City Councilors Urge Mayor Fuller to Require Vaccinations
In a move initiated by Councilor Mark Laredo, all twenty-four members of the City Council have just sent a memorandum urging the mayor to require all city workers to get vaccinated for Covid-19. Here is the text: City Council 2020-21 City of Newton Memorandum To:...
Remembering Jim Blackburn
This afternoon I took advantage of a break in the line of thunderstorms to accomplish some errands on bicycle. My route took me past Newton North High School. I stopped alongside the track to take in the memorial, recently dedicated, to Jim Blackburn. The sculptor...
Of Bikes and Lakes and Open Studios
Mason Rice bike rack #1 I took this photograph with my cell phone while tooling through Newton Centre Playground in early June. This is but one of three bike racks surrounding Mason Rice Elementary School. Let’s suppose that upward of thirty students, perhaps...More Thoughts While Cycling Through the Garden City
Typically, as I ride through Newton my mind focuses mostly on the road but reserves a bit of space for random reflection. And so it happened recently as I criss-crossed the city, from Brae Burn Country Club on Commonwealth Avenue to Wells Avenue on the Needham line....Ending Classes at 4 PM?
This year both North and South have experimented with a new schedule: beginning classes at 9 AM each day and ending close to 4 PM. Some teachers that I respect have lauded the change, noting that their students are much more alert during the first block of the day...Enforcing the Leaf Blower Ordinance
(This post was co-authored by Karen Bray and Bob Jampol) In 2017 Newton’s City Council passed an ordinance that states that all leaf blowers, all year round, must be no louder than 65 decibels. In addition, between Memorial Day and Labor Day onIy one electric...
What Do Grades Mean?
Grading students was, is, and always will be controversial. It was when I was teaching, and so it has remained in the six years since I retired. In my thirty-four tenure at South a class’s grades never conformed to a bell curve with most students clustered around C....Factionalism Run Rampant
Recently, this post appeared on a community email stream: I’ve noticed a curious pattern in the Newton City Council race I don’t understand. There seems to be some unofficial teams among the candidates – many people seem to support Barash & Ranalli or Lucas...
Bike Newton’s Petition to the Mayor and City Council
I serve on the steering committee of Bike Newton, a nonprofit that strives to make Newton a safer place for both cyclists and pedestrians. We believe that in keeping with the city’s own long-term plans to reduce its carbon footprint, the mayor and city...Commemorate but Acknowledge the Truth
The cultural war raging around the City Council’s decision to rename Columbus Day as “Indigenous Peoples Day” poses a question being addressed throughout the country. To what extent do we acknowledge that the prosperity of the United States came with...
A Website for Friends of Newton Tennis
After thirteen years of existence, the Friends of Newton Tennis (FoNT) has finally launched a website to inform the public of our work to improve the quality of tennis in Newton: https://playtennis.usta.com/the-friends-of-newton-tennis-inc. FoNT came into existence in...
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
drivers man be like