My name is David Micley and I am running for the Ward City Councilor seat from Ward 2. I was born and raised in Newton, and my wife Molly (also a Newton native) and I are the proud parents of three children, Lily, Zoe, and Eitan, who are the fifth generation of Micleys to call Newton home. I am running to ensure Newton continues to be a vibrant, multi-generational community, with strong schools, active village centers, and well maintained parks and green space.
I look forward to using the campaign as an opportunity to learn more about what’s on residents’ minds. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not running with a grand vision set in stone, but rather with the goal to listen, learn, and identify areas of common ground and opportunity. I’m particularly excited to run for the ward seat and knock on doors, and if elected, focus my energy on constituent services and serve as an ambassador on behalf of the interests and priorities of neighbors across Ward 2.
I also want to use this opportunity to thank Councilor Emily Norton for her service over the years. I remember Councilor’s Norton first campaign – I was having dinner at my parents house and she knocked on the door. Her energy and passion for the role was evident immediately. Whether you agree or disagree with her politics, no one can deny she brought tremendous commitment to the priorities she believed in and deserves our recognition and gratitude for her dedication to city service. Thanks for your service, Emily, and good luck with whatever’s next – hopefully a few free evenings here and there
To learn more about my background and priorities, check out my website here..
To contribute to my campaign, please donate here.
And finally, if you want to be in touch on anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out – [email protected]
For those of you in Ward 2, look forward to connecting with you around the neighborhood in the coming months!
Best,
David
Welcome David to the race to fill Councilor Norton’s shoes. I love to see some new candidates in the running. Thanks for throwing your hat in the ring and I wish you well.
Not my ward but I like his statement “I’m not running with a grand vision set in stone, but rather with the goal to listen, learn, and identify areas of common ground and opportunity.” As a City Councilor I think it is important to listen and focus on the objectives that are important for the people of their ward and the greater city population.
You have our support from Kensington St!
I only have one question. Are you a development stooge?
No….growing up as 1 of 3 brothers, the only stooges I ever occassionaly identify with come in groups of three
I am glad that you are running! I reside in Ward 2 and I share your priorities- especially having great schools! Best wishes in your campaign!
I don’t know Mr. Micley but here is my gut reaction:
PROS
– Young, family guy
– seems open-minded
– cool web site
– local roots – I’ve only been in Newton 20 years and I like those folks who were born and raised here. They bring some knowledge to the table that us outsiders don’t have
(POSSIBLE) CON
– Crypto-Capitalist?
Looking forward to his campaign
LOL, Bruce. That may win the award for both the most loaded question of all time on the forum.
Welcome back David. Glad you are running again now that it is an open seat.
I’m curious. So if I may ask an initial question as well, did you coordinate your announcement with Councilor Norton, or just jump into the race as soon as you found out?
I’m just personally against any of our politicians trying to arrange their successors, so I’d appreciate knowing if something like that has happened here.
And, of course I’m interested if you are a stooge of any type, development or otherwise. Although you’ll get bonus points from me if you are one of three (stooges, that is). Or if you name your favorite stooge.
Fig “Curly” Newtonville
Peter – Thanks for the kind words and list of pros and cons. And while crpyto is not a campaign priority, on a personal level glad to discuss the merits of the crypto industry anytime so you can come to a more firm conclusion on whether that is a pro or con for you. For sure things the industry can do better, but also see a lot of promise and potential. That conversation is probably best had off-line, so feel free to reach out if interested!
Fignewtonville – no coordination beyond the fact that I spoke to Emily and she told me she wasn’t planning to run and I wanted to give her the chance to officially announce it before announcing my candidacy. Just felt like the right thing to not “front run” her announcement. I certainly don’t see myself as anyone’s successor as I spoke to all Ward 2 (City Council and School Committee) elected officials before announcing.
I’m a stooge of no one but if you had to pin me to any of the three stooges, I’d say I can relate most to Larry, mostly because of how I look when I have bad hair day.
Thanks for the reply. Look forward to learning more about you.
Would you invest any of “city of Newton” into cryptocurrencies?
A crypto-bro is a hard no for me. Even the Development Stooges have half a brain. Cryptocurrency is the stupidest asset class created by man and we created CMOs of NINJAS (No Income No Job or Assets) home loans. It’s too volatile to serve as a currency and in the scenarios where fiat money doesn’t work, there won’t be electricity to run the servers. Also if a candidate wants to make a Stooges reference, he could have won me over with Iggy Pop.
I’m sure the development stooges that allowed Bruce’s house to be built, and the developer that built it had at least half a brain. We can only hope.
@Bruce Wang – As far as I can see, cryptocurrency has absolutely nothing to do with Mr Micley’s candidacy. The only connections I can see appears to be Bugek’s trollish crypto-comment
Dave Micley works for Wintermute, a cryptocurrency trader.
I don’t live in Ward 2 and so will not be voting in the Ward 2 Ward City Councilor race. If I were voting in that race, however, the cryptocurrency connection would be a big red flag for me, because I think cryptocurrency is a destabilizing financial product.
@Debra – thats ridiculous. The man has a job. People need to work. Blanket statements that you wont vote for someone because of the company they work for are shallow politics. Why not hear what the man has to say. Actually judge people on content not labels. Identity politics at any level are why this country is so divided.
Don’t you remember being told as a kid to never judge a book by its cover?!
I am not ward 2 but if I was I would vote for someone who is not connected to the city establishment. If I like what David has to say then he would have my vote.
Vote Micley!
Hi David,
Do you believe our schools are in decline and we need meaningful change in direction? Or are you generally satisfied and looking for for typical incremental improvement?
PS I’m looking for your opinion on an important issue for the city, not an answer that says you’re not running for School Committee.
Crypto Mining also wastes a lot of energy. The connection is unlikely to sit well with the Climate and Sustainability crowd.
Glad to see David running.
Also, the crypto comments are ridiculous. If v14 had been around in the late 90s, I expect commentators would have been opposed to the candidacy of a dot com founder? “He/she sells books on this thing called “the internet” – sounds risky!!”
@Tim, spot on.
Personally i dont plan to invest in crypto until the weak links are gone, but the shallow thinking is so flawed.
Thanks for the questions/comments across the board.
Bugek – I have no desire to make recommendations on Newton’s asset allocation, including whether or not to include crypto amongst the asset mix. Seems like those types of decisions are out of scope for the City Council and even if they were, I would defer to the judgment of experienced investment managers and asset allocators of which I am not.
Bruce, Debra, and Fred – thanks for sharing your thoughts and critiques on the crypto industry. I respect your right to form your own views on both the industry as a whole and me as a candidate. All I’d say to clarify is I’m not running on a crypto platform. I work in the crypto industry, sure, but that is only part of my identity and work experience – I also have worked as a teacher at Prozdor, as a fundraiser at Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and as a client service professional at Bridgewater. But I don’t even think those are great reasons to inform whether or not to support me. I’m running to get involved and do things that make a positive difference in my local neighborhood and city, and to do it in a way that brings in diverse viewpoints and perspectives as part of the process. And I’ve been excited to do this for a while – I first started exploring the idea back in 2012, when I grabbed coffee with then Ward 2 Alderman Linsky at the Rox (miss that place) to get his perspective on the role and responsibilities. I ended up moving to Brookline and got involved there as a Town Meeting Member and now that I’m back in Ward 2, settled with a family, and there’s an open seat, feels like the right time to go for it. Just sharing in case that helps you understand a bit more about why I’m running and what I hope to focus on if elected.
Josh – while I recognize that the City Council has limited authority on schools, the state of NPS is of concern to me. I’m not in the weeds on it so this is a low confidence view, but the reputation and perception is definitely different (worse) than what I remember growing up,when I would only hear great things about Newton schools. This issue is also of personal importance to me as my eldest daughter will be starting at NPS in under two years, as a Kindergartener at Mason Rice (where my wife went to school as well). That said, I’ve heard great things about the new superintendent and I have confidence in Chris Brezski, the School Committee Member elected from Ward 2, so I think there is what to be optimistic about. But the state of the schools is certainly something to watch carefully and an issue I am interested in diving into further both as a candidate and future parent.
No campaigning for me Friday sundown-Saturday sundown (Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath), so if we don’t connect before then, have a great weekend everyone!
Best,
David
David,
Welcome to the race!
This is what I hear that I like: our city council is divided and having difficulty working together. I think we can agree on that and it is a concern. I see David as possibly being a unifying force on the council. He doesn’t appear to be locked into any position on particular issues right now. I had one conversation with him several years ago and came away with the same impression.
If this past week taught us anything, it’s time for us to begin listening to one another and working together. I will no longer support candidates who aren’t committed to doing so.
Hi Everyone:
I want to expand my brief 3/31/23 criticism of the cryptocurrency industry where Dave works.
First off, it’s great that Dave has a job. One problem with the Newton government is that many City Councilors, and the Mayor, do not appear to have much paid work history. This lack of paid work history is one of the major reasons that the City Council, and the Mayor, are so out of touch with middleclass Newton residents, who must commute to work, get their shopping done, and take care of their families, with limited time and money.
However – at the risk of starting one of those V14 tangents about totally unrelated topics (Oh Cannabis!), I am going to state three of the simpler reasons that, in my professional opinion, Cryptocurrency is a destabilizing financial instrument. (There are other more complicated reasons as well.)
I analyzed the risk and valuation of banking financial instruments for 17 years. These financial instruments included debt and securitized debt, derivatives, repurchase agreements, FX products, deposits, and currency. Financial instruments are not sales platforms like “the internet.” Financial Instruments are contracts between parties that create future payment obligations, obligations that are then sometimes hard to meet, depending on the instrument. Through the financial system, these instruments are connected and their payment failures have systemic, often destabilizing, effects on wages, consumption, growth, housing supply, inflation, and, most importantly, wealth distribution.
The nation’s currency, USD, is legal tender, meaning that its use in a payment offer will legally cancel a debt. (This tendering power does NOT apply to real time payments for goods and services, only to debt already incurred.) This makes USD liquid because the holder can always use their USD to pay a debt. The flow of USD is not completely unconstrained, however, because, for example, individual USD currency bank deposits over $10K must be reported by the bank as an anti money laundering measure, and the government can also look at most USD bank deposit accounts if they suspect criminal activity. Finally, USD currency is a liability of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, who decides the volume of USD currency in circulation and monitors its effect on the overall U.S. financial system in order to avoid the inflation that can occur with too much circulating USD. (USD deposit volume is also monitored, although it can’t be as controlled as USD currency volume.)
Cryptocurrencies are NOT legal tender and are privately created. They do not have the guaranteed liquidity that comes with being legal lender. They are also not subject to most anti money laundering safeguards or to overall volume control. The lack of A) liquidity, B) anti money laundering safeguards, and C) volume control, are three of the simpler theoretical reasons for why cryptocurrency is a destabilizing financial instrument. In practice, the resulting cryptocurrency industry has been subject to huge price swings, bankruptcies, missing deposit scandals, false claims of FDIC protection, and the wide use of cryptocurrency in criminal enterprises. I don’t think this is a matter of “working out the kinks,” but rather that the product itself will never fundamentally work because of A, B, C, (and some other more complicated reasons.)
I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, but it would be a giant reg flag for me, not necessarily a disqualification, if someone worked in the cryptocurrency industry and was running for public office. But, again, at least Dave has a job. And is under 60.
From prior posts, Dave has a fair amount of work experience working for both for-profit and non-profit entities.
I’m not into crypto. I just don’t think his current job matters that much for this job.
I think the fact he is a young dad with kids coming into the school system is a much more important fact than his job for instance.
With all that said, open seats are a rarity in Newton and looking forward to the race and learning more about the candidate.
Someone once posted the day jobs of a bunch of the city councilors and I was surprised. There was a lot of breadth of activities and some unexpected work experience. And the job is easier for folks who are older or have older kids. I mean, you have to give up a lot of evenings.
Plus he referenced Steve Linsky and the Rox Diner, he can’t be all bad. As backstory, the whole reason I got so invested in the potential improvements in Newtonville is that Linsky walked past my house during an election season and told me that if everything went right Newtonville could get a bunch of improvements and places to sit and hang out with my kids within a few years. It ended up taking 10 years and he left the council long before, but he put it in motion. Tip of the hat to him!
let’s be totally honest now. If a candidate worked for the NRA, this would be a hard pass for 99% of Newton. It really doesnt matter where a candidate works and its no one’s business.. BUT if ANY candidate believes crypto is valid asset class (and not a GIANT ponzi scheme) (However it is a VALID technology), I would seriously question their judgement.
This was not inferred by where he works, but from his own statements on cypto
I have known David since he was a child. I went to overnight camp with his Dad and I ended up running that camp where David and his 2 sibs went all through their childhood. Speaking to his character, I can tell you David was always and continues to be a kind human being. Everyone wanted to be his friend and he was friendly with everyone. I hired him to be on staff at this camp and he was always the favorite counselor. He went on to a leadership position at camp. He is positive and upbeat and is a can- do type of person. For you cynics out there, he did not ask me to say any of this. I truly believe he’ll work hard for Newton, obviously a place he loves!
That is a helpful nugget, thanks for sharing! Character counts a lot!
Where do you stand on teardowns and residential zoning reform? We moved to Newton in 2010 in part because we loved the older homes and spent 12 years renovating our home that was built in 1929. I am upset that the mayor and city council have continually put residential rezoning on the back burner. Meanwhile, more and more older homes are not only being torn down, but oversized McMansions are going up in their places, and even two on one lot in some instances. The prior city council proposed plan was absurd. It would have allowed, for example, 2-3 homes on one lot in West Newton Hill that previously would only have allowed one, but those 2-3 homes would still cost $2M+ so would do nothing to solve Newton’s lack of affordable housing. Instead, it would line the pockets of developers and destroy more green space. The one part of the plan that would have helped was allowing conversion of large old homes into multifamily homes.
Hi Melissa: Conversion of older single-family or two-family homes to multi-unit homes is allowed in the current zoning with a Special Permit, under stated building age and lot size constraints.
Under the current zoning, in all single-residence zoning districts, homes can be converted to units greater than single-family IF the building was in existence on 12/2/1974, and it meets the lot size/unit and frontage limit for newer lots in that district. Under the current zoning, in all multi-residence districts, homes can be converted to units greater than two-family IF the building was in existence on 5/7/79 and if has a lot size >= 5K sq. ft. /family.
The current zoning’s provisions for multi-family conversions are never mentioned at the Zoning and Planning meetings, but you can view them in sections 3.1.11 and 3.2.13 of the current (2/21/23) code at:
//www.newtonma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/29823/638158678815830000
Though I share Melissa’s dismay with the teardown/McMansion movement, it is clear that the political will does not exist to stop it. It would feel better to me if on larger lots two smaller units arose instead of the six-bedroom/six bathroom monstrosities that are emerging.
I have come to believe that increasing the housing stock in greater Boston, even if new units are expensive, must happen if we are to attract the young people needed to fill jobs in the high-tech sector. To be sure, we also need more affordable units; just how to create them remains a mystery since government is reluctant to participate in all but a regulatory way.
But preserving the affordable Capes and ranch houses is not going to happen, sad to say. the Garden City will inevitably become a wealthier, more exclusive community. So it goes.
Bob, The McMansions pay higher taxes and increase the base of the politicians who represent wealthy interests. They have no reason to actually preserve affordable housing stock. It’s much easier to say that you want more affordable housing and then confine that to less desirable rental property
Hi Melissa – thanks for your question.
The topic of residential zoning reform is important and timely – both because it is an issue where the City Council has meaningful authority and because the MBTA Communities act will require Newton to make residential zoning reforms by the end of 2023 in order to be in compliance with state law. In case you are interested, you can learn more about the state law here: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/multi-family-zoning-requirement-for-mbta-communities
Zoning reform can be a sensitive subject and one in which I believe there are valid views and considerations on both sides of the debate. Newton can certainly do more to address the problem of the “missing middle” and create housing supply of diverse types to accomodate groups with different needs (young families looking for their first home, elderly couples looking to downsize, and single professionals looking for a reasonably priced apartment, etc). At the same time, I also understand the desire to protect what’s special about Newton, including the beauty of the old architecture, the green and open space, and of course, the trees (which I’m excited to see blossom over the coming weeks). Like you, I think giving more flexibility to allow for large old homes to be converted into multifamily units while maintaining the exterior form is a good step forward. My wife grew up in a multi-family Victorian in Newton highlands – I think there’s room for creating owner optionality (i.e. by right) for more of that.
That being said, I also want to call out that, for better or worse, I’m trying to come at these sensitive issues with an open mind and as part of my campaign plan to solicit feedback from residents so I can best represent their ideas and concerns and not just my personal views on these important questions.
I find it very troubling to have someone in the crypto industry making decisions on environmental and carbon footprint reduction efforts in Newton.