Local resident Jonah Hassenfeld just published his musings on local elections in an article for the History News Network.
“Ultimately, Toqueville concluded that the strength of American democracy rested not in separation of powers or in our constitution, but in local politics.”
Are we going to continue to post negative pieces about one candidate with a record of serving her community while the other one dodges questions regarding the one office he held that was not able to complete the only goal it had?
Is this how this is going to go in the final hours?
Because they are buried again, here are both candidates statements:
https://village14.com/2019/10/10/guest-post-from-city-council-candidate-emily-norton/
https://village14.com/2019/10/31/city-council-campaign-column-bryan-barash
Cute story.
Casey,
From my experience, “the other one” dodges any question that requires a straight answer. Either because of councilor’s quasi-judicial role, or because more research is needed. One can smell a juvenile career politician right away.
Instead of getting negative about candidates, how about talking about the main point of the article, which is aimed at an audience where the majority don’t live in Newton and won’t know who these candidates are.
I think the writer makes a good point about the importance of local elections and politics. We can each feel like our vote has more impact in a local election, where just a few votes can sway the result. They are also an easier way to introduce our kids to discussing candidates and issues, since they are focused on fewer issues and ones that are easier for youngsters to understand.
Casey, I know that local elections make us all a little angry and frustrated, especially folks like you who invest so much time and energy in a candidate. But the article wasn’t negative towards Emily in my view, and your response was very negative towards Bryan.
I think there are lots of posts to point out Emily’s positive attributes, and you’ve certainly posted negative posts about Bryan before. Frankly I think Jack’s post about Emily in the positive post thread does far more good than your negative posts about Bryan.
I have no idea who you are, but what I’m doing is not posting anything I write immediately, since I tend to be confrontational and then regret it when i do.
And boy I can’t wait for this election to be over!
If I played a little part in a 4 year old discovering the power of our democratic process, all the work was worth it, whatever may come on Tuesday.
Thank you so much for sharing this Jerry, it made my evening.
The importance of participating in local government can not be overstated, but I’m getting concerned by a growing tendency among would be trendsetters to dismiss the federal government as almost irrelevant to the crushing domestic challenges of the 21st century. Okay, I’m a retired fed, but I’m entirely certain that we’d be lagging far far behind where we are now in cleaning the air, water and land without the pioneering work EPA (my agency) did beginning when the Agency was first formed in 1970. We need the feds every bit as much as we need the states and municipalities and, above all, we need honest and responsive government at all levels and a citizenry that’s more responsive tan it’s been in recent decades. A lot of the progress we made is now threatened and I don’t want the public to recognize the good the feds do only when the misguided policies of the present make our agencies and departments unable to perform these functions any longer. The threat of that is quite real and is proceeding apace. Reports of the wholesale destruction of long and painstakingly established programs from within my old agency are disturbing, indeed sickening. Time is not our friend. I think de Touqueville would have been perceptive enough to perceive that some things have changed since he traveled this country.
And sometimes democracy takes unexpected twists and turns, as it has this weekend in the Ward 2 School Committee race. As many know, the Horace-Mann School was moved to the Carr building this September. However, it is not widely known that the Carr building was renovated to be swing space and was not intended to be a permanent facility. It is not close to being in compliance with MA state building guidelines for elementary school spaces.
The Horace-Mann parents and teachers have expressed their concerns at meetings this fall, and last Monday had a contentious but ultimately productive meeting with the school committee and administration. All are hopeful for improvements to the facility as the community moves forward. But the twist comes with a late entering write-in campaign for the Ward 2 School Committee seat that was previously uncontested: Julia Gaebler is running a write-in campaign for the Ward 2 SC seat.
NTA President had this to say about the situation:
Her statement is on the Facebook Newton Civic Action Page.
Write-in candidate Julia Gaebler’s statement from Facebook:
Just a few days before the November 5th elections, I decided to run as a write-in candidate for Ward 2 School Committee. My name is Julia Gaebler. I have been a Ward 2 resident for the past eight years, and I am a parent of two children in Newton public schools, one at Horace Mann, the other at FA Day.
As a founding member of the Horace Mann Community Action Committee (HMCAC), I have been dedicated since the first day of school in September to bringing substantial and immediate improvements to the substandard classrooms of the 1934 Carr School. Carr was recently designated a ‘permanent’ home for the Horace Mann Elementary School.
Given the deficient state of its learning spaces, I demonstrated my personal outrage at the October 7th School Committee meeting, stating that “our kids and educators are being asked to learn and to teach, with both hands tied behind their backs.”
At the Town Hall meeting at Horace Mann @Carr on October 28th, facing a sea of frustrated and angry parents and teachers, Newton Public School officials and elected School Committee members finally acknowledged that significant mistakes were made over the last three years as the move to the Carr “temporary swing space” was being planned and executed.
While they still claim that they had not been aware of any issues, faculty and staff from three other schools who used Carr as a swing space had registered concerns, but they were quieted and disregarded, since the space was only temporary for them.
Similarly, written complaints from Horace Mann educators in a letter to Superintendent David Fleishman dated March 2019 were blatantly ignored.
At the Town Hall meeting, Superintendent David Fleishman and Buildings Commissioner Josh Morse admitted that they did nothing when they heard and saw these concerns from our very own teachers.
The inadequate learning environment at the Carr temporary swing space, with its sub-standard classroom square footage, and detrimental acoustics, among other things, is now making kids physically sick, preventing compliance with special needs programs, and de-motivating previously eager young learners.
Be forewarned! Parents and teachers at other Newton elementary schools facing renovations and relocations need a passionate advocate on the Newton School Committee! Lincoln-Eliot, Franklin, Countryside, and Ward are now slated for similar relocations and/or upgrades.
I am pleased that in recent days, some of these officials, including our Mayor, and some School Committee members and City Councilors seem to now be paying attention and listening.
However, the fixes we insist upon for Horace Mann@Carr and other future swing spaces and upgraded schools are no doubt costly and require a change to the current plans.
Given the breach of trust, and the past dismissive disregard by those whom we elected to protect and defend our kids’ education, we need someone on the School Committee moving forward who will fight for our kids and teachers and ensure their immediate engagement. ALL Newton students deserve up-to-date teaching and learning environments, regardless of family income, ethnicity, or geography.
Motivated by the stunning indifference and lack of due diligence for the Horace Mann community by the Superintendent, Mayor, and the entire School Committee, I am passionate and committed to advocating for the needs of teachers and children for 21st century learning facilities across all of Newton, and ensuring that these same mistakes are not repeated again in other Newton communities.
With more schools being rebuilt, renovated, and relocated, and having witnessed first-hand the gross inequity in the now ‘permanent’ facility in my own neighborhood, I seek to work closely with the School Committee and our City Councilors and Mayor Fuller (since they ultimately oversee and approve the budget) to inject transparency, equity, accountability, and teacher and parent input into the school renovation and rebuild processes.
This is in stark contrast to the current School Committee whose members have acknowledged their past failure to engage with our educators to determine what was best for teaching and learning.
Perhaps even more concerning, Margaret Albright, our Ward 2 School Committee representative, has been silent on this issue, and she was absent from Monday night’s Town Hall meeting. She is now running uncontested on Tuesday for her final term.
When I am not fighting for what is right for Newton teachers and kids, I am Partner and Head of Global Market Access and Policy Strategy at Health Advances, a life sciences strategy consulting firm, where I work with health care companies to address the most pressing global pricing and health policy problems.
Before Health Advances, I held related positions in the biotech industry and at the RAND Corporation.
I have a PhD in Health Policy and Decision Sciences from Harvard University, an MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
I have held Adjunct positions at UCSD Division of Global Public Health and at the RAND Corporation, and I have published numerous articles on health economics and health technology assessment in journals such as Nature, Journal of Pediatrics, Journal of Vascular Surgery, Health Services Research, and Diabetes Medicine, among others.
I am currently on the board of Atlas5D, a MedTech start up in Cambridge. In sum, I have over 25 years of experience navigating challenging and contentious uphill battles, and working collaboratively with decision-makers and key stakeholder. I can hold my own with the best of the best.
With my research training and focus on transparency, I am your write-in candidate against School Committee Ward 2 incumbent Margaret Albright, who was elected on 2013 to the school community and is running uncontested on November 5th.
For a promising and equitable future for all Newton teachers and students, and for transparency and equity in process, please write in “Julia Gaebler” for School Committee, Ward 2.
@Jane – did you mean to say that Fuller didn’t show up? Because first you say Norton was there and then you say she wasn’t.
@Bob – I don’t think people feel the federal government doesn’t matter. I think a lot of people feel powerless right now to affect the federal government in a positive way. IMO, it’s a good thing that they are focusing on local government for now rather than giving up all together.
Meredith, yes – Mike Zilles was in a hurry to post his statement and made a mistake. Corrected now.
Huh? How can NTA president Zilles say, “Norton’s failure to participate”? Emily Norton not only was there; she initiated the meeting. Perhaps that phrase about “failure to participate” was left over from hasty editing after Zilles’ earlier broadcast email, in which he said (incorrectly) that Norton was not even there.
And now back to our normal programming…
Bruce, really? Obviously it was a typo or a mistake since he corrected his earlier email to say she was there in the previous sentence. It’s beyond me why you would choose to make a stink about that.
Thank you for the correction Bruce. Two days before the election, this is what it’s come to.
“… But it means also the ability to BELIEVE that black is white, and more, to KNOW that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary.” George Orwell 1984
Seriously Emily! That quote coming from you is oh so ironic.
Evidently you and Bruce are in lock step. It’s was a simple mistake made after Mike said you were there.
Perhaps the Horace Mann discussion deserves its own thread.
Until then, I can understand why the school would feel like the Carr School didn’t match modern educational standards, although I find it ironic that our Ward 2 city councilors (all of them) didn’t seem to mind sticking the Cabot School there an extra six months at the time for a fool’s errand with an emergency design to preserve someone’s view and no educational support. The Cabot parents surely remember though. Many of us still talk about it. A lot.
I believe at the time I kept hearing from everyone how lucky we were to have Carr as swing space. And I kept saying…compared to what?
Carr was certainly better than the old Cabot, which was literally following apart. But if I was being told that Carr was my “new school” I’d be rather pissed off. The classrooms are kinda small, there is no AC, it is older space and constructed as such. For swing space you put up with it, and you are likely coming from something bad and heading to something good. You could potentially expand in the back, but I’m not sure how you’d make the classrooms bigger.
With that said, hasn’t this been known for years that Horace Mann was moving over to Carr? The issues with Carr have been around for years as well. It got some new windows and new coat of paint, but it isn’t a modern school. I’m curious as to why this is coming up now? I hope the focus sticks around after the election. I’m sure the parents will keep the heat on for change, but I haven’t seen the city council focus on issues like this once the election heat is off. What I remember is feeling abandoned by the city council, with our school delayed, pushed off, and redesigned. I sincerely hope that Horace Mann is treated better.
And Emily, since it both says you were there in one sentence and in another says Albright and Fuller were not there, and then criticizes Albright and Norton for not showing up, I think it was pretty clear it was a mistake and she meant mayor fuller not showing up. I certainly read it that way. It doesn’t make any sense the other way based on the sentence construction. But if Jane was trying to mess with you, why have the statement include you were there in the first place.? Plus, I’ve never known Jane to be like that. She tends to tell it like it is. You ever see her tangle with Greg on this forum?
I guess from your point of view you aren’t paranoid if everyone is trying to get you, but c’mon now…especially with that Orwellian quote. I think one of my friends used that as his yearbook quote…in high school. 😉
Brought back some memories. The other one folks used from Orwell was “to see what is in front of one’s nose is a constant struggle”. Disregarding the election drama, what I’m seeing in front of my nose is a city that doesn’t seem to do right by its public schools lately. Like I said in another post, maybe the school committee needs some new folks at the table…
Fig, yes it does. And it will get one after the election.
@Fig – Jane didn’t write that, she was quoting a statement from Mike Zilles – “NTA President had this to say about the situation”
Fig: The inaccurate statement was from Mike Zilles. He only offered a “correction” after I emailed him requesting that he do so. But his edited version is still inaccurate. The Orwell quote is quite apropos.
Emily, I’m glad you asked him to correct it. It was obviously done in haste hoping to get it out before the election.
Are you pleased with the job done on the School Committee by Margaret Albright?
I guess the NTA should find a better editor then…but the point still holds, if they were trying to do something nefarious, why say Emily was actually there the sentence previous. Sometimes a mistake is just a mistake. I know NTA endorsed Brian but c’mon now.
But I do agree Jane is off the hook! Sorry Jane for both blaming (but also defending) you!
Emily, well, I’m not sure I fully understand but I guess I’m not running for elected office. If you say the quote fits, ok then.
For the record my friends yearbook quotes also contained a lot of Greatful Dead references. If you start to quote the Dead I’m going to get a bit freaked out. 😉
But at least I end my night with a smile. Good night to all!
Two days left to go. In the words of fignewtonville’s high school friends …
Let’s all keep looking for the kites
A full-on bar-room brawl. Only this time, it’s not about someone’s girl (with a small ‘g’), but the larger one: Our. Fair. City. Who may come out of this a lot more worse for wear and down-at-heel. Where’s Mary Heaton Vorse when you need her :/
Shouldn’t Julia’s candidate statement be its own post?
The deadline for candidate statements on Village 14 was Nov. 1.
Here is that positive candidate pitches post that Fig reference above. Boy things scroll off fast here
https://village14.com/2019/10/29/one-week-from-election-day-make-your-positive-pitch-for-your-candidates/
Simple explanation: Mike Zilles stated that Emily was not at the meeting. HM teachers quickly got in touch with him upon receiving his weekly email to let him that she was there. He wrote a corrected version for the Facebook page. I used the corrected version on this thread. The statement on the Newton Civic Action Forum is also the corrected version.
Mike Zilles issued this addendum to his statement:
Many people know about the statement made at the Monday night meeting about who pushed this move – there were 200 people there! I heard about it on first on Tuesday or Wednesday and then heard about it from a number of sources who were present at the meeting over the course of the week. The substance of the statement has been the same from everyone. It’s not as though this was something stated behind closed doors.
@Fig
It’s just as possible for people to read Zilles statement and assume Fuller’s name was erroneously mentioned and should have been Albright and Norton instead of Albright and Fuller.
Accuracy is important. For you to complain that Emily is protesting too much that she was inaccurately criticized (for a meeting she apparently helped organize!)- and actually spent the time to write multiple posts on this- seriously? What does that say about you?
Do us a favor and spend some time reading about the difficulties of women in politics. Your posts reeks of, how would Sean say it? Implicit sexism.
Strong woman advocate. Criticized more than any other City Councilor. The biggest offenders on V14? You, Sean and Greg.
What do the three of you all have in common? Check your white male privilege.
What? Huh? First both Sean hasn’t commented here. I haven’t even commented on the substance . Second, Newton is fortunate to have number of strong women leaders: the mayor, half our city councilors, school committee, all but one member of our state house delegation, etc. How is any difference I may have with any one councilor, gender related?
William Berkman, No its not.
Have you checked your entitlement lately? Obviously you are the one who needs to review history. A politician is a politician regardless of gender.
Strong women, including me, are equals with men and don’t want or need your protection. If there is white male privilege that needs checking we will point it out. There hasn’t been any in this thread so far.
Ok, so it sounds like at some point in the last year or two, the idea of Horace-Mann moving to the Carr School as a permanent home, instead of as temporary swing space while the existing building was renovated/rebuilt (as was done with the other elementary schools), was advanced. There’s a lot of finger-pointing now about who’s idea this was, and I get that. But SO MANY THINGS had to happen, and SO MANY PEOPLE had to be involved, between the time any particular School Committee or City Council member started promoting this idea and the ultimate move this September. How did a plan that, under a closer examination of the building as a permanent educational space, should clearly have been abandoned or at least slowed down greatly, get approved? At the end of the day, the Newton Public Schools administration made this decision, in conjunction with the City and the School Committee. How did all of those people and entities come to agree that this was a good plan? Why was the input of the H-M faculty, staff, and community not just not sought, but actively ignored? Those are the questions I would like to hear the answers to.
@Tricia, that is exactly the point and the platform Julie Gaebler is running on. How did our elected officials — ALL OF THEM — move forward on this serious issue against protests from teachers and parents alike? Because our overly-powerful Mayor and many elected officials don’t feel accountable to us. They are not including teachers and admin in critical decisions across the board — this is a fact. Many people have told me this. HM is sad proof of this.
When your kids physical and mental well being are at stake, nothing is more important.
We all would welcome working together in a non-fractious manner but that was tried at HM and look what happened. Hope is what we all share for a better & safer Newton for our kids!
Julia Gaebler, myself and many others want this to change. And change means speaking up and speaking out. Some people on this forum seem to be very uncomfortable with the outrage of women. About 100 years ago, some very outraged women secured the right to vote. Now we are fighting for our vote to mean something. We feel ignored by this administration. There will be a fallout for sure, but I can guarantee you Julia isn’t going away and citizen activist parent groups are not either. And we won’t be flying kites!!
@ Greg
The number of posts and comments you’ve made on Emily over the years speaks for itself, not weighing on this one doesn’t really change that. You have singled her out disproportionately with topics that go beyond any policy diasgreements, frequently with a disrespectful tone.
You say that you have”disagreements” with Emily- which ones are specific to her (i.e. her views on development are shared by others on the CC) that merit singling her out like you’ve done.
PS just because you don’t treat all women poorly, doesn’t mean that implicit sexism isn’t driving your treatment of Emily.
CORRECTION: Apparently the idea of moving H-M to Carr permanently was already in the works back in 2014, when Aquinas was purchased and the city announced the plan to move eventually move Lincoln-Eliot there and eventually move Parks & Rec to the former H-M building.
That’s actually worse, I think, since it wasn’t a rushed decision.
On the Horace Mann issue, I feel guilty about not being more vocal on this forum about my concerns about Carr. Folks may remember how angry I was about staying there an extra six months, but I didn’t really focus on the future of the building. I should have connected the dots. And to some extent old Cabot was SO BAD that it was a relief to get to Carr, and I just swallowed my complaints because what was done was done.
I’ll be writing in Julia as a protest vote. I don’t think she will win at this late date, but I encourage others to do the same.
William Berkman:
Well, that’s a first for me. But I guess if you are part of a community long enough and are vocal enough, folks are going to insult you in ways you disagree with. I’m sorry you feel I’ve been unfair to your candidate. I’d respectfully disagree, and I hope you’ll reconsider insulting folks with a broad brush in the future.
For the record I was defending Jane in this post, and just trying to be reasonable about the mistake. Jane is a long time poster, and I’ve grown to like/admire her online presence, even though we disagree on stuff. I was just saying I didn’t think it was purposeful. I still believe that, and I make no apology for defending Jane.
As for the Orwellian back and forth with Emily, I wasn’t trying to offend at all. If there is an ongoing battle with Emily and the NTA, I didn’t know about it. From the NTA response, certainly seems like there is no love lost, but I really don’t have the background as to why, and the back and forth. But Emily very capably responded that I don’t know the full story, and I left it at that.
Emily is front and center in my ward. There is a reason why both Emily and Brian have hundreds of signs out, and a reason the race isn’t an easy incumbent walk in the park. I comment on any post about Newtonville, and I have done that for 8 years or so. In the absence of a real paper, I think building a local community is important. I think holding our elected officials accountable to that community is important. I have no intention of stopping that, and if Bryan is the next ward councilor or if Emily remains in office, I’ll be the same pain in the butt about the issues I care about. Cabot and our schools. Newtonville Village and its improvements. Affordable Housing. Roads and sidewalks. And a govt that works and finds solutions to those problems.
I also think you do your chosen candidate no service by your insults. And if you continue to post here after the election, I hope we can have a more productive conversation about the issues. I might even grow on you.
Cheers until then,
Figgy
@William Berkman – Really? Fignewtonville? I would say Mr Fig has been the sanest, most reasonable, always fair, always polite poster on this site for years. He speaks his mind on all sorts of topics but almost always more thoughtfully than the rest of us, and with unfailing civility.
Jumping on here a day before the election and taking a broad pot shot at Mr. Fig is no way to rally people to your cause.
That same accusation is equally unfair to Greg and Sean but they at least do have a history of publicly mixing it up with Councilor Norton.
Try ending with this. Head over to this thread and tell us who you are voting for, why you support them and why we should too.
Jerry, I think some of it is because I used to argue with Emily about Austin Street and that was “my salad days, when I was green in judgement” (5 forum bucks to the quote identifier without using google). But that was many moons ago. Anyway, I second the positive post and appreciate the kind words. I don’t always meet them if I’m being honest, and I’ve been personally rather grumpy lately. We can all do better in how we communicate, myself included.
As I’ve said many times, I hate election season, I’ll be glad when it is over, and this forum returns to its less agitated ways.
And I’m offline the rest of the day, so please no one take my silence for anything except that I have a life outside my cell phone.
Sorry to come to this party so late….but Tricia says it all:
“At the end of the day, the Newton Public Schools administration made this decision, in conjunction with the City and the School Committee. ”
I would also add the Mayor.
The decision to take over HM was made when Setti was in office and that was to make HM an intergenerational facility. At some point, the SC decided NOT to give up HM and, due to some problems using Aquinas, made the decision to move the Early Childhood Program there instead. I don’t know exactly how the process works on the school side, but the School Department and the School Committee must have consulted with the School’s Principal in order to make this decision. I wonder if there’s a paper trail….or votes taken……
Wow – I just went to my website and guess what I found?
The School Committee will meet on Wednesday, May 30th. The first meeting is a special meeting that will convene at 5:30 p.m. in Room 304 at the Ed Center, to conduct training for the Superintendent Evaluation Process. The School Committee will then meet at 7:00 p.m. in Room 210 at the Ed Center and will hold a Public Hearing on School Choice. Following the Public Hearing the School Committee will discuss and vote on School Choice, discuss updates on 1:1 Technology and Equity Policy Guidelines, Recognize School Committee Student representatives, Recognize CVTE Graphic Students and NPS Logo Design, vote to permanently move Horace Mann to Carr School, vote on appointments to the Designer Selection Committee and vote to approve Field Trips. The agenda can be found here: http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/89996
And here’s the backup info regarding the move that was presented at the May 14,2018 meeting: http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/89642
Enjoy!
Oh and then there’s this:
From the April 25, 2018 SC Meeting: February 12, 2018 Facilities Update:
IV. Future use of Carr Building and Horace Mann building The district has been in a process of final vetting of the planned relocation of Horace Mann to the Carr School building in September 2019, after Cabot returns to its new school. During construction for Angier, Zervas and Cabot, the Carr building has served as a modern, fully accessible elementary facility complete with cafeteria, art, music and special education spaces, as well as space for after care and a large gymnasium and library/media center. With the planned move of Horace Mann to the Carr School in September 2019, Newton will have made significant progress on the long-range plan and will have addressed major facility concerns at four elementary school buildings since 2011. The district is analyzing the costs impact associated with the Horace Mann move and any related expenses including space adjustments and furniture/equipment needs. The district is also considering the traffic and circulation impacts associated with a change of use at Carr to a permanent school building. There is also an impact on summer programs to be considered. As the Horace Mann building is vacated, similar considerations (costs, traffic and circulation, summer program use) related to its future use, following planned ADA improvements in the building, are also being reviewed in the context of Newton’s next school renovation project at 150 Jackson Road for Lincoln-Eliot and the Newton Early Childhood Program. Should feasibility study for the project confirm that a swing space is required for NECP during construction, Horace Mann is thought to be the available site. Traffic and circulation on and around both school buildings is an area of significant impact where thoughtful solutions will be required. The district plans to make a recommendation at the May 14, 2018 School Committee meeting about the future use of Carr after September 2019. The School Committee will be updated by a joint city and school team about the above-described analysis as part of this recommendation.
Amy – Typically a school building committee is formed that has representation from the city council, the school committee, the building department, school staff and principal, and parents. This part of the process didn’t happen in this case.
School building votes are taken by the school committee, with the mayor having just one vote, and the city council.
It’s time to press the reset button as the city moves forward with new building projects. Lincoln-Eliot moving to Aquinas is a concern and will need a school building committee with full representation. And obviously, something has to be done to enlarge the classroom spaces and build in breakout spaces at HM. Swing space is very different from a new building that’s in compliance with state standards and I still don’t understand the logic of building another swing space when we had one (Carr) that wasn’t ideal, but served its purpose.
@Fig
1. You were wrong in thinking the words were attributed to Jane, but were actually Zilles’. So quick to pull the trigger and chastise an elected official for objecting to an inaccuracy, you didn’t read carefully enough to see the words were Zilles’ and not Jane’s.
2. Once it was made clear to you that the statement was Zilles’, you- without any evidence- attribute the mistake as good faith and continue to criticize Emily for ovvereacting. With Zilles’ statement on the issue now public, where he states that he wasn’t clear if she had attended the meeting, it’s clear you were wrong again to assume a good faith editing issue.
3. Writing on substantive policy diasgreements is completely fair game. But you’ve taken special attention to criticizing how Emily acts- she’s not approachable, too prickly, overreacts- these are just examples of things you have posted on the last six months. It’s classic sexist tropes of women, and used against them in politics.
These aren’t insults, just pointing out the reality. If you don’t like the criticism, change the behavior.
@Jane: You are very welcome. Yes – it didn’t take that long for me to find the links to the public discussions that took place about the Horace Mann move. I am suggesting that there is blame to go around for the decisions that were made – whether the decisions were done without approval or consent or even consultation with parents, teachers, principal – I don’t know but certainly blame should be placed on a bunch of people and from the Facilities Reports linked above – the Administration was certainly in favor of this move.
One day left to go…
William, I admire your zealous advocacy for your chosen candidate. But I think in your advocacy you’ve lost a bit of perspective. Not everything is an insult. Whether Jane was writing or quoting doesn’t change the fact that it was mix of “emily was there” and “Norton and Albright weren’t there”. I said that I didn’t think it was a purposeful mistake. Emily disagreed. I said, agree to disagree.
I’m not going to convince you that my posts are completely fair game, and you aren’t going to convince me I’m sexist because you keep telling me I am, especially when I criticize my ward councilor based on actual witnessed behavior, especially regarding the Cabot School rehabilitation. You’ve had your experiences, I’ve had mine.
And that’s all ok. We both get a vote tomorrow. And perhaps Wednesday we can all start again. If Emily wins, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt as she restarts as a Ward Councilor after a significant challenger. If Bryan wins, you do the same. Because frankly once the election is over, I’m way more concerned about the Village redo, Cabot park, Cabot School, roads/sidewalks, and the fate of the Newtonville library/senior center than continuing to have this discussion with you, whoever you are.
Cheers, and good night.
@Fig
You keep referencing “your chosen candidate” and “insults” which completely misses the point. This isn’t about the election, so please stop framing it as such. Your criticisms of Emily are classic, sexist stereotypes of women. You claim they are true, so do other sexists.
Stop writing, and actually think about whether your behavior is justified, or are you falling into the same traps as others that are prone to implicit sexist bias.
William:
I keep being polite and you keep insulting.
My language isn’t sexist, and while there are many things to like about Emily, there are many things she could improve on. Like any candidate. It is fair to criticize her on actual behaviors.
It is not sexist to say that she didn’t communicate adequately with the Cabot community. It isn’t sexist to say that the PTO and folks like myself trying to get a better school for our kids faster did not find her to be a helpful advocate. You don’t defend those actions. You just call me names.
Emily has been the best defender of the environment we’ve had in Newton. She also let down my kids and my family. That’s my view. You keep making this personal and it isn’t. Absent Cabot, I’d probably be voting for her. We needed a strong advocate William. Other wards had them. angier is a nicer school than Cabot. So is Why is that? I voted for Emily originally because of her background with Horace Mann! Because of her school committee memos! She was supposed to be the good school candidate! And now both schools have been messed with in various ways! On her watch. Is that her fault? Of course not. Is she a part of it? Heck yes. But I can’t criticize because of my implicit sexist trope?
I said months ago this vote was not about development for me. I meant it. Development will happen anyway. Our schools need a direct focus because they are not what they used to be, and they are now failing in special ed. The Cabot meetings were insanely frustrating. And I felt like we had one hand tied behind our back because our city councilors from our ward were more concerned with a few abutters than the wider neighborhood. The ward councilors entire point in my view is to speak FOR THE WARD! And my ward starts with my elementary school. Where my kids spend their day until late. If that isn’t a Ward issue, what is?
So fine. Call me sexist. Call me whatever you want. I’ll stand by my hundreds of posts here criticizing everyone and anyone. As fairly as I can. And my actual experiences dealing with Emily Norton, Susan Albright and Jake.
You know William, folks can actually disagree on candidates without it coming from a bad place. Or a place of bias. Actual experience matters with the person in question.
With all that I said, I’ve voted. And I’m done posting in this thread. Last word is yours if you want it. Feel free to call me a sexist again, I won’t respond and others on the forum shouldn’t feel the need to defend me. Best of luck to your candidates and our city.
@Fig
Your comments about Cabot school are substantive and fully legitimate criticisms.
Your comments about how she acts and her behavior- and you’ve done this a number of times- fall directly into sexist stereotypes of women. I’m sorry you’re clearly upset by that, but it’s the truth.
Sometimes people make mistakes. The key is whether you learn from them. Stick to the substance.