above comments And questions. While he’s at it I would like to hear his views on zoning in Newton?
Andy,
Brian’s view on zoning has been extremely consistent. Whether you agree or not, he’s been very consistent and upfront on his views
I look forward to Mr. Barash’s responses. I am eager to read them. Does he plan on posting here?
As a City Councilor I will stand ready to approve funds to guarantee safety and education for our students, teachers, and parents. I want what everyone wants – to send our students back to school safely for in-person learning as much as possible as soon as possible. I am heart-broken that the pandemic has made learning far more challenging and led to a sense of isolation among so many of our students. I understand that until our children are back in school, to learn and to socialize, families and students will continue to struggle.
We must rely on the advice of medical experts to ensure the return of students and teachers is as safe as possible. Other school districts have begun efforts to use surveillance testing, including pooling, to provide better safety at lower costs, and that’s something the city’s Health and Human Services department should explore to help keep our students and our teachers safe.
I believe the federal and state government let our communities down by failing to provide guidance and support to local leaders. The state has kept open businesses with far larger risks of community spread while schools remain in limbo – that doesn’t make any sense to me. Our community testing and contact tracing is woefully inadequate in Massachusetts, and we are only just now instating a mask mandate which should’ve been in place throughout the pandemic. I am hopeful that President-Elect Biden will institute a national mask-wearing mandate and other policies to help contain the spread.
I’ve spoken with a number of NPS parents and realize that while our teachers have been working hard to support our students, there’s a lot of frustration. We all expect the best of our schools and our leaders, that is why many of us choose to live in Newton. I will not point fingers, but I am looking forward to the high school working group’s report and hope that they will lay out a path for a fast and safe return to in-person learning.
Bryan – you state “I believe the federal and state government let our communities down by failing to provide guidance and support to local leaders. The state has kept open businesses with far larger risks of community spread while schools remain in limbo – that doesn’t make any sense to me” ;however, my understanding is that the state has consistently recommended that cities and towns with low rates of Covid, such as Newton, should be open to in-person learning. So, I don’t agree with your statement. It was NPS that decided not to open. The state is actually actively pushing school systems such as Newton’s to open. My son has several friends in private schools, and they have been open for full in-person learning since August, while the Newton High School students continue to fall further behind with no end in sight.
@Bugek – You can see all donations on the state’s reporting website, OCPF. While certain donations aren’t required to be disclosed, I have always disclosed all of my donors. I have also pledged not to take any money from municipal lobbyists and developers.
My pledge is on my website: https://www.bryanbarash.com/clean-campaign
Bryan- You say that you will not point fingers but you then say that “you believe the federal and state government let our communities down” That may be true, but our local government has let us down just as much by not opening our high schools. What we seem to be lacking is true leadership. Your answer seems to be a non-answer. Do you think that schools should open only when there is widespread testing or do you consider other metrics?
As for the HS working group, we shall see what they present on Monday. I am not overly optimistic. I would suggest people read the Nov. minutes from the group. https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Page/3784
A few choice quotes from those minutes:
“Maybe not everyone should go back the same amount. It [Survey results] also shows that student/teachers align more, and the parents are outliers.”
“In-person learning is a high priority and more important to parents than it is to students.
Conversely, expanded in-person learning is relatively low in importance to teachers, many of whom are not comfortable returning to the building.”
Bryan, I don’t believe Biden can enact a national mask wearing mandate aside from federal buildings, or am I mistaken?
Mary – There’s some legal uncertainty about whether he can enforce it, but he has said he plans to issue an executive order. I found this to be a pretty good rundown of the possibilities: https://qz.com/1929107/how-joe-biden-could-issue-a-national-mask-mandate/
Bingo. This is the first generation of students to grow up in a mature broadband-enabled digital society and we should be embracing that. If properly developed and implemented, digital learning environments have the potential to reduce prerequisite class time, improve student focus, increase retention, more accurately assess student performance, compensate for academic weaknesses, and allow students to pursue topics and subject matter of individual interest.
Instead of the disingenuous discussion led mostly by people who are using the pandemic as a convenient pretext to demonize public-sector employees (and ultimately, their pensions and OPEBs), communities should be focused on optimizing digital learning environments and identifying the weaknesses of existing remote-learning curriculum and infrastructure. Teachers should be receiving training to more effectively guide students through synchronous digital platforms and to curate asynchronous digital content. And schools should be leveraging online platforms to expand course offerings, particularly in AP and foreign languages.
For Bryan, would you have signed the CC letter to the SC? That was the original question. It’s a very fair question.
Sorry Michael, no bingo.
“From the close-ended and open-ended survey questions, it is clear that students want to get back into the building for their social and emotional health and well-being.”
“Students’ overall satisfaction with distance learning was slightly negative. They were even more negative about how connected they feel to high school this year, and their perceived sustainability of the current model. They were neutral to slightly negative about their ability to balance school responsibilities with mental health and well-being.”
“Students favor expanding in-person learning experiences (3.36/5).”
Yes, the parent rating for that question was higher (3.89) but both groups clearly favor expanded in-person learning. And students also rated both their engagement with their classes (2.77) and the sustainability of this current distance model for the rest of the year (2.45) lower than parents and teachers.
Sure, digital learning can offer benefits as part of a broader plan, but spending almost 7 hours a day alone, most of it in front of a screen, is not healthy physically or emotionally for anyone, let alone high school kids.
My fear is that NPS, by not doing what needed to be done in the spring/summer to develop a workable hybrid plan that could be implemented in the fall like other districts, has now locked us into the current all-remote model.
@Michael, the quote you chose does not reflect the survey results. In fact among the “key takeaways” is “it is clear that students want to get back into the building.” I know my 10th grader is extremely eager to return to in-person instruction. I am glad my 7th grader will be returning to in-person teaching on Monday. I am curious how much thinking is going on around outdoor instruction. I applaud the NNHS teachers who brought their class, all wearing masks, to Bulloughs Pond to discuss Thoreau recently!
FYI here are the survey “Key Takeaways”:
**
From the close-ended and open-ended survey questions, it is clear that students want to get back into the building for their social and emotional health and well-being. They value and seek greater in-person connection with peers (classmates and friends). At the same time, students are concerned about the health risks associated with COVID-19, and are especially wary of whether peers will use safe distancing practices. A small but significant subset of students don’t feel safe returning to the building because of these concerns, along with worries about their health and the well-being of family members.
Students, teachers and parents all rated “social-emotional well-being” and “engaging teaching” as their top two priorities. While “engaging teaching” is a top priority for students, they gave a slightly negative rating to how engaged they feel in classes this year. Staff and parents’ ratings of student engagement were higher than students’ ratings.
Students rated “in-person contact with peers” as their third priority. The third priorities for parents (challenging academics) and teachers (broad range of courses and electives) were less important to the other two groups.
Students’ overall satisfaction with distance learning was slightly negative. They were even more negative about how connected they feel to high school this year, and their perceived sustainability of the current model. They were neutral to slightly negative about their ability to balance school responsibilities with mental health and well-being.
Students favor expanding in-person learning experiences (3.36/5). If public health indicators are favorable, average student ratings are similar (3.37-3.45) with regard to more in-person academic classes, extracurricular activities and social opportunities. While these scores favor expanding in-person options, they are lower than might be expected given the strong overall desire for greater connection. Students’ concerns about safe social distancing may be affecting their comfort with in-person learning.
In-person learning is a high priority and more important to parents than it is to students. Conversely, expanded in-person learning is relatively low in importance to teachers, many of whom are not comfortable returning to the building.
Students and teachers do not want to break up their current classes if they shift to hybrid. Parent desires for transition to hybrid are strong enough that they would be willing to disrupt student cohort groupings and teacher assignments if this were the only way to make it happen.
Michael said:
> communities should be focused on optimizing digital learning environments and identifying the weaknesses of existing remote-learning curriculum and infrastructure. Teachers should be receiving training to more effectively guide students through synchronous digital platforms and to curate asynchronous digital content. And schools should be leveraging online platforms to expand course offerings, particularly in AP and foreign languages.
I think it’s a huge assumption that there’s any solid expertise in “optimizing digital learning environments” at the scale of most students in public schools. Especially with Newton’s traditional emphasis of inclusion and mainstreaming as many kids as possible. Even more especially on the fly. This kind of radical shift in teaching takes years to optimize and understand what works and what doesn’t across the entire range of kids and families. Similarly, “teachers should be receiving training to more effectively guide students” is a great “should”, but the expertise required to create that training doesn’t yet exist because our circumstances are unprecedented.
None of us like it, but we are all in the educational petri dish right now. We haven’t had schools closed this long before. We haven’t had networks that can support remote video-based teaching at this scale for very long. We haven’t had cheap enough video-capable computers to go 1:1 at a district level for very long. The best we can hope for is to learn as we go along, from ourselves and from our peers, and carry those lessons forward.
There are no experts to do the training, and if any do exist they are in extreme demand. On top of that, teachers are a little busy right now. Yes, they are learning how to make things work (especially through peer-to-peer discussions, I’ll bet), but there’s no textbook to learn from.
I believe we can do better, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking there are great or easy answers to this situation.
Sorry Michael, no bingo.
“From the close-ended and open-ended survey questions, it is clear that students want to get back into the building for their social and emotional health and well-being.”
“Students’ overall satisfaction with distance learning was slightly negative. They were even more negative about how connected they feel to high school this year, and their perceived sustainability of the current model. They were neutral to slightly negative about their ability to balance school responsibilities with mental health and well-being.”
“Students favor expanding in-person learning experiences (3.36/5).”
Yes, the parent rating for that question was higher (3.89) but both groups clearly favor expanded in-person learning. And students also rated both their engagement with their classes (2.77) and the sustainability of this current distance model for the rest of the year (2.45) lower than parents and teachers.
Sure, digital learning can offer benefits as part of a broader plan, but spending almost 7 hours a day alone, most of it in front of a screen, is not healthy physically or emotionally for anyone, let alone high school kids.
My fear is that NPS, by not doing what needed to be done in the spring/summer to develop a workable hybrid plan that could be implemented in the fall like other districts, has now locked us into the current all-remote model as changing will be too hard/complex.
Bryan,
I appreciate that you took the time to answer the question. Your comments mean that you will not earn my vote, but who knows, maybe there are enough people in Newton content to blame Washington DC for their problems — all the while kids all across the state are back in school.
Michael,
You are welcome to educate your kids via screens in perpetuity. Hopefully the “advances” you speak of will come to fruition. In the meantime the rest of us understand that getting kids back to school in Newton is by far the most important thing for our leadership to focus on. Some might say it is the only thing for them to focus on.
@Craig yes, getting kids back to school in Newton is by far the most important thing for our leadership to focus on. Some might say it is the only thing for them to focus on.
I could not agree more this needs to be the number one priority right now in Newton
First of all, Bryan WELCOME to the race, and thank you for running. As I’ve said a few times, I think anyone who makes these types of sacrifices for our community (to run for office and especially to do the work for that office) deserves our thanks. So lets start with that. Bryan clearly is a glutton for punishment (charter commission, a tight race against Emily Norton in Ward 2 last time, and now this).
Speaking of that tight race last time, just a reminder for everyone who DOESN’T live in Ward 2, that race between Emily and Bryan certainly became quite intense. Some of the folks posting on this thread were deeply involved in that race and were clearly not fans of Bryan’s candidacy, and maybe, just maybe, are using the school issue as a means of criticizing Bryan by other means (I believe my kids would call that trolling…)
Also, perhaps I’m missing something, and while I’m as upset as anyone above about my kids not being in in-person school 5 days a week (and Lord knows I have my issues with the Newton school system, especially special education), can someone tell me what the letter from the city council to the school committee accomplished? Hey, I’m as big a fan of a strongly worded letter to the manager as the next person, but the fact that all they can do is send a strongly worded letter tells you something.
It tells you either (i) that the power to make changes here rests with the School Committee, the superintendent, to some smaller degree the NTA, and then the Mayor to some degree, but not the city council, OR (ii) if you believe the city council can do more, why aren’t folks on this thread pushing the city councilors actually on the city council NOW to do more, and also identifying what that “something more” from the CITY COUNCIL should be?
My personal view is that parents in Newton are just so tired and pissed off about how this school year is gone that we are ready to blame anyone for what has occurred. I also personally think we’ve lost our window of opportunity for in-person school until the spring, considering the rapid increase in cases. I also think that this crisis shows some of the cracks/failures in our leadership team, how we communicate and deal with our school system, etc. But I’m still not quite sure how importance I would put on getting the opinion of a *candidate* for city council on this issue, since they seem to have very little power to get things done on it. Except to send strongly worded letters to the SC. Which I’m sure made them feel better. (it always makes me feel better).
Now if Bryan was running for school committee…
Amy K and Craig: Can you let me know what you think the City Council should be doing right now to get our kids back in school? What power do they have to make that happen?
I agree that this is a huge important issue and it has impacted my family in some pretty awful ways. I’m happy to push the city council to do anything I think would be productive. Clearly you disagree with me about how a city council candidate can make a difference here. Curious as to what power they have to force this issue? Beside the strongly worded letter of course. I’m sure that got circular filed by the school committee.
I’m not trying to be difficult here, and I really wish this was in a different thread since I don’t think this issue has much to do with Bryan announcing his run for office. But it does feel like we have some displaced anger here, absent real power to change things from the city council.
@ Fig while your points are well taken, the better question for Bryan is would he have been one of the Councilors who signed the letter, or one of those who didn’t.
As for a “glutton for punishment” perhaps it is a quest for relevance or power or just to be in the “club” That is a fair question since Bryan ran for a Ward seat that he tried to eliminate.
I hope we have a different/better choice
It seems to me that the school re-opening issue has veered somewhat from its original purpose. Schools were closed last March according to public health guidelines. We have learned much(not all) since then. They should re-open accordingly to public health recommendations.
The frustration is that despite public health recommendations and statements by major medical associations, Dese, etc. that kids should be back in school, NPS is selectively ignoring these recommendations. In fact, I find it odd that there is no public health representative, parent professional or city employee, on the committee who can give their input about a safe return to school.
The city council may have limited ability to in what it can do, other than issues around funding. However, the CC can increase the pressure on the Mayor and the SC to take decisive action.
Fig – Doesn’t the CC vote on the SC budget? My understanding is the Mayor proposes the budgets and the CC can decrease, but not increase spending in areas, and has to approve the City budget, including the NPS budget.
As Marc Laredo’s latest e-mail stated over 50% of Newton’s budget is for our schools.
Claire, Bruce, Lucia, I’m not opposed to Bryan answering the question as to whether or not he would have signed the letter, my purpose is not to run interference for him. He wants to run for office, he can answer the questions himself. I’m just pointing out that the letter certainly looked good from a political standpoint, but that it was theatre, a show for the angry masses of parents. That type of letter doesn’t increase the pressure on anyone in my view. It is just a press release in another format. (“Here ye, here ye, City Councilors want the schools to re-open, but have no power to make that happen! C’mon school committee, make this happen!”). As if the school committee wasn’t aware of the craptastic situation they were in. (You mean the CITY COUNCIL is upset with us too! Man, can this year get ANY worse! 2020 amIright!?!?)
The power they DO have is in the Newton Budget. Sort of. Not really in reality. That seems unlikely to be used as well. Pretty sure Newton teachers would garner some sympathy if their checks stop coming (during Covid), or if layoffs begin (during Covid). Also pretty sure that Newton teachers have contracts, and I don’t think a city going to war with itself helps anyone. Doesn’t help my kids, or your kids, or the schools or anyone.
So we are back to political theatre. I’m just not having it. I understand why some folks are comforted by it, and that’s their choice. Not me though. I’m angry as can be, I’m frustrated, but I’m also realistic. Covid is increasing again. Thanksgiving is going to be a spreader event, so is Christmas. It would take weeks if not months to get the schools back in person, ignoring this increase. High schools won’t be in person this year in Newton. Middle school is unlikely to have hybrid stick after Christmas. And elementary school can’t seem to increase hours past half days, even of Kindergarten folks.
Not purposely trying to be difficult, even if my tone is that way. I lost any belief that changes would occur in the school system a few months ago. We’ll see if I’m right as the months progress.
The CC does vote on the City Budget which includes the school budget. The SC Committee/School Dept do the nitty gritty but the CC has to be ok with the total amt they are allocated. The CC Public Facilities Committee has oversight on all the public buildings including the school buildings. I feel their pressure led to the thorough review of the HVAC systems of each school that Josh Morse is overseeing. I’m not sure why the School Dept didn’t take this type of review of each building over the summer. The CC has been the one group that has tried to offer any help they could give to get the schools open..offering funds etc and expressing urgency on this issue. The Mayor has not. She has stated that she is one member of the SC . She has talked about wanting the kids in school but has not stepped up as a leader to make it happen. The CC did not just sit by, they tried to help. Their letter was very important. The perceived value of our schools directly impacts the value people see in Newton.
@Michael I will tell you that one of my kids likely had a diff response regarding returning to school than I gave as their parent. As a 14yr old they are enjoying their free time during the middle of the day and they don’t have the foresight to realize that when they are no longer going to school for a sport, it is dark when their day ends and the novelty of this situation wears off, the bleakness and feelings of isolation will set in. My responses reflect as a parent knowing what is in my child’s best interest abs these is to be in school connecting with peers and safe adults, I know that when they meltdown it is not what they are crying, screaming about but rather it is the effects of not being in school,
Many parents are going to view upcoming elections through the lens of how elected officials handled the school situation during this crisis. Those who led and those who sat by and let the schools become an incredible mess.
I hear you Fig, and agree with your frustration particularly now as cases increase. I can only speak to the high schools and need to be optimistic that they will open this year. How could a city as wealthy and resourced as Newton, with a significant number of its citizens as leaders in medicine and public health, skip an entire year of any in-person learning? As the months go by, it is more feasible this year may be wasted. Maybe I am delusional, but I need to hold on to that hope schools will re-open.
I am not sure that the SC is as aware of the “craptastic” situation as we may think.. Either they are hearing from an equal number of parents who do not want a return to in-person learning or acquiescing to some other constituency, I just don’t have the sense that they fully grasp the need for kids to be in school. As the HS working group mentioned in its early meeting minutes, they want to frame it a as “calm urgency”.
The fact is Newton is the only community that I know of that doesn’t even have a plan to get back to high school. 77% of the towns are already in some type of hybrid. City councilors are elected and if they are hearing it from their constituents about this frustration, then I am fine with them making a political statement to vent frustration. The inability of NPS and the SC to reopen schools reminds me of how it has handled HS start times. Though Covid-19 is exponentially worse, I see the same slow processes and inability to act decisively despite what the science says.
Soon, the SC needs to begin planning the budget for next year. They cannot not even begin to think strategically about long term solutions as long as they are unable to come up with a plan for the present. The high schools are complex enough. They need to be thinking about elementary and middle schools also. I just don’t see their capacity to do it all.
@Fig Newtonville the CC’s letter was not “political theatre”. The School Committee and Mayor have been tone deaf and ineffective. They needed someone to try to hold them accountable and to express urgency to this situation.
@NHM, for sure sports, socializing, and community are critical and they have no remote-learning substitutes. And Tricia’s comment that “spending almost 7 hours a day alone, most of it in front of a screen, is not healthy physically or emotionally for anyone, let alone high school kids” is obviously spot on. But at this stage the network infrastructure, hardware, and software are sufficiently mature that digital learning, if not done half-assedly, could be game-changing and probably exceed traditional-classroom outcomes for a large number of students. Mike Halle is right that none of these towns have the expertise to properly implement it (in lieu of IBM and/or the Music Man swooping into town and bribing their way to a nine-figure contract). But it would be great if there were some resolve to get the current COVID remote learning environment up to some minimally-acceptable level that was engaging, adaptive, and responsive for students, with the expectation that it might serve as a palatable option during the next shutdown, and would actually evolve to truly achieve its technological potential over the next 5 or 10 years.
Newton Highlands Mom: I’m not trying to argue, but how often has the City Council actually used the power of the purse to direct the actions of the School Committee or the schools? I’m sure they’ve discussed budgets and shortfalls before, but I’ve never seen them say “Do THIS or else funding will be cut”. And they didn’t do it in this case either. Nor did they push major additional funding in the spring/summer when it could have been useful.
I’m not disagreeing with you that the School Committee has been tone deaf and ineffectual. All spring and summer I kept waiting for more concrete plans, for a request for major funding to improve ventilation in buildings, for a joint agreement with the teachers showing that hybrid was a bare minimum this year. Nothing. I remind myself that the folks who ran for the school committee were not folks who were experts in pandemic planning, and that we have a more complicated school system than most, with overall more schools and lower pay than some of our school districts. But in general, in my view, the school committee handled this crisis the same way they have handled the increasing needs of special needs kids in our schools: by relying on the parents to do more to educate and if necessary put their children in private school if their needs can’t be easily met in public school. This is no different. It just is sudden and on a school district wide scale. Welcome to my world. It kinda sucks.
I do disagree that City Council’s letter isn’t classic political theatre. I don’t think it lead to anything that wasn’t already in the planning stages. I don’t think it held anyone accountable (happy to have you provide an example of that). And in my limited conversations with the school committee members, they clearly feel the urgency, they just can’t get from a to b.
I’m not opposed to the letter to be honest. It’s nice that the city council members involved are pushing. But I’m under no illusions that it changed anything, except told us that the city council was “just like us” (Us Weekly would be proud!), angry about the whole thing, wanting the SC to do something, anything.
To quote my son’s recent English class, the letter was but
“a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
Sorry for the Covid nihilism tonight, but Macbeth’s quote is apt, even if it was meant for more important things. Lots of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Nothing. By all parties involved.
@Michael on November 14, 2020 at 6:11 pm: So why don’t you volunteer to run the effort to accomplish same? In guerilla style, you really don’t need a budget or mandates. I should think that ingenuity and force of will would suffice. Of course, you’ll need to recruit other like minded warriors intent on improving our world. And you should swear off taking money from special interests or large corporations. … Do it the old fashion way .. you remember, from before people relied on government to do fix every problem that needs fixing …
It would be as if you would be tackling Global Warming or Food Insecurity or a similarly edgeless problem ..
Fignewtonville wrote, referring to the City Council: “Nor did they push major additional funding in the spring/summer when it could have been useful.”
I and several other councilors have asked repeatedly if funding is a limitation to returning to in-person instruction, and the School Committee and superintendent have repeatedly said no.
I have heard from many, many parents grateful to the City Council for the letter we sent to the School Committee expressing our frustration at the seeming lack of urgency to returning to in-person instruction. Our letter sent a message to frustrated parents, “You are not crazy. We agree with you this is not Newton bringing our “A” game.”
And it’s a fair question to ask any candidate for City Council, “Would you have signed onto that letter? And if not, why not?”
Mary P., that’s inspirational, but check out the brave new world of machine learning, data mining, and predictive analytics. Right now these amazing technologies are put to extremely productive use by hyperscalers like Facebook, Amazon, Google, the NSA, and China’s 3PLA to sell you junk you don’t want, create addictive behaviors, lure foreign politicians into honeytraps, and feed real-time consumer behavioral data to institutional investors so they can game capital markets at the expense of the little guy.
One day in the not-too-distant future, 1/100th of 1% of those FLOPS will be used for individual digital learning plans that know which learning techniques maximize each student’s comprehension and retention, which lessons to review and repeat in order to achieve mastery, how to maintain each student’s attention, what content students are actually interested in, which students to send down intellectual rabbit holes, when to call it quits, etc. – instead of expecting a single overworked, underpaid, underappreciated human to be doing all these things with any real efficacy for the 20 new students who schlep in and out of her class each hour.
In closing, I believe that Joe Biden can take us there. Just kidding! I’m obviously not holding my breath, but so long as students are stuck using remote learning platforms that obviously suck, it’s genuinely worth asking questions about what incremental improvements to the digital learning environment are feasible and worthwhile.
Fig. The CC, in what can be described as “student government mode,” voted to encourage congress to impeach Trump and they signed a petition to direct the border patrol on how to handle unaccompanied minors. At the time, did you complain that they were overstepping? NPS is around 60% of Newton’s budget. The CC has every right to ask whether it is being well spent.
I have seen many SC disasters over the last 15 years. This is unprecedented. A UPenn study argues that, as of October 20, students at the typical school have lost 5% of lifetime income. Since spring, NPS has delivered much worse education that the typical school. We have over 10 thousand students who are suffering from gross NPS negligence. If this does not rise to CC intervention, what does?
The fundamental problem with the SC is that is operates in “PTO” mode. The administration does what it wants and the SC tries to convince everyone they made the right decision. The alternative is that the SC communicates to the administration what parents want, and holds the administration’s feet to the fire.
I am disappointed that the number of councilors who signed the letter was nowhere near the number who thought that they were experts on the legal nuances of presidential impeachment. That being said, the letter reminds the SC that their priority should be on the kids’ education, not baking cookies for the administration. I salute the councilors who signed. Thank you.
I have a freshman at South this year. Four teachers out of her five major subjects are doing their very best. I am quite impressed. They must have worked really hard over the summer to figure this out and make it the best they can.
Her math teacher is the worst. He writes an algebra problem on a piece of paper and shows it in front of his camera. Then he solves it orally. This is the worst. The absolute worst. She can’t see him writing as he is explaining and he briefly shows the paper. He has an ELMO (which Angier and Brown teachers have been using for 11 years) and doesn’t use it.
This ONE class is torture. From what I know of this teacher, it is clear he took the summer off, and didn’t focus one bit on technology. He might not have been great in person, but when you are home in your bedroom learning remotely for 90 minutes of math, it is awful. We have already complained to the math department with no change.
There is always a teacher your child might not align with, but this one teacher shows how wasted his summer was. AND, for me, it shows me that the other 4 teachers really spent time on how to do their very best.
This online year is going to be very difficult.
Just wanted to put this out there for parents of teens: Boys and Girls Club are adding some in person small group activities for teens: basketball, Keystone Club, poetry. I think NPS really let teenagers down and this fall they had very few opportunities for in-person activities. They’re an amazing organization and one of the only ones around offering things for teens, not even the Y has anything this year.
Jeffrey, I think you just made my point for me. I agree that the Trump resolution was political theatre, it basically was designed to make a certain segment of the Newton population feel better about a difficult situation. I found it to be a waste of time. No huge issue with the CC doing it, but it certainly didn’t make me feel better. Maybe that is just me.
I agree that the SC hasn’t done a good job. But the supporters of the letter on this thread, like you, keep calling it “intervention” by the CC. It wasn’t. They haven’t. Do you really think the SC doesn’t realize the stakes here? Do you think they needed that letter to instruct them? C’mon now. The SC, the Mayor, and the CC don’t operate in a vacuum you know… They do talk to each other. I didn’t see the letter as coming up with solutions or ideas, it just said FIX THIS. So what does that do exactly? It was just local political theatre in the same way that the Trump resolution was national issue political theatre. Certainly better because it was local I suppose. But don’t make it a litmus test for a candidate, and don’t claim it had any impact, except to make some folks feel better.
Emily, I’m glad parents were comforted by the letter. Maybe that is part of your job too. For me, I don’t look to the CC to comfort me and let me know they are on my side. I just look to results, and who has the power to get those results. And for me, the letter was more political than anything else. Just like the letters Congressfolk write to the President to put themselves on record that they oppose a certain action.
As for the idea that the SC doesn’t need additional funding, I’m curious as to what the NTA and the SC feels about that portion of your post. I’m certainly not as involved as you, but that is not the conversations occurring in other communities, so I’m shocked. Perhaps Jane could weigh in regarding how the NTA feels about that.
It does look like I will be pleasantly surprised and the high school will be going hybrid in…January? I have my doubts, but that is a recent post here. I certain hope that at a bare minimum the hybrids continue and the high school has some small portion of in person discussion this year. And just like the letter, I’ll judge things on results, not rhetoric or press releases.
@Michael on November 15, 2020 at 10:12 am: I am sure that you are right in maintaining that you are, on both personal and global scale, a victim. Still, Eldridge Cleaver seems to have been more right minded.
Hopefully that the [birthrate]x[longevity] cross product of the “Sheeple” segment is less than the average, so that in the long run and by force of numbers, the “Affluent Chinese” will drive them into obscurity.
Pseudo-intellectual enough, to pass as a slow blade through Frank Herbert’s Holtzman shield, to nick?
@NewtonMom. I so empathize with your daughter, but particularly with other students in her class who may have difficulty with math. I’m sure that math teacher knows his stuff, but he probably lacks empathy and an understanding of those of us who don’t. I was the poster boy for kids with math related learning disability problems. I’m going to suggest that some of the best math teachers may be those that had difficulty with the subject, but were finally able to grab the essentials and build on those essentials. I ran into that kind of person at a critical time in my life.
I took almost no math from the 7th grade through college. This was fine until I started Naval Officer Training in Pensacola, Florida after graduating from college. The first order of business was a math test that I flunked horribly followed by a mandatory pre-math program that I also flunked. I was the first officer candidate in their history to do so and the officers that ran the school became very concerned that I would “wash out” of the program if I couldn’t get through these particular courses. And they didn’t want me to crash out because I was doing fine in everything else. Out of the blue, a young Lieutenant J.G came over to my barracks to see if he could help. It turned out he had also had a rough time understanding math and he thought he might be able to assist me because he had found a way out. I can’t recall what he did, but in just a few sessions the fog cleared and it all started making sense to me. I made it through OCS and the rest is history. I just got have some fantastic life experiences because of the kindness and concern of this one man. I’ve tried several times to contact him, but there’s no navy record, google or facebook search of where he is now; nor are there records for two other people who helped me at critical points of my naval career.
I’m sure your daughter is going to be just fine, but I empathize entirely with her frustration.
Thank you, Bob, for your story. I have an elementary schooler that just got diagnosed with a math learning disability and stories like this warm my heart.
It’s crazy this thread is consumed with the school issue. I dont recall Bryan having any strong opinions on schools. I felt his focus was always on
– social justice issues
– putting the needs on non Newton residents on the agenda. Even though existing newton residents have issues that need resolving
– trickle down housing development. Allowing developers to create tens of thousands of units in exchange for a creating % of affordable units
I think he’s more than a little surprised at the attention this issue is causing him on this blog. If this ends up the main issue then someone like Tarek Lucas would be the clear front runner
@Mary Mary Quite Contrary. The most important thing for your daughter to know and feel is that any kind of learning disability or any other kind of disability for that matter is no cause to feel lesser than other students in that class. And it didn’t do me any good to “just try harder” because that only drove me deeper into the quagmire. It was a lonely and isolating experience to be hung up on the first question in a 10 question math test while most of the other kids were handing in their assignments. And it was all in my head. My teachers were fully supportive but puzzled since they knew I was trying hard and the other kids really didn’t make too much of it because in the 7th grade, I was already reading Winston Churchill, Henry David Thoreau, William Shirer and Hawthorne’s American Notes on my own and none of the rest of them were. Finally, as your daughter works around these problems, she’s going to comprehend and prioritize information in a way that others can’t. I’ve talked to 4th grade kids in several sessions on learning disabilities sponsored by the Understanding Our Differences” program. I think they are light years ahead of where I was at their age.
Bob, thank you for your comment! It’s helpful to hear your perspective. Understanding Our Differences is a great program. NPS does a better job than when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s and I never got the extra help in school that I needed. It’s evident from your posting here that you’re a kind, compassionate person. I always look forward to reading what you have to say!
Bob’s a thoughtful and warm person, for sure!
Thank you all. I’m going to blush.
I think Bryan Barash will make an excellent city councillor. He is consistently measured and thoughtful, with priorities that I share. His statement above about reopening the schools may not be aggressive enough for some of you, but it seems consistent with the recent letter from many of the councillors.
Thank you Bryan for running. If you win, I think you’ll be terrific.
There are no winners in this debate. Both sides can make a logical argument for their opinions. Understand as a candidate, Bryan’s first priority has to be the health and well being of his constituents, especially kids. Both sides have valid points. I hope both sides feel listened to as well and not dismissed.
I have stopped paying attention to local issues, so forgive me for my questions:
1. Do parents get together and maybe form a group where 5 kids will go to one parents home on Mondays, another parents home on Tuesday, etc? So, kids can rotate and parents will only miss one day per week, instead of being there the entire time?
2. Is the school system giving parents a choice between remote/classroom learning. For example lets say a class of 30 kids and 15 want to go to school and parents are alright with risking their kids and families health and other families will have their kids watch the teacher remotely via videostreaming??? I dont know how it’s done now, but maybe this is a compromise both sides could live with. Just some thoughts…interesting conversation, though.
Bob Burke, you rock!!!
Tom-by pushing for in-person classes I don’t feel that I am “alright with risking their kids and families health” as you state. From your post, it appears that you don’t have a high school student in Newton. Before you disparage those of us that do, maybe you should find out how the current high school situation in Newton compares to other districts and public schools. You should also read up on some of the scientific literature that suggests that schools are not Covid hotspots. My daughter has been in college with in-person classes since August, and they have had no major outbrakes. Newton needs to have a plan to get schools back open, and Bryan’s deflection that “federal and state government let our communities down by failing to provide guidance and support“ is part of the problem. In my opinion, NPS has let our community down!
Pat, you’re right, I dont have any local research, I only see what is going on nationally. You’re also right I dont have a kid in the school system. This situation plainly sux. But, kids and adults that arent showing symptoms can still pass the virus to others. Massachusetts has had outbreaks. I know this is an extremely emotional subject and respect that, but I think people are doing the best they can based upon what they know. I obviously hope the vaccine(s) work and we get back to normal by the spring.
Patrick,
Its difficult for any councilor to critize NPS “too harshly”… they need the support of the teachers union come reelection
“Do parents get together and maybe form a group where 5 kids will go to one parents home on Mondays, another parents home on Tuesday, etc? So, kids can rotate and parents will only miss one day per week, instead of being there the entire time?”
Is this any better than sending kids to school? My home is 1000 square feet – I can’t cram 5 kids in here while ensuring that they remain socially distant. Also my house was built in the 1800s and has radiators – no HVAC. I’d rather my kid be in a classroom in a hybrid program with 8-10 kids where they can spread out and be required to wear a mask. AND have the resources that only in-person teaching can provide.
Tom, where I differ from you is on your statement that “people are doing the best they can”. I agree that perhaps NPS and the School Committee think they are doing the best they can. But objectively – when you compare Newton to neighboring towns – our school system is under-performing with respect to offering in-person instruction.
Put another way, the #8 auto maker by market share can think they are doing everything they can… but they are still the #8 auto maker, and #1-#7 are clearly doing something better. This is the frustration underlying much of the discourse and why I hope candidates for City Council (and eventually, School Committee and mayor) take a strong position on righting the ship and re-opening the schools.
Tom-the two vaccine candidates that are most advanced will not be available for pediatrics any time soon. Neither is likely to be approved for pediatrics before the start of the NEXT school year, so I feel we need a plan based on where we are now and not what might happen in the future. We need local leadership from the city council, mayor, school committee and NPS administration to make this happen.
Tim and Patrick- what are your thoughts?? What can be done that hasnt been done?? I hate to rehash this for many of you, but I’ve really been out of it for the past year or two. Would love to hear others, too.
You guys have to understand that elected officials have to take everyone into consideration, including 90 year old grandma that may catch covid.
Pat- what are your suggestions???
Tom-since Newton is one of the lowest risk cities in Massachusetts, my suggestion is that Newton leadership (city council, school committee and mayor) should be doing everything it can to get the high schools open for in-person learning. Week after week now we hear reports from the working group. I applaud their efforts. In the end we can have all the working groups we want, but until the leadership enacts a plan, all high school kids In Newton are left at home in their rooms falling behind kids in other districts and private schools.
Pat, here’s the problem, as I see it. You keep saying that Newton is not a hot spot and thats a good thing. Maybe we aren’t a hotspot because we are being very cautious about the virus. Maybe, we are taking everyone into consideration and have done a good job at making sure we are safe and that Newton isnt a hotspot. At one time Florida wasn’t a hot spot, Texas, Arizona and many other cities/states weren’t a hotspot until they were. The virus knows no boundaries or political affiliation, etc. My point is, instead of criticizing these people for doing an incredibly difficult job under incredibly difficult situation, maybe they deserve some thanks for keeping as many people safe as possible. Work with them. I am normally the first person to criticize elected officials, but I can’t in this case.
Bryan,
A resident is claiming (with proof) you are taking donations from developers+developer lobbyists. A good opportunity to defend yourself here
https://blogs.harvard.edu/lamont/2020/12/13/newton-city-council-candidate-pledges-to-reject-developer-and-lobbyist-cash-takes-it-anyway/
Perhaps the donations came BEFORE your pledge?
Thank you @Bugek, this is really important. It’s also not new. I called him out for taking corporate lobbyist money last year when he ran against me.
26.38—28.53
https://village14.com/2019/09/17/ward-2-ward-councilor-debate-video-is-online/
I want to take a moment to correct the record.
My pledge, which is a voluntary pledge that no other candidate in this race has taken, states as follows:
“In announcing his candidacy, Bryan commits to running a clean, positive, grassroots campaign. To that end, and because he is so concerned about the pernicious influence of money in politics at all levels, he is refusing contributions to his campaign from municipal lobbyists and developers.
This means he will not be accepting contributions from anyone who is paid to lobby at the city level in Newton, or who has had, or is expected to have, a special permit for a multi-family development before the City Council.” (www.bryanbarash.com/clean-campaign)
I have kept to that pledge in every race I have run. To the best of my knowledge, there is not a single person who has donated who is paid to lobby at the city level in Newton or has a special permit for a development in Newton. If anybody does identify someone whose donation would violate this pledge, please do reach out to the campaign as we would like to return that donation as soon as possible.
We have, in fact, returned two donations so far in this campaign, from two people who upon further research appear to violate the spirit of the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, which I have taken and plan to take again.
I want to be clear: I reject this style of negative campaigning. Part of my pledge was to run a clean, positive campaign. I think Newton is better than distractions from the real issues like we so often see nationally. I hope my fellow candidates in this special election will join me in rejecting negative and misleading messaging and in not accepting contributions from municipal lobbyists or developers. If you have any questions about my candidacy or my pledge, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].
I don’t understand the “special permit” restriction for developers. Its like saying I refuse money from the NRA if they don’t currently have a gun store in Newton. *NOTE* I am **NOT** comparing developers to NRA, its just a analogy to the hypocrisy!
Very few developers today would bother with a special for a “large” development given recent pushbacks. They are mostly on the sidelines waiting for more pro-development councilors to increase their profits
He made this distinction in my race too. Not really sure how much more reassuring it is that he only takes money from people who lobby him in his day job at the State House.
I find it odd that Bryan Barash is criticized for pledging not to take money from sources that would clearly lead to conflicts. Would his critics be more supportive if he did take such funds? I followed his previous campaign and was impressed that he ran a positive race against such a formidable incumbent.
I have no business before the state or city and have donated to Mr. Barash, and thus know it is not true that “he only takes money from people who lobby him in his day job at the State House.”
John,
Just my opinion, but to me the pledge allows him to “have your cake and eat it too”.
Developers with active special projects is what? Less than 5% of well-funded metro Boston real estate developers?
So technically, a majority of this campaign can be funded by 95% of metro Boston developers at the extreme.
And we assume these developers will not be expecting any “pro-development” policies to be given priority & preference in Newton council meetings?
So yes, it would be better to stop “pretending” to be free of special interests. One more thing, for someone to be so against “fossil fuels” and wants to reduce car usage… I’m a little offended that Bryan DRIVES to work pre-Covid when so many public transportation options are available in Newton.
Counters to this scenarios are welcome.
@John: Part of my sentence was implied. Read it this way: “[in terms of donations from corporate lobbyists,] he only takes money from people who lobby him in his day job at the State House.”
Ahh, there is nothing like the dripping sanctimony of the Newton elite to warm our hearts on a cold snowy day. Perhaps Ms. Norton can one day give us all a demonstration of how she walks on water or feeds the multitudes. Loaves and fishes no doubt.
@ Elmo – no comment on the substance of the thread?
I’m a developer? News to me. As the first person on this list that is being called out, I want to take a moment to correct the false statements in this wacky personal blog post.
I’m a nonprofit consultant. I help small nonprofits with their operational, fundraising, and communication capacity. Here’s my website. I’ve done this for 13+ years and have actually spent most of my working life devoted to nonprofit causes dedicated to improving people’s lives. And before this ‘blogger’ tries to ignorantly defame nonprofit consultants, fyi, we don’t fundraise; we teach our clients how to fundraise. You should know something about a particular sector before you start talking about it. For example…
Yep I worked for Hammond Residential for one year – in Cambridge. Hammond in Newton wasn’t even owned by the same people as Hammond in Cambridge. Bet you didn’t know that either. They hired me to help with marketing and communications. When the company was sold I returned to my nonprofit work full time. I may have only worked there a year but I sure as hell am positive that they weren’t developers. They assisted clients in the buying and selling of houses. Thus the word ‘residential’ in their name.
The fact of the matter is that the claims in this blog are wildly false and mere speculation. Not one of the donors is a developer and not one of them has business before the City of Newton. And who cares if someone is a lobbyist? City Councilor Emily Norton is a registered lobbyist. Lobbyists advocate for better educational services for underserved populations, protecting the environment, protecting our civil rights etc. Stop weaponizing the word lobbyist.
I took a minute to go through OCPF myself, and saw that this blogger donated to Bryan’s opponent twice over the last two months, so it’s a bit disingenuous to try to pass this blog off as unbiased. It’s just a sloppy campaign attack and why? After the last four years haven’t we all had enough of lies and conspiracy theories?
For a city that prides itself on our educational system we sure do forget to use our brains sometimes. This election should be about issues. The people of Newton want facts and intelligent debate and there is a lot we can debate about in this upcoming special election, and stark differences between the candidates running in both Ward 2 and Ward 1. I urge you all to visit their websites and reach out to them personally if you have any questions, and not rely on personal blogs and social media posts to make up your mind.
I know that I am voting for Bryan because like me, he believes that everyone deserves a safe, affordable place to live. The future of our city and state depend on all of us coming together and solving our crippling housing crisis that is making life here untenable for so many. I donated to Bryan without him even asking me because he has fought hard to make abundant and affordable housing a reality in Newton for as long as he has lived here. He has done so thoughtfully and with great intelligence because he knows that the housing crisis can not be fixed with a slogan and that complicated problems need innovative thinking and leadership, not scare tactics and negativity.
I hope that the people of Newton will see this attack for what it is: poorly founded speculation about other people’s careers and ethics in a personal blog, designed to discredit a candidate who wants to make our city more equitable. Vote for Bryan Barash in the upcoming special election, to add a trusted, proven leader to our City Council.
Heather,
Thanks for the clarification. Judging from candidate websites it appears the core differences is
Massive pro “for profit” development. Ie trickle down development to build a percentage of affordable housing.
Vs
Focus development for affordable housing.
You can see where the appearance of being “bought by developers” comes from
Interesting. This is the second time today that I’ve heard the phrase “trickle-down” being applied not to tax policy (which is where it’s known) but to real estate development. Is there some kind of NIMBY playbook that I can reference when looking for language?
Don’t be so condescending Chuck. It seems like a perfect use of the term since it in founded on giving breaks to developers and then having confidence that they will create affordable, or to use the new buzz word, attainable housing. There is nothing NIMBY about that. I am completely supportive of some added density in MY neighborhood as long as that reflects smaller, and thus more affordable” homes with fewer cars as my support of density stops when we are talking about adding cars. But I do not support giveaways to developers on faith they will deliver on the desired goals
Chuck,
How else can you describe the affect of allowing developers to create several thousand luxury units in the hopes to get hundreds of “affordable” units?
“Trickle down” describes it perfectly.
Questioning allowing developers to pillage Newton for profits is Nimby?
Ah… the joys of language. Words like “allowing” and “pillage” just set the scene, don’t they?
Yes, developers try to make a profit. Oh the horror! Newton is close to Boston and offers a desirable locale. Other people want to be here for the same reason you do. We have laws in place that require a certain amount of “Affordable” units, which is very different from the idea of having “units that are affordable.” The developers are just one part of the equation. Plus, Newton is already known among builders as “the city of no” because, well, that’s what we say. Our opaque zoning and our byzantine special permit process means that they must hire expensive council to navigate the corpulently large city council, plus keep money in reserve for the litigious populous that will stall via lawsuit. This keeps driving up the cost of the overall project resulting in… wait for it… more expensive housing!
We have a lot to fix, making it easier to build more units is one step. Building in social programs is another. Access to multi-modal transportation is still another. And don’t forget active space and our other needs. No one thing will solve it all. The developers offer a part of the solution, not all of it.
But sure, let’s keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing. I’m sure that will solve the problem.
@Chuck: No, litigation and the city’s process do not lead to more expensive housing. The developer will ask as much as they possibly can for every unit, and the buyers will pay as little as they possibly can. All the rest is irrelevant. If developers avoided building in Newton because it’s too difficult, that would be a different story, but obviously that’s not the case.
Ah yes, blame the developers for everything bad. It’s an effective way for otherwise progressive folks to avoid actually doing anything about affordable housing.
Chuck,
Pillage was probably too harsh. Instead i’ll describe what a typical development
1) outbid regular folks from buying affordable older properties
2) tear down or gut the house and build with the cheapest labor+materials possible. Put in a granite counter top and list the home for maximum profit. Usually at least 50% to 100% more than the original house
3) buy lots of land to build large development at market price. But to extract maximum profit, they lobby (ie throw money at) for special permits so the land cost instantly appreciates
4) build the required number of affordable units but be sure to “luxuriate” the other units so they can extract absolute maximum profit. Ie target affluent for the market units
5) we now have widened the wealth gap. Now have affordable + uber high end prices only
We want this multiplied tens of thousands of times so we create a small percentage of affordable units? Do you think newton residents were born yesterday?
I absolutely dont blame developers, they are in the business of maximum profit like most private businesses… but dont pretend they are doing us any favors.
Housing is expensive because of these 3 combined traits
Distance to boston
+
low low crime
+
Excellent schools
Remove 1 or 2 of them and you’ll get your “affordable” housing naturally (or wait for next recession)