by Sean Roche | Jun 1, 2019 | City Council, Newton, parking |
As reported in yesterday’s post, at a meeting of the Newton City Council Public Safety and Transportation committee (PS&T), committee chair Councilor Jay Ciccone compared a proposal to implement variable priced parking to Jim Crow laws. After he made his...
by Sean Roche | May 31, 2019 | City Council, Newton, parking, Public safety |
Last month at a meeting of the Newton City Council Public Safety & Transportation (PS&T) committee, during a discussion of variable parking pricing, committee chair Jay Ciccone drew a racially insensitive comparison between the inconvenience of having to park...
by Sean Roche | Mar 2, 2019 | Newton |
As I have been writing and will continue to write that, as a matter of social justice, it’s inconceivable that Newton, in 2019, is planning to re-up single-family zoning for another generation or two or three. As a tool, the history of single-family zoning is...
by Sean Roche | Feb 26, 2019 | Newton |
Hard working planning staff are wrapping up their ward-by-ward zoning reform road shows with two more meetings, this Thursday and next. If you haven’t been to one (or even if you have), I highly recommend attending. It’s a critical change that the city is planning and you will learn a ton about the why, what, and how of zoning reform. And, you’ll hear what folks in the ward like and are concerned about. Click through for dates, times, and venues.
by Sean Roche | Feb 24, 2019 | Newton |
Councilor Lisle Baker responds to the posting of a transcript of his comments at the 2/11/19 meeting of the City Council’s Zoning and Planning committee.
by Sean Roche | Feb 20, 2019 | Newton |
Ward 7 Councilor Lisle Baker had some thoughts about driving and parking at last week’s meeting of the City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee. Click through for his words and some reflections on his words. by Sean Roche | Feb 7, 2019 | Newton |
What transportation-related changes do you think Newton should make to reduce carbon emissions? The city is developing a Climate Action Plan, which will outline the steps the city can and should take to reduce carbon emissions. (The city is also developing a Climate...
by Sean Roche | Feb 4, 2019 | Newton |
The key takeaway from the residential sections of the draft zoning ordinance: the intent to keep things as built, except where it doesn’t. The city planners and consultants who developed the plan were given a brief: have the zoning map reflect the built status...
by Sean Roche | Feb 3, 2019 | Newton |
I strongly encourage everyone to attend one of the ward review meetings of the first draft of the redesigned zoning ordinance. (That’s a mouthful, eh?) Up next is Ward 1’s meeting, on 2/7 at 6:30 PM at the Ciociaro Club, 144 Bridge St., Nonantum. They... by Sean Roche | Jan 22, 2019 | Newton |
What if, instead of waiting for the MBTA to fix our horrendous commuter rail situation, we started to fix it ourselves? Adam wrote about the cluster that is the Auburndale Station project (here and here). Background: the three Newton stations on the commuter rail are... by Sean Roche | Jan 21, 2019 | Newton |
The value of land, in most cases, has little to do with the intrinsic value of the soil. Land in Newton is more valuable than land in Wakefield because land in Newton is closer to Boston and living on land in Newton entitles one to send their children to Newton... by Sean Roche | Jan 20, 2019 | Newton |
Thirty years after the last wholesale1 rewrite, Newton is in the final stages of a redesign of the city’s zoning ordinance. As I noted here, this will arguably produce the most consequential change to the city in generations. Traffic, schools, McMansions,...
