I love the degree of civic engagement in our city and hope it keeps up after the election on November 5th. There are a lot of issues we are confronted with as a community that are exciting, thought and emotion provoking and that have the potential to have an impact on future generations. What concerns me, though, is the almost equal degree of anger and, behind the scenes, sabotage that is accompanying this particular election. With lawn signs being stolen in large numbers and, more recently, tires being slashed in the driveways of sitting councilors, I would suggest that we re-evaluate the ways we engage. It is great to care, but let’s also care for each other as human beings and community members. Let’s engage in constructive debate on things we disagree on, leading with data and facts, and leave words that may incite violent or destructive behavior out of the dialogue. We are better than that and we have some great work to get done.
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
drivers man be like
Thank you Claudia for this needed reminder
Yes, Claudia, thank you for the reminder that the fabric that holds our community together is more important than our trivial political differences.
Maybe I run in an apolitical crowd, but I have not really experienced any animosity about local Politics in the real world Newton. The online world can sometimes be fact-free and mean, of course, but I think we’ve all learned how to filter that out.
Sign-stealing is an unfortunate fact in every campaign. The good news is Ring security cameras are more prevalent these days. From the surveillance videos I have watched, the sign stealing is sometimes by adults, but more often by carloads of teenagers having “fun” after school. Nothing too new there.
Slashed tires is a horse of another color, and it saddens me that this could happen to anyone in Newton. However, it is important not to jump to conclusions, and wait for the police to sort things out. Hopefully there is surveillance footage or eyewitnesses that will help solve the crime.
@Jerry Reilly-
Give me a break! Village14,
Sean Roche, Greg Reibman &
The Newton Needham Chamber of Commerce are part of the problem,
not solution. Obama would call them
“bitter clingers”.
You reap what you sow..
Who got their tires slashed?
One of the reasons I love the Newton Nomadic Theater’s Political Story Slam is it allows us to round out the picture of our public servants and wannabes.
Come for the humor and stay for the heartwarming. Or the other way around.
The 2019 Slam is Wednesday, the 30th at Gregorian Rugs. I think it starts at 7:30 pm, but @Jerry can fill you in. (I won’t be on until after 9).
May we have more detail about “tires being slashed in the driveways of sitting councilors.” The plural of driveway is being used, implying that this happened multiple times. One councilor having their tires slashed might be a random crime that is unrelated to the victim’s position on the council. More than one occurrence–especially if the councilors are up for reelection–is big news.
Paul Green says above that “Greg Reibman & The Newton Needham Chamber of Commerce are part of the problem, not solution.” I feel that Greg and the Chamber should at least be commended for re-titling Greg’s yesterday’s V14 thread, “Right Size engaged in illegal activity — and should stop immediately” to “Right Size engaged in likely illegal campaigning”.
That’s a step in the right direction.
Also, I’d commend Greg for removing photos of two candidates from the top of his yesterday’s thread after Amy Sangiolo commented, “it is unfair for [Greg] to post the photos of two candidates that were endorsed by Right Size Newton in this post particularly since [his] problem seems not to be with their candidacy but with the organization.”
However, I question Greg’s later comment that in taking down the photos, he nevertheless apparently still “disagrees” with Amy’s comments that she found the postings to be “wrong and inflammatory accusations without backup from OCPF” and/or “deliberate attempt to smear them.”
Anyway, if I’m incorrect, I’m assuming Greg can clarify where he disagree with Amy’s points.
@Jeffery, tire slashing is not typically thought of as “random”, so I’m not sure how to respond to that. I assumed there was nothing controversial about me suggesting that we be better to each other than this, and when these acts compound and create an environment of fear for a candidate’s children, it’s unacceptable and something had to be said. Let’s be better.
Don’t give Greg too much credit for changing the headline of his post. He pushed the line and crossed it. Found that his message was lost and he reigned it back in hoping that his original line crossing will be forgotten in a few days. He didn’t like the he became the news instead of sharing the news. Looks like Village14 is getting desperate in these last days before the election.
Claudia, my point is that if one councilor has their tires slashed, it may be a crime that has nothing to do with the person being a councilor. Your blog suggests that the crime has a political motive. Your use of the plural of “driveway” lends credence to a political motive. My questions are simple. Do you know of multiple cases of councilor tires being slashed or was the use of the plural an error? If so, which councilors were victims? If you don’t want to give readers more detail, why?
The current civic engagement problem in Newton is NOTHING compared to what took place in Newton a number of years back and was the subject of a long detailed very interesting article in Boston Magazine:
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/15/there-goes-the-neighborhood/
In light of what is going on now, I’d say this article is a MUST READ! (Read the whole thing, don’t skim.)
Thanks for nothing, @Jim. That read like a bad crime novel! 🙂
Was there another post that was taken down? Looks like there is a tweet up about Disinformation on V14 and now it is gone.
Amy, you know there was another post, you posted on it… You agreed with me. It was a momentous day for me… 😉
But it was the right call to take it down. Even if the underlying action that spurred it was disinformation, two wrongs don’t make a right… (oh dear lord I’ve turned into my mom…)
Fig: I was looking for that post because I wanted to add to it. I’m not saying it wasn’t the right thing to do to take it down – but it would have been nice if the Twitter announcement had been taken down too.
@Jeffery, it’s one driveway, that I know of. I didn’t give anyone more detail 1) because I have things to do so can’t be on here to monitor a post all day and 2) I’m not interested in creating more of a target for the person involved. BIG PICTURE=CIVILITY AND WORDS MATTER.
@All: While we are all being up front and civil, there is a sign theft problem plaguing my campaign, and others this year. We replaced a large number of signs this weekend, and it’s getting expensive.
Sign stealing is a violation of a persons freedom of speech, and reflects poorly on others. Some of the steps I’ve taken:
1. Asked the Newton Police to send out a public service announcements through Facebook, Twitter, and other means.
2. Asked for homeowners to check their video camera surveillance systems and call the NPD as appropriate
3. Checking with other candidates about their experiences to see if there is a pattern.
Freedom of Speech allows your neighbor to display whomever’s sign they so desire.