Newsletter: Pride and Progress: Legislature gets to work on LGBTQ issues | Concerning incident in Newton

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Happy Pride Month, everyone! There was some big movement today in the Massachusetts legislature finally on LGBTQ issues as the House voted to approve the first major overhaul to parental rights and family law in some 40 years, recognizing and protecting many additional family structures and updating antiquated language (including for non-LGBTQ families).

Recently, one of my closest friends and collaborators from the Newton City Council, former Councilor Holly Ryan, became the head of legislative lobbying for MassEquality. Holly is one of our state’s longest-tenured human rights campaigners from the trans community, and I’m really excited to see the legislature’s logjam beginning to clear on the LGBTQ community’s policy agenda, now that Holly is on the case as a lobbyist for the cause (supported by 60 organizations in coalition, of course).

The list of items needing attention from the legislature has grown long, including among others:

• Comprehensive and inclusive sex education curriculum

• Reform to LGBTQ parentage legal rights and family law (noted above)

• Healthcare funding, insurance coverage updates, and further anti-discrimination healthcare protections on things like HIV care and gender-affirming care

• Protecting gender care clinics

• Halting attempted censorship of LGBTQ content in public libraries and schools

• Safeguards for LGBTQ seniors in senior living and nursing home care so that they’re not forced back into the closet

LGBTQ issues are where I started my political legislative activism and they’re not just relevant for one month of the year. We need a representative who understands and prioritizes this work when advocacy groups are lobbying for it.

Pride in the community

Last week, it was an honor as always to attend Newton's annual Pride Flag Raising ceremony, this year marking the 20th anniversary of marriage equality in Massachusetts. 

I remain incredibly proud of the campaign work I did in Delaware (where I attended college and then lived briefly before turning home to Newton) as part of the coalitions to pass equal marriage and trans rights bills through the legislature. I was a founding member and director of Delaware Right to Marry PAC, focusing on youth organizing in support of electing more pro-LGBTQ legislators, and eventually part of the multi-organization field campaign team.

I felt it was important as a Massachusetts native to do my part to spread our positive example on marriage equality to another state. I also had the conviction that continued injustice anywhere was a threat to justice and progress in the places that were leading the way.

It was an incredible learning experience for me, teaching me how to integrate grassroots organizing into legislative pressure campaigns effectively, to compel legislative leaders to prioritize these controversial bills faster and to persuade legislators who were still on the fence about how to vote. We started with less than majority support in the state population, but within a few years, we managed to win a campaign in their State House to recognize equal marriage rights and secure public accommodation protections for trans residents.

Those campaign years were also an endless study in how to be a good (and patient) listener in the face of sometimes quite shocking statements – in meetings, in doorstep conversations, or during phone-banking – in order to identify common ground with people who were reluctant to join the cause. And for all the challenging incidents, far more often we had great experiences in unexpected places. You can imagine the wide range of reactions we would get while gathering contact information at the Delaware State Fair at our marriage equality booth.

I am a better campaigner and elected official for having gone through nearly three years of work in the trenches on LGBTQ rights in Delaware.

Boston Pride Parade

Thanks so much to MassEquality for the open invitation to march with them in this year's Boston Pride Parade! We all had a ton of fun, and the weather was ideal.  

I mentioned earlier in this newsletter about Holly Ryan’s important work this month on the parentage act and other LGBTQ policy priorities on behalf of MassEquality. I am honored to have her personal endorsement for State Representative, a position she encouraged me to think about running for during the course of our work on the City Council together.

“Bill brings new policy ideas and creative solutions to old problems and new challenges. He has worked collaboratively with colleagues like me, community advocates, and constituency groups. I know he’ll do the same at the State House for Newton, Brookline, and the Commonwealth.” – Holly Ryan, LGBTQ+ Activist and Former City Councilor

Safety during Pride month

As elected officials, it is our responsibility to talk about both the successes and the failures in our society. Although our corner of Massachusetts is comparatively safe for LGBTQ individuals, it is not free of the rising tide of hatred, discrimination, and violence (including the cultural forces that continue to result in self-harm by people struggling to thrive).

Pride in Newton this year will not be dimmed or diminished by the bomb threat this past weekend against the Drag Queen Story Hour event at the New Art Center. Thankfully the threat was fake, and many attending families refused to be intimidated. Threats of violence are the only tactic that reactionaries have left. They value controlling the expression of others more than they value living in a free and peaceful society.

All our safety depends on the safety of all. Speak up, stand up, and fight for everyone to be able to be freely proud of who they are and live their lives. When some among us are unsafe and living in fear, and this goes unchecked, eventually others will be too. A better future for everyone depends on us having each others’ backs.

Get involved and learn more, at events and debates

If you would like to request a lawn sign (within the 12th Middlesex District) or otherwise volunteer, please fill out this form.

I have two back yard campaign meet-and-greet events coming up this month, to give voters a chance to hear from me directly about my candidacy for State Representative:

1. Former Newton Democrats Chair Shawn Fitzgibbons & Kate Wissel - a meet & greet for Bill Humphrey: Sunday June 23, 5:30-7 PM at 300 Homer St (RSVP to Shawn directly)

2. Disability Advocacy at the State Level - a conversation with Bill Humphrey, hosted by Ima Jonsdottir, Nathan Persampieri, Katherine Read, and Robert Solomon: Tuesday June 25, 6:30-7:30 PM at 156 Warren St in Newton Centre (RSVP to Ima here)

If you would like to host one (or help get people to these events), get in touch with me and my Events Coordinator Liz Hiser will help you get started.

There are also three debates in the final weeks of June. The final one will be taped at the NewTV studios for the League of Women Voters and available later, but the first two are open to the public.

1. Candidate forum on environmental issues (multiple environmental advocacy organizations): 7 PM on Thursday June 20 at Newton City Hall in the War Memorial Auditorium

2. Newton & Brookline Democratic Committees candidate forum: 7 PM on Monday June 24 at the Newton Free Library Druker Auditorium

As always, if you are able to make a contribution to support my campaign it is very helpful and greatly appreciated!

Don’t forget to check out my Endorsements page, which I will be continuing to update. If you would like to add your name to the list of community endorsers – alongside the organizational endorsements of Mass Alliance, Progressive Newton, the Mass Nurses Association, the Newton Teachers Association, the Roofers Local 33, and the Teamsters Local 122 – just get in touch!

As of today, I have knocked more than 4,500 doors myself across nearly every precinct of the district – and volunteers have knocked hundreds more. I’ve had about 1,700 conversations now with voters.

Newsletter: One Thousand Conversations

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Come say hello at my booth at Waban Village Day this coming Sunday (May 19) between 10:30 and 2:30 in Waban Square!

Since launching my campaign for State Representative in February, I have personally knocked on more than 3,200 doors and spoken to more than 1,100 voters in the 12th Middlesex District in Newton and Brookline about the state-level policy issues that they want to see more action on. I intend to keep making my way around to thousands more homes in the coming weeks and months!

With an open seat for the first time in a quarter-century, it’s a good opportunity to check in with voters on their priorities going forward. Some issues come up all the time at the doors, while others only come up occasionally but are no less important. Voters often note that Massachusetts is a wonderful state, which is doing many things right, but they believe there is still room to improve towards making this a Commonwealth for everyone and to make sure that we don’t slide backwards on any of our successes.

Voters want to get our everyday infrastructure back on track – from road paving and bridge maintenance to the reliability of the MBTA – to keep the economy humming along. They want the state to take major, urgent steps on addressing the housing crisis to stem the growing flight of young workers and major companies to states with more housing supply. They also say that it is our duty to shelter and take care of refugees and our local homeless residents until federal help arrives, and they hope that we can do this more cost-effectively than we have been. 

Voters agree overwhelmingly that the state can’t wait around for federal action on climate change because we already need to be taking steps now on flood control and other adaptations – and be helping businesses and residents accelerate our transition to a greener, cleaner economy. Voters worry about the uncontained growth of their monthly costs for health insurance and childcare. Voters are determined that Massachusetts should affirmatively expand reproductive rights and help those accessing these services from out-of-state. Voters are demanding better and more readily available mental health care and substance use treatment options, especially for the young people of Massachusetts.

And of course, many residents are asking for additional state resources to support our public schools and teachers. 

We know there are solutions to every one of these problems.

Sometimes in politics, people tell you to pick one issue to focus on. But I see it differently: It’s about having the energy, the drive, and the focus to carry that banner forward across all these issues at once. If we keep only working on one thing at a time, especially when factoring in the typical pace of government deliberation, we’re not going to get on top of these problems.

Being your state representative is a full-time responsibility for tackling full-sized challenges. We can’t treat this office like a hobby. That’s why I’m out there each day checking in directly with the voters in advance of the September 3rd Democratic primary. I want you to know how hard I will be working on your behalf in the legislature next term.

In uncertain times like these, a place like Massachusetts should be a bastion of safety. Our legislature should proudly be a Beacon for the rest of the nation to follow. We can be a Commonwealth for everyone.
 

If you would like a lawn sign for this summer, don’t forget to request one today!

Endorsement update: Mass Alliance

I’m proud to announce that I have received the 12th Middlesex District endorsement of Mass Alliance, a 501c4 coordinating coalition of nearly 30 liberal advocacy organizations and labor unions who work together to build a progressive Massachusetts and advance an aligned, comprehensive policy agenda in the legislature and at the ballot box. The issues they work on include civil rights, climate justice, economic justice, education, housing, government transparency, healthcare, reproductive rights, and worker rights – and the organization helps coordinate the member organizations to pull in the same direction and support each other on these objectives even when they fall outside their primary focus.

Mass Alliance has a very extensive vetting process to verify that not only are their endorsed candidates solid and reliable on a wide range of intersecting progressive issues but also that they have put together a trained and experienced campaign operation that can win. A Mass Alliance endorsement signals that a candidate is both politically capable and deeply informed on policy issues currently pending in the legislature. The vetting process includes interviews by representatives from a large sample of the member organizations of Mass Alliance, who want to make sure that the candidate once in elected office will be able to work well with advocacy groups to move the ball forward.

A few recent events!

Although I may be knocking more than a hundred doors a day some days, I also recently had time to stop by the Suzuki School of Newton's Multicultural Festival (Congressman Auchincloss also came by) and the 2nd Annual Newton Highlands Klezmer Dance concert at the Hyde Center, which was a toe-tapping good time and a wonderful way to re-connect Newtonians to some older Ashkenazi Jewish cultural traditions from Europe. (It also reminded me of a Klezmer music instrumental showcase concert my parents took me to as a child.)

On Wednesday afternoon, members of the City Council and School Committee had the opportunity to tour Newton's incredible, highly rigorous comprehensive Career & Technical Education system, located at Newton North. After a lunch at the culinary program's working restaurant, we visited the childcare program, the graphic design and print shop program, the drafting program, and the TV program. These talented students specialize in a field and many go on to impressive higher education programs in the same field, while others enter the workforce at an advanced level within the profession. Many of the classes teach the aspects of running a business or managing other workers in that field. Newton's CTE programming falls under Massachusetts Chapter 74 vocational education and is fully integrated with other courses outside of the specializations.

On Wednesday evening, six of the seven declared candidates for the two House districts contested in Newton appeared at the Chinese American Association of Newton candidate forum at the Newton Free Library and had the chance to hear and discuss questions and concerns from our local Chinese-American community. This is Asian-American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Newton’s Chinese community in particular has been a vital part of Newton culture, civic life, and the local economy since the late 19th century. Any of us who grew up in the Newton Public Schools in the past few decades know how much Chinese history and cultural curriculum content we were lucky to learn about in the classrooms. The 12th Middlesex House District, encompassing almost all of Route 9 across Newton and Brookline, includes a large and growing Chinese-American population, concentrated heavily along that state highway. I have worked hard to try to represent the diverse needs and interests of my Ward 5 Chinese-American constituents at the City Council and to city departments, and I look forward to doing the same at the state level.

If you have events in Newton or Brookline that you would like me to put on my calendar, reply to this email with the details, and I will try to make it happen!

Newsletter: Mass Nurses endorsement and a look at healthcare | No complacency on social progress

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Last month, I turned in my State Representative nomination signature papers and officially qualified for the 2024 state ballot. There will be a Democratic Primary on September 3rd, the day after Labor Day (so think about requesting a mail-in ballot if you have not done so yet!), and we’re waiting to see whether the declared Republican candidate has obtained enough signatures for the November ballot.

Photo of volunteers holding Humphrey campaign signs at Newton South. If you are interested in supporting my candidacy for State Representative, please consider volunteering, contributing, or spreading the word to friends and family. Together can we do great things.

Yesterday, I was delighted to join the Brookline Housing Authority Open House event, which was a wonderful community party and fair where residents inside and outside the housing developments could meet one another and share some great food. Last night, I also attended a candidate forum on housing policy, which I know is top of mind for many voters as I knock doors around the 12th Middlesex District in Newton and Brookline.

Mass Nurses Association endorsement and a look at our healthcare system

I've been honored to receive the endorsement of the Massachusetts Nurses Association in my campaign for State Representative! (They join the Roofers and Waterproofers Union Local 33, which has endorsed me as well. With the climate changing, good waterproof roofing we can count on is more important each day – and we need all our roofers to be safe up there while they're working to shelter us. Roofing is incredibly dangerous work, according to the statistics.)

A few days ago, I stopped by the Brighton community forum event (organized by MNA, 1199SEIU, and others) across from St Elizabeth's hospital, part of the collapsing privately-owned Steward Health Care network, which has literally sold the land out from under its hospitals. Many of you have probably been following this disaster in the Boston Globe, including the fatality at St. Elizabeth’s linked to repossession of a key medical device due to unpaid corporate invoices. Due to that ill-conceived land deal, a public takeover of these community hospitals is likely now the only credible path forward to prevent devastating hospital closures, which would put even more pressure on remaining hospitals in the state.

It was also my honor to spend May Day yesterday with the Brigham & Women’s Hospital MNA members and SEIU residents and interns at their informational picket about ongoing challenges the members there (including my mom) are facing in negotiating a safe and fair contract. The right to assemble and protest are foundational to American life, and I have been a consistent face at many picket lines over the years. The MNA always underscores how the work of their member nurses fits within a broader struggle for a different, better healthcare system that is better for patients and less geared toward astronomical executive compensation.

In general, the cost of healthcare services and health insurance are one of the biggest sources of the cost-of-living crisis for many Massachusetts residents. In the current system, health insurance also represents an unsustainable cost driver for many businesses and municipal governments. Health care – including mental health, dental, and vision services, as well as reproductive services such as abortion, full-spectrum pregnancy care, and gender-affirming care – is a fundamental human right that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts must secure for every resident.

We also need healthcare to be free at the point of service and people should not be on the phone arguing with their insurance company from the hospital. (Doctors also shouldn’t be having to spend all their time fighting an insurance company for prior authorization of necessary treatments.) I support a greater state or federal role in rationalizing the healthcare system and the health insurance system to provide better service, more widely, at a lower cost to patients. A progressive taxation system is a better basis for funding in the long run than the current health insurance premiums model. (This is often referred to as “Medicare For All” or “single payer.”) 

The private systems for delivering care itself are also broken for most patients (and for many healthcare professionals), and a public system would make more sense there too. In the meantime, we can always make meaningful improvements to the systems we have now to give people a better experience. Eventually, we will need to orchestrate a much bigger transition.

I also support prescription drug pricing reform for patients. No one should ever have to risk financial insolvency for the medications they need.

To meet additional demand for healthcare services by people gaining better access, the Commonwealth should invest in educating more nurses and doctors and making this an affordable educational path. 

The Commonwealth also needs to do more to support rural healthcare, to improve outcomes for nearby residents and reduce the growing pressure on the major urban hospitals. The private sector is failing to provide stable, reliable, accessible rural and community healthcare in Massachusetts and all over the United States, and this affects all of us downstream in one way or another.

No complacency on social progress in Massachusetts

Last month, I attended the MassEquality celebration of the 20th anniversary of securing and preserving marriage equality in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Some of you know that I was one of the first people working on the marriage equality campaign in Delaware, where I attended college, an effort which eventually became a successful, combined campaign for trans rights.) A key theme of the night was that we cannot be complacent about social progress even in our state.

We still haven't passed long overdue LGBTQ parental law reforms or adopted comprehensive inclusive sex education. One responsibility of state legislators is to ensure every corner of the state has secured human rights for all – even if their own districts are doing fine generally speaking. There are still municipalities trying to prohibit public Pride events, and attempted book bans are rampant in Massachusetts. One point mentioned at the event is that efforts to censor public and school library content are the fourth-highest in the nation right here in Massachusetts (more info), and there is a bill in the legislature to protect libraries from these attempted content bans.

In 1939, amid the rise of fascism globally, the American Library Association began developing a "Library Bill of Rights." Over the following decades they have expanded it further, covering and clarifying a range of issues relating to government censorship, government surveillance of patron activity, and accessibility of spaces and resources. Public libraries remain a bedrock of American civic life, freedom, and the American Dream. Massachusetts has experienced a wave of attempted censorship of its libraries, and we have a responsibility to defend our libraries when they uphold the Library Bill of Rights.

Residents of all ages and backgrounds deserve to be able to go to the public library and learn about themselves, learn about others, and even be confronted by new perspectives they might not otherwise have been exposed to.

Mara Dolan for Governor’s Council event

I am also supporting Mara Dolan for Governor’s Council, District 3 (which includes all of Newton & Brookline), and will be co-hosting a Virtual Meet & Greet on Wednesday, May 22, 2024, from 5pm – 6pm. This is a chance to meet Mara, virtually, and ask her questions. (To RSVP for the event, email Mara@MaraDolan.com.)

We need to get the word out about Mara because very few people know what the Governor’s Council of Massachusetts does even though its responsibilities are extremely important. The eight member Governor’s Council approves the Governor’s nominees for all State Court Judges and members of the Parole Board as well as approving the Governor’s recommendations for commutations and pardons. (For example, recently the Governor made the great decision to recommend blanket pardons for marijuana possession convictions.)

Mara is running against a very conservative 25-year incumbent in the Democratic primary on September 3, 2024. Mara Dolan is uniquely qualified for the position because she has been a Public Defender (representing indigent defendants in criminal and juvenile cases) for more than 17 years. To learn more about Mara, please check out her website. This event will be a great chance to hear directly from Mara and ask her questions. I hope you will be able to attend.

Earth Day Newsletter: There’s still time to limit the climate damage

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Like many people my age (33) or younger, the emergency of climate change weighs on my mind every day, not just on Earth Day. And as I have been knocking doors across the 12th Middlesex Representative District in Brookline and Newton, I’ve spoken to countless parents and grandparents who are also thinking a great deal about this crisis as their children and grandchildren grow up in this world. People of all ages and backgrounds are ready to act and looking for ways to do so.

The effect global warming is having in our communities and around the planet is clearer than ever. A significant share of the 117 million displaced persons globally are being forced from their homes by shifting climatic conditions and conflicts over the resources necessary to live. Some of them are seeking refuge here in our Commonwealth in greater numbers, which is a topic for a future newsletter.

But environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are already driving up our healthcare costs, flooding our homes, and reducing our quality of life here too. Massachusetts is one of the fastest-warming states in the country, along with the rest of the New England states, due to climate change in the Gulf of Maine. 

Urgent measures are needed at the state level to prepare our communities physically and financially for climate resilience and pollution reduction mandates.

The only thing we have to fear is inaction

The situation can seem very frightening and provoke anxiety that makes us want to check out from paying attention sometimes. But there is still time to limit the climate damage, and that is reason enough to hope and fight. Every action that our communities and society take now, whether on prevention or mitigation, still has an effect on containing the rise in temperature and the consequences of the changes already locked in. We have a responsibility to act in the face of this and not turn away, for our own sake and for the sake of the generations to follow us.

But even more encouragingly, we can see that promoting a rapid and just transition to a greener, cleaner society can address many of the things ailing us as a people. New jobs with varying educational or vocational needs, more responsible construction in developed and formerly industrial areas, less costly public health problems from plastics and particulates, less congestion from reorganized transportation networks, environmental justice for low-income and minority communities, and more await us if we choose to pursue comprehensive climate action now. Massachusetts is especially well-positioned to be a Green Technology hub for the nation.

The work so far

I am an environmentalist and climate action advocate who has previously been endorsed for Newton City Council by Sierra Club Massachusetts and Sunrise Boston for my prior activism and advocacy for cutting off the reliance on and new exploitation of fossil fuel resources. I am now Vice Chair of the Programs & Services Committee of the Newton City Council, which is one of the two committees that deals most directly with environmental impact and resilience work. Most recently, I helped shepherd through the passage of a significant compromise reform of the protection of trees on private property in Newton, and I also supported and strengthened the city’s plastic waste reduction ordinance, including adding an amendment prohibiting deliberate balloon releases.

I have also been a vocal opponent of the private natural gas utility industry’s lack of repair efforts to leaking pipes and the legacy of costly, damaged roads from its digging to expand infrastructure. Our state regulators need to do more because municipalities are not allowed to do much about this. I have supported Newton’s cutting-edge efforts to reduce and green our energy usage, but now we need additional financial support to help people and businesses with this transition, to decarbonize and weatherize their buildings. I also championed prohibiting new construction hookups to natural gas in Newton, before anyone else on the Council got on board with the idea, and eventually Newton was granted permission from the Legislature as part of the Ten Communities pilot (an effort led by activists in the Town of Brookline) to formulate a local ordinance to this effect.

There is, realistically, only so much that individual municipalities can do. It now requires a higher-level intervention by the government – and I’m not holding my breath for the Republican US House of Representatives to take speedy action, which means we need Massachusetts to do what it can for now.

Even here in Massachusetts, the kind of action we want will never happen from the top down. It will only happen when all of us organize with one another to compel our elected officials to get their act together and move faster on this. Enough ordinary people coming together for real climate justice can outweigh powerful opposing interests any day.

What’s next?

It’s time to set some binding mandates and timetables for complete electrification of Massachusetts within 10 years, keeping fossil fuels in the ground instead of the atmosphere. We can help everyone get there, but the time for kicking the can down the road and vaguely promising a distant future “net zero” is long past.

We need our heating and energy to be clean and green, in residential spaces and large buildings, and we need to electrify and build out our transportation infrastructure. We need to stop building brand-new fossil fuel infrastructure. We need regulatory reform on the approvals process for responsible renewable energy sites. And so much more! But we as a society have most of the answers already and just need to act.

To meet the challenge of sufficient climate change mitigation action in the coming years, Massachusetts should consider declaring a Climate State of Emergency and establishing a Climate Emergency Commission, staffed by a mix of climate scientists, environmental attorneys, former lawmakers, and former regulators with no affiliation to the energy industry. Such a Commission's purpose would be setting executable emergency regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, energy production, and emergency resource and response management for climate-related disasters, as well as developing critical climate action legislation for the legislature to adopt quickly.

The climate crisis is likely to transform the Massachusetts economic structure and society, regardless of our choices now. It is our responsibility to ensure this transformation is a positive one that benefits our entire Commonwealth and the people who live in it.

PS: I wish everyone who celebrates a good Passover!

State Representative Campaign Kickoff Speech (3/26/24)

I’m Bill Humphrey, and I’m running for the open 12th Middlesex State Rep seat in the September Democratic primary to succeed Ruth Balser because I believe Massachusetts should be a Commonwealth for everyone and a Beacon for the nation. I want our representative to bring new policy ideas to restore the collective promise of the American Dream.

I’m the former Chair of Progressive Newton, a third-term Newton City Councilor, and a fifth-generation Newton resident.

As a Councilor, I’ve been known for my responsive constituent services and communications – and for building coalitions on the Programs & Services Committee and the Finance Committee to reach deals on controversial issues.

I’ve also been known as a longtime advocate for people with disabilities and for racial justice. I was a leader on the first campaign for marriage equality in Delaware, where I went to college, and I worked on the successful legislative campaign there for trans rights.

Here in my native Massachusetts, I worked as the Political Committee Chair for the Mass Sierra Club and made a lot of connections on Beacon Hill through those efforts.

I’m also from a union family. My mother is a Mass Nurses Association member at the Brigham.

So let’s talk a little bit about this campaign and the issues at stake.

I’ve been knocking doors almost every day for the past month to talk to people about the issues on their minds this year.

An open seat is the perfect time to look at where we are, and think about where we are going. We have 160 state representatives, and all but a couple dozen of those are Democrats.

So if we want things to move in a new direction, an open-seat primary election in a strongly Democratic district is where we make that happen.

The legislature has made some really great strides recently on issues such as criminal justice reform and reproductive freedom, and I know we can do more in the next term on both of these. They’re also working on stronger gun laws, which is great.

But let’s look at the big picture, too, because when I go door to door I hear a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about the nation’s future.

We are facing some incredible challenges right now as a Commonwealth and as a country. We can acknowledge that first.

New England is one of the fastest-warming areas of the US, and we’re seeing flooding just about every month now. My generation and the people even younger than me feel this climate crisis in our bones.

Many residents of all ages feel frustrated every day with crumbling roads and struggling public transit. It can be demoralizing!

The cost-of-living has reached a state of emergency for so many families. Groceries, health insurance premiums, student loan payments, childcare costs, and eldercare costs all add up. Student debt and unaffordable or inaccessible public higher education opportunities are dragging down our economy and affecting people’s life decisions. But the cost burden of housing is one of the biggest of all.

In the Boston area, the cost of renting or buying even a modest home can be prohibitive for many residents. Housing is a human right. The Commonwealth is experiencing a serious cost of housing crisis, affecting the middle class, working class, and the very poor.

Meanwhile, our current system for emergency shelter is being stretched to the limits as we work to welcome those escaping conflict and climate change in other places.

We see Republicans attacking fundamental human rights for our brothers and sisters who are LGBTQ, who are non-white, who need access to abortion.

From climate change to cost-of-living, from refugees to reproductive rights, and from attacks on our humanity to attacks on our democracy, I know it can feel very dark.

But I remain filled with hope and filled with a passion for changing the things we find unacceptable.

I’m a progressive Democrat. We know there are solutions to every one of these problems. We actually believe in the power of the government to serve the public and to lift up those among us who are struggling the most.

We understand that a working class family with strong union representation is an empowered family on the path to a secure life.

We know the climate emergency is real and that we need mandates and financial support to help people move fast enough to follow the scientific imperatives. We need the government to invest in flooding resilience to protect our residents from the mounting effects of this climate change.

We know that universal healthcare is the rational, cost-effective way to get all our residents the care they need. We need mental health and substance use treatment available everywhere right away when it’s needed – not weeks later.

We recognize that it’s long past time to reintroduce real public funding for affordable housing construction, and we understand the need for housing stability measures to keep residents in their homes and in their communities.

Simply put, we need new affordable housing in our communities to house public employees, service workers, the lowest-income populations, and the middle class. Every community needs more housing available locally, if we don’t want to force long, congested commutes on most workers.

Speaking of which, we need to and we can fix the T and fix the rest of our crumbling infrastructure. That begins with viewing these as integral public goods. My father spent his whole career as a public transportation planner, and the infrastructure issue is in my DNA.

We also see a public responsibility for childcare and eldercare. We want our kids to have the support to thrive here. We want to make it financially possible for our seniors to be able to remain in our communities and part of our civic life for as long as they can – and then to have the support they need when they can’t live independently anymore.

We believe in a vibrant public education system in every zip code with quality school buildings, a safe learning environment, and excellent academics. We see the value in investing in a fantastic public higher education system and vocational training system accessible to all. We know it’s time to wipe out more student debt.

We know that a diverse and welcoming society that guarantees basic human rights for all people, of any age or background or ability or means, is a stronger society that can weather anything together.

There are a lot of problems, but there are so many solutions. They’re not always easy, but we’re not starting from scratch either. It’s about listening to people telling us about what they’re facing and really hearing their ideas on how to make life better here in Massachusetts.

Sometimes in politics, people tell you to pick one issue to focus on. But my friends in government know I see it differently: It’s about having the energy, the drive, and the focus to carry that banner forward across all these issues at once. If we keep only working on one thing at a time, we’re not going to get on top of these problems.

In uncertain times like these, a place like Massachusetts should be a bastion of safety. Our legislature should proudly be a Beacon for the rest of the nation to follow. We can be a Commonwealth for everyone.

My family raised me with the understanding that public service to our community is an obligation for life. I’m Bill Humphrey, and I’m asking for your support on September 3rd for State Representative in the 12th Middlesex in Newton & Brookline. I’m asking for you to volunteer for me before then, or to make a contribution if you can.

But thank you so much for coming and for listening to me tonight, and I’m looking forward to answering questions.

Newsletter: Hurt and Healing in Our Communities

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This week’s newsletter discusses several very challenging things that have recently happened in our communities. 

And as a reminder about this coming week: Please join me at my campaign kickoff on Tuesday, March 26, at 7 PM at 19 Chestnut Terrace in Newton Centre to hear my vision for our Commonwealth as a candidate for State Representative to succeed retiring Rep. Ruth B. Balser. This event is entirely free to attend and undecided voters are welcome to join us to hear me speak on the issues or ask me questions on issues that matter to you. Please just RSVP in advance to help us get a head count.

Another tragic fire today

For the third time in just four months, Newton has experienced a fatal fire this morning. A duplex on Walnut Street in Ward 6 near Route 9 caught fire today and, tragically, one person inside did not make it out alive. The Newton Fire Department made heroic efforts to go into the burning building to try to make a rescue, but that person had already succumbed. All other occupants of the building were able to escape unaided. My thoughts are with the loved ones of the victim and with the displaced households who find themselves without a home today.

Newton Fire Department Chief Gentile issued the following public service announcement reminder in the aftermath: "We want to urge all our residents to have working smoke alarms on every level of your home. And if you hear those alarms sound, please — get out, stay out, and close the doors on the way out.”

Anti-semitic incidents

By now, many Newton residents have heard of recent anti-semitic vandalism incidents at private homes, including most prominently the destruction of a display supporting the Israeli hostages taken on October 7th last year and an instance of a rock being thrown through a home window. Such actions are unacceptable and Newton will not tolerate them. No one should be made to feel unsafe in our community. The City of Newton and the Newton Police Department have responded swiftly to these incidents and are taking them very seriously. Investigations are ongoing. This kind of incident can only serve to diminish our common humanity by promoting fear instead of a shared sense of community. Newton remains a safe community where neighbors look out for one another, and our strength is in the deep bonds across the community we have here. We must reach out and strengthen our ties to our fellow residents. Everyone is keeping the hostages in our thoughts and hoping for their immediate safe return, and no act of vandalism could change that. Wherever we might live in the world, all people deserve to live in peace and safety. I encourage everyone to have even more conversations with our neighbors to keep building a sense of trust and security here in Newton.

Community Iftar dinner

It was such a privilege to attend Newton's first official Community Ramadan Iftar dinner this past week at American Legion Post 440. It was a huge turnout, including a supermajority of my City Council colleagues. Thank you for welcoming us and for such delicious food!

Our Muslim and Arab neighbors of all ages in recent months have been feeling a level of fear, pain, and isolation unlike anything since 9/11, and they have not had the institutional support from our communities that they need. To help address this, a group of Newton Muslims partnered with the Harmony Foundation to put on a Ramadan fast-breaking gathering for our communities, featuring readings and discussions of our shared, cross-cultural connections and how much more we have in common with one another than differentiates us. It is also the type of wonderful cultural and community bonding event that we should have been holding years ago already. 

Dialogue and mutual understanding are the only path to social harmony. We know that a diverse and welcoming society is a stronger society that can weather anything together.

Newsletter: My kickoff on March 26; electrification; recent events in the community; NPD seeking resident participation; and more

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It has been a busy several weeks as I got going on my door-knocking in Brookline, asking voters about their top priorities for state action. This newsletter covers the push to electrify, a number of upcoming and recent specific events I will be or have attended, as well as looking at a recent change by the Newton City Council to reduce hate speech incidents.
 

Electrification progress

I wanted to give folks a quick heads-up that the Newton City Council’s Zoning & Planning Committee will continue work tonight at 7 PM on a local ordinance requiring electrification of all new construction and substantial renovations  in conjunction with the City's recent conditional approval by the State Department of Energy Resources (DOER) for participation in the pilot Ten Communities Program on electrification, which originated with efforts in Brookline.

Countless activists, staff, and Councilors have worked to get us to this point over the past few years. When I was running for City Council for the first time in 2019, many of my doorstep conversations were discussing with residents the idea of a ban on new natural gas hookups to residential and commercial buildings. Some of my Council colleagues initially felt that position was a little bit “out there,” but as I like to say, “I might be ahead of the curve, but I’m not that far ahead of the curve” and I kept banging that drum on each new Grant of Location petition for new future stranded asset infrastructure – until we got to this point where my starting position is about to become city policy. My own home went all-electric last year finally, too.

Newton Police seeking community participation

Councilor Martha Bixby and I have signed up to attend a federally-funded community relations-building program with the Newton Police Department later this week. The Newton Police are looking for additional members of the public to attend a session. It is several hours per session at various locations and an opportunity to learn more about modern community policing. If you are available, sign up!

Other recent learning opportunities

It was great to stop by the 200th Anniversary of Braille event at the Newton Free Library Children's Room this past weekend! I got my name written in Braille on an older machine, and I also got to see how newer equipment is linking Braille and digital screens.

On March 3rd, I was able to attend The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization's event in Roxbury, advocating on affordable/public housing policy and assistance to residents returning to society from incarceration. The audience for this event was more than 1,700 people.

At the end of February, I attended the Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers annual Legislative Budget Forum at the State House! One key theme was how housing policy is intertwined with disability services because it is so difficult for many human service workers to be able to afford to live in the communities where their clients live, and many clients also need a range of housing opportunity types and assistance.

If there is an upcoming event you think I should attend to learn more about a key policy area or a constituency in Newton and Brookline, please let me know, and I will add it to my calendar if I can.

My State Rep Campaign Kickoff: March 26 at 7 PM

Join Newton and Brookline residents, environmental activists, LGBTQ and racial justice advocates, and former City Councilors Alicia Bowman, Holly Ryan, and Brenda Noel at my campaign kickoff on Tuesday, March 26, at 7 PM at 19 Chestnut Terrace in Newton Centre to hear my vision for our Commonwealth as a candidate for State Representative to succeed retiring Rep. Ruth B. Balser.

This event is not a fundraiser (i.e. entirely free to attend!), and undecided voters are welcome to join us to hear me speak on the issues or ask me questions on issues that matter to you. Please just RSVP in advance to help us get a head count!

In a place like Massachusetts, an open seat Democratic primary for the State House is not just about who we are now, but about what direction we want to be going in the future. It's about being a beacon for the rest of the nation, putting our highest values into practice, and becoming the best version of ourselves that we have always wanted to be as a society. It's about becoming a Commonwealth for everyone. 

It's true that it takes time to change policy, and you can only do that if you recognize and understand the urgency of the problems in the first place. Change only happens when people speak up and fight for it. 

Nothing would ever get done better in this country without the people who don't accept the status quo and say it's time to do things differently. 

So, please join us at my kickoff event and help us represent a wide range of perspectives and new ideas for a better, stronger Massachusetts!

Want to know more? Check out this profile of my candidacy at Newton's Fig City News site.

Mara Dolan for Governor’s Council: Event this Week

This year I am also supporting public defender Mara Dolan to be elected as our new Governor’s Councillor, the position that votes to confirm judicial nominees among other functions. 

This Thursday, March 14, join Ambassador Barry and Eleanor White, Steve Grossman along with the Newton Host Committee Paul Guzzi, Evan Falchuk, Lynn Weissberg, Jay Harney, Dennis Kanin, Laurence Tribe, and Newton City Councilors Vicki Danberg, Becky Grossman, Bill Humphrey, Andrea Kelley, Alison Leary, as well as Alicia Bowman, Allan Cole, Deb Crossley, and Holly Ryan at a fundraiser in support of Mara Dolan. She will be on the same ballot as I am, on September 3rd.

New cybersecurity decision at the Newton City Council

I commend the decision at the end of February by the new City Council leadership to adopt the longstanding recommendations of Newton's IT Department to improve cybersecurity for our meetings by implementing webinar format at all Committee meetings to prevent so-called 'zoom-bombing' incidents by bad actors. 

For four years, the previous Council Leadership declined to adopt these repeatedly recommended protections, despite repeated anti-Semitic and anti-Black hate speech incidents on Zoom, such as those once again recently experienced at Council committee meetings, which finally prompted the change. 

We must take hate speech and identity abuse of any kind incredibly seriously, even when they are typically by random individuals or groups not connected to Newton. There is no excuse for having allowed these provocations to continue unchecked for so long. 

At fully in-person meetings, members of the public already would also not be permitted to take control of sound systems or presentation screens without the authorization of the staff and Councilors during defined public comment opportunities, and there is no infringement of free speech to prevent these outside cyberattacks.

No one should have to be subjected to this malicious behavior when trying to view or participate in civic and community meetings in Newton, and use of new technology does not change that.

I'm running for State Representative!

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Massachusetts State Representative Ruth B. Balser, elected in 1998, currently representing the 12th Middlesex District of southern Newton and southern Brookline, announced on Friday that she will not be seeking re-election this fall. I received a great deal of encouragement over the past few days, and I wanted to let you know that I have decided to run in the September Democratic primary election to succeed her.

Why I’m Running

An open seat in the Legislature is always a wonderful opportunity to take stock and look at the progress we have made, and then to turn our eyes to the future to think about what we can do better to make Massachusetts a Commonwealth for everyone. 

Serving my Ward 5 Newton constituents on the City Council over the past several years – and knocking on well over 10,000 doors in that span – has been the most rewarding time in my career so far. Yet at every turn, we find ourselves confronted with problems that require solutions beyond the level of local government. These include things like housing, healthcare, and the climate crisis, among many others. 

I’ve learned a great deal about how to navigate a legislative body, what leadership and teamwork should look like, and how our government really interacts with residents in their everyday lives. 

I have a vision for a brighter tomorrow for everyone in Massachusetts, and I’m excited to share that with Newton and Brookline voters in the 12th Middlesex District. More importantly, I can’t wait to hear you share with me your ideas, your hopes, and your struggles, as I go door-to-door between now and the September 3rd Democratic primary.

Who I Am

I am a third-term Newton City Councilor with a career of public service. I’m a millennial living in a multi-generation household, a fifth-generation Newton resident, and a public school graduate.

I come from a family with many generations of public service to the United States, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Middlesex County. My mother is a union nurse and my father is a retired public transit planner. As a young child, I grew up in a multi-generational household that also included my elderly great-aunt (and one grandmother living around the corner). This gave me an unusual firsthand perspective on aging in place issues and caregiver challenges that many people in my generation did not experience until much later in life.

Like my family, I believe passionately in the power of good government and public works to make society more socially just and equitable. Outside of the Council, I have also served as the Chair of Progressive Newton and am a board member of the Friends of Hemlock Gorge.

You can learn more about me on my website at the full bio page.

My key issues

I am launching my campaign with a comprehensive platform page on my website covering the following 14 major issue areas that are on the horizon for the Legislature and which I feel are very relevant to residents of our district:

• Housing

• Healthcare

• Public Childcare and Education

• Eldercare and Long-term Disability Care

• Public Transit

• Mental Health and Substance Use

• Environmental Action

• Reproductive Freedom

• Labor and Economic Justice

• Gun Control

• Criminal Justice Reform

• Human Rights, Inclusion, and Accessibility

• Arts, Culture, and Historic Preservation

• State-Municipal Relations

(I would welcome feedback as well on topics you think I left out or points I could expand upon more!)

The 12th Middlesex District

The 12th Middlesex Massachusetts House District consists of Ward 5, Ward 6, Ward 7 Precinct 1, and Ward 8 of the city of Newton and Precincts 5, 13A, 14, and 15 of the town of Brookline.

I know the Newton neighborhoods of this district very well and have already been a frequent presence on the doors. I have some familiarity with some of the Brookline areas, but I have also been reaching out to friends of friends in Brookline politics to make sure I get up to speed on the needs of those neighborhoods too. What neighborhood issues or concerns with the state do you think I should know about the district that I might not be aware of yet?

Thank you to Rep. Balser

Finally, I have to acknowledge the tremendous work of the person I am hoping to succeed. Thank you to State Representative Ruth Balser for your decades of service to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Newton Board of Aldermen! You have been an invaluable voice on re-framing the public policy response to mental health struggles and you have been a reliable force in Massachusetts Democratic Party politics (and a tireless fundraiser beyond!).

I also learned from Rep. Balser, before I was even old enough to vote, the value in an elected official emailing back constituents whenever possible, no matter how small the issue (like fencing on Echo Bridge), and I have always tried to do that myself in office. I also try to prioritize constituent services work above all else, based on her example there as well.

Contributions welcomed

I am fortunate to be entering this campaign with a sizable warchest so I can get started right away, and my campaign team was ready to roll without any delay as my updated website will attest, but I will need to raise much more in the coming weeks and months to cover the costs of communicating with a larger district effectively. I would welcome any contributions you would be willing to make! You can donate online or send a check to the PO Box mentioned at the link. 

If you are not able to donate, I completely understand, but I hope to earn your support however you can offer it!

That’s all for now from me (and if you’re reading this outside the district, I will probably not be emailing again for a while, but I wanted to give you the good news as I begin this next chapter of my political career) and I look forward to getting out on the doors before the end of February. I’d bet I can hit 10,000 this year again. What do you think?

Newton educator strike is over after 15 days

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The educator strike in Newton is over after more than two weeks and 11 days of canceled classes, ending with a new contract that requires more social workers, modernizes the parental and family leave policy, significantly improves compensation for the incredible (and utterly essential) school aides, protects teacher prep time, and won a raise for teachers. This contract is an investment in our students and their learning environment to make the next few years easier after several very difficult years in the schools.

It is a tragedy that this bargaining was not accomplished at any point in the past 17 months through the normal channels and that it came to this. I know the past two weeks have been incredibly stressful and challenging for everyone, especially students and parents. The past few years have chronically been unimaginably stressful for those in the school buildings, and it had been getting worse. But, of course, the strike was acutely very hard for the students and every passing day was a greater, growing crisis. 

Listening

I publicly supported the decision of 98% of the members to choose to strike because after a year of conversations with the union’s leaders and rank and file members (many of whom I have remained in touch with since I was myself an NPS student), I felt that they were not being heard on the state of emergency inside the schools, for both the adults and the kids, and that the lack of meaningful bargaining from Newton was indicative of a serious failure to listen and a massive breakdown in respect. This disagreement was always about so much more than any cost-of-living percentage points. They would not have voted to strike if it were an ordinary contract discussion. I felt strongly that the NTA was taking this step for the students and for the future of our city, not against the kids or against our community.

I also believed that our incredible educators deserved to have the public support of at least one elected representative of the community when exercising a last-resort option, and I believed that – given how many parents and other residents supported the teachers and aides in taking this step – the voters also deserved to have someone speak out in support of this position, even if not every voter shared my view.

Urgency this week

Nevertheless, I was anxious to make sure it was not dragged out any longer than absolutely necessary to reach a fair contract and a contract that addressed the student mental health crisis. Unfortunately it was also apparent to me that there would simply not be a deal if the strike ended without reaching one first.

I called Mike Zilles, the president of the NTA, late on Thursday afternoon to check on the status of talks (by that point it was very close), and I encouraged our union educators' bargaining team to move with all possible haste towards a successful resolution of the contract. He was in full agreement on that point and noted that he understood the extreme urgency of getting the kids back in class as fast as possible. I know every educator in the union felt the same.

Although some residents had begun to worry about how long the final deal elements were taking to hammer out, it was essential to close the final gap and iron out the last details on the return-to-work agreement to help begin putting the pieces back together. That was achieved over the course of today. 

What’s next?

Classes will resume on Monday. I hope the students in the meantime learned a little bit more about workplace democracy and organized labor through the course of this situation.

Now we need to bring the community together again and move forward. There is a better way of doing things, and it doesn't have to play out as it did this time. But it's time to learn from this and to turn the page. It's time to grow and build – not to shrink and fade. Newton can be a community for everyone. Onwards towards a new chapter.

Second-longest educator strike in Massachusetts in a century

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Correction: An earlier version of this newsletter referred to this as the longest educator strike in Massachusetts in a century, based on a local TV news station article. That record, in fact, belongs to the infamous Franklin Public Schools strike of 1977, which lasted nearly a month and featured brutal jailing and fining of many individual teachers.

The educators of the Newton Teachers Association will remain out on strike tomorrow, for a seventh school day. On Friday, the judge relented on the contempt fines on the union in view of the slow movements by the School Committee and NPS to bargain, and seemingly recognized that breaking the union with a judicial gavel and forcing everyone back to work against their will is probably not conducive to functional operations of a school system.

I would reiterate also that we have to admit that 98% of NTA members did not vote to go on strike purely over some percentage point differences in contract adjustments, however important these are, because if they had felt like they were being respectfully listened to and heard on the evolving conditions inside the buildings and supported on these mounting emergencies, they would probably have been more open to less drastic action while negotiations continued. This has been building for years.

The crawling pace of negotiation by Newton during the strike has hardened that determination of the members to remain outside until they are taken seriously and supported as professionals, for the sake of the students they are trying to help as educators.

Ever-changing lines in the sand and circular logic

The latest explanation on the management side for the impasse on settling a fair contract is that preventing potential layoffs, either in NPS or city departments, is an absolute line in the sand.

Up until now, looking back over the past several years or the past decade and a half or the past quarter-century, I have never recalled a time when a risk of layoffs was considered in Newton to be an unacceptable, unthinkable outcome. The steady trickle of layoffs in NPS over the past several years, despite federal revenue replacement dollars intended to help mitigate or repair pandemic damage, would certainly point to the opposite.

That is not to imply that layoffs would be no problem, since things have indeed been slashed to the bone already (after years of listless and half-hearted political effort to engage with and mobilize taxpayers), but merely to observe that this is a puzzling, novel hard limit on contract negotiations. I have also not heard anything promised anywhere to suggest if, for example, the existing contract were to be extended without any modifications or raises, that there would be zero layoffs this coming fiscal year, as part of this newfound commitment to permanent employment.

We are told, rather elliptically, in nightly communiqués that Newton cannot sign any contract that could result in layoffs now due to insufficient funding, and that we cannot provide additional funding now because at some point it might run out and force layoffs later.

In my previous newsletter, I addressed why the needs are likely to be less great in the future, even if we hit a wall with available financial resources (although even then, there are positive trends and we have certain resources we could use in a pinch to bridge a one-year gap here or there, prior to the end of the pension pre-funding crunch period we are currently experiencing).

But also it would at least be more comprehensible to the residents to make future cuts after we have used the resources we have, than to make cuts now when we do have resources still. (This was a key factor in the defeat of the override referendum last year.)

And even if we achieved a zero-staff-reductions contract through caps on compensation, simply put, as we look at a mass-membership organization, one cannot compel people to remain on the job for less than they are willing to accept in compensation, and one cannot replace even a significant fraction of 1,700 teachers and aides quickly and inexpensively (let alone with good hires). Let us be realistic, not fanciful.

There is no bargaining scenario here where we as a city or school district get everything that we want in a school system (especially in personnel numbers and types) with zero change in funding allocation levels and no change in projected cost growth. As I have said before, the public education profession is not a recreational hobby.

Hard choices

Some politicians like to think of themselves as making the hard choices that are widely unpopular. Right out of the gate we ought to have a red flag above this political self-conception in a democracy because governance is supposed to be based on popular consent and not opposed to it.

Secondly, if a choice is necessary but difficult, this is where it is essential to have strong, sustained political communications that respect the voters and offer them some scenarios and options. Failure to sell the necessity of a decision is typically what makes something a hard choice in politics, because people don’t understand why you are doing it or prioritizing things that way. The other typical factor in making something a hard choice politically is usually the presence of materially powerful opposing formations or blocs whose interests are directly affected by such a decision, and that can only be overcome through negotiation (or a destructive showdown with public approval), not pretending the countervailing power bloc does not exist.

Thirdly, while it is true that there are often conflicting options that both have downsides, which can be construed as a hard choice, we have to consider who is being harmed the most by choosing one or the other. If children in school are facing a possible lifetime of negative consequences from academic under-performance due to lack of support, unacknowledged mental health crises, or unaddressed behavioral and emotional problems, that is more important than – for example – a pothole, even when the potholes rank higher in an opinion poll of problems to solve. Although I reject the premise of scarcity, if we were to accept that premise for the sake of argument, that is an extremely easy call. And the public majority agrees with this prioritization when the two are juxtaposed instead of mentioned in isolation from one another.

And in order to address those children’s needs, we do actually need skilled, experienced professionals, and that costs money. To quote a former Council colleague of mine, “We can’t run our school system with nothing but 24-year-olds who live with six roommates in Brighton and are just working in the schools for a couple years before they move on to their ultimate career.”

See you tomorrow.


If you are interested in donating to support the NTA strike fund, that link is here. 

Breaking the teachers’ union would mean breaking the school district

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This morning I joined the Angier Elementary teachers outside, despite the pouring rain, as I have every morning since last Friday. Their co-workers are doing the same all over the city. 

Newton educator strike pickets are going strong over a week into the strike, whether the weather is nearly zero degrees or pouring rain. By virtue of this experience, and sharing their stories with each other every day, this union is now a galvanized force of members who will never be pushed around again.
 

Some parents (or elected officials) might be hoping that the union members call off the strike and meekly return to work as if nothing ever happened. They wouldn’t be expecting that outcome if they had spoken to these educators at the pickets, standouts, and rallies…or even if they had simply spoken to them with any depth in the past few years before this strike broke out. This strike was the result of going unheard for so long, and now that it is under way, they’re getting even more opportunities to hear from each other about the problems.

The email from Mayor Fuller on the evening of Thursday Jan 25 contained two alarming points in quick succession: 

1. “We will not sign a contract with the union that would result in cuts to programs, services or staff in our schools and/or other City departments.”

2. “...the Court will hold a hearing tomorrow [Friday] to address ‘a more meaningful approach to ensuring compliance with the law.’”

Taken together, the implication is that there will be no negotiation by the Mayor and somehow the de jure force of the legal system will erase the de facto force of a mass-membership organization, where around 1,700 individual members voted of their own free will to go on strike.

A union defeat would be a school district defeat

In the unlikely event that the Court is actually able to end the strike involuntarily, such rhetoric remains completely detached from the reality of trying to run a school system. Each passing day is increasing the level of anger from the educators, who were already upset enough with their working conditions and contract to stop work. Newton already had gained such a poor reputation in recent years with potential hires that it was becoming difficult to fill key positions and definitely not quickly.

If the union is “broken” and the strike forced to end, there would be a mass exodus of employees from the Newton Public Schools in such significant numbers in such a short period that they would be difficult if not impossible to replace not only for this school year but also the next school year. Anyone who had the immediate option to leave for greener pastures or was already thinking of retiring would do so. Others would be making plans to get out as quickly as they could. A widespread shortage of young, new educators would make it very difficult to fill posts – and even more so with no willingness to pay extra to fill the vacancies fast.

There is actually a point of compensation (and treatment) below which teachers and aides simply will not work or do the job and will not be replaceable. Announcing that you flatly will not sign a contract at or above that point, even if it meant layoffs or cuts to programming/services, means the end of public schools here in Newton, regardless of what a judge might say.

A court victory over the union – or calling the police on union members, as happened yesterday – would be the most hollow, Pyrrhic victory imaginable.

Granting ourselves 4 years of breathing room to solve the problem

One point I have been making since last August (publicly, but since March in private) is that the CIty’s financial situation is a direct function of the political situation, and those two things cannot be separated. Our public money comes from public confidence, both in the growth rate of property values and in any possibility of tax overrides by referendum.

Earlier this week, the School Committee agreed to negotiate a contract for four years instead of just three, which would have ended in the middle of the next Mayoral election, unhelpfully for both sides. This move is not necessarily a breakthrough, but it is potentially useful for allowing us to reframe this away from the peculiar notion from the management side that anything agreed to now in this contract is a permanent decision from now until the sun goes out.

Imagine that we make a decision to buy ourselves four fiscal/academic years of time to try to address the current crisis. What might we get done in four years and what might be different then, which makes this distinct from just kicking the can down the road?

In four more years, we will have held a Mayoral election and could potentially organize a referendum on a narrower and smaller property tax override, having had ample opportunity for voters to weigh in on the direction of the city and what its most critical services are. This way if we were still under serious fiscal pressure, voters would have more of a chance to weigh in on where the balance should lie, rather than it being a top-down guesswork effort.

In four more years, school enrollment is projected to have dropped quite a bit more, easing significant pressure on long-range staffing needs in the schools.

In four more years, with a temporary surge in funding in the interim, children struggling with learning issues, mental health challenges, or behavioral and emotional development relating to the pandemic should be back on track.

In four more years, we could have a plan in place to make other changes elsewhere in the budget to restructure services more efficiently or more cost-effectively, rather than threatening to scramble a bunch of cuts at random.

A cliff or a surge?

Mayor Fuller has said she is not willing to create a “fiscal cliff” where expenditures are surged for several years and then suddenly cut back when funding runs out. But the crisis in the schools is now and not permanent, and the enrollment levels are peaking now, not later.

It is very possible to envision a scenario where we do not need as much funding in the next contract cycle as we do now.

So, is it possible to buy that breathing room and give the community more of a chance to understand the fiscal picture and prioritize services, while also reducing the level of crisis? 

Yes, we have enough funds to create a bridge grant for several years without cutting back on other services or instituting immediate mass layoffs. A smaller bridge grant has already been proposed to boost the allocation for one year, but this one would need to be larger – which accurately reflects the scale and duration of the post-pandemic recovery process for our schoolchildren.

It would be very important for the elected officials and stakeholders to use the intervening years to engage the community more directly on how money should be spent and prioritized in the future, and community members should be organizing with each other to build wider and more durable coalitions that can advocate for funding their priority areas.

The top-down approach is not working and leads directly to this type of showdown and crisis.

Post-script

The other 23 City Councilors signed a new letter without me yesterday. I was not even given it for review this time. It includes a number of points that do not make much sense and again seems to float abstractly in space untethered from evolving events on the ground. I understand that some Councilors think I have put “personal feelings” above the good of the city, but I would simply contend that I’m actually analyzing the practical power dynamics of the situation correctly and not trying to stamp my foot on theoretical principle, unlike some people. This is about power more than it is about political ideas. If anyone in this situation is howling into the wind fruitlessly in support of an idea of how the world should be versus how it actually is, it’s probably not me…

If you are interested in donating to support the NTA strike fund, that link is here. 

A message from Kevin Yang, NSHS Senior Class President, on the ongoing educator strike

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This afternoon, Ward 5 resident and NSHS Class of 2024 class president Kevin Yang delivered a speech outside of Newton’s Ed Center, where negotiations are continuing extremely slowly between the School Committee and the Newton Teachers Association, which remains on strike going into a fourth day of canceled classes.

As we ponder the unsustainable disinvestment in public services and unsustainable treatment of our teachers and aides, as we ruminate on the unsustainably regressive municipal taxation system from a bygone age that our Commonwealth has yoked us to, we can read Kevin’s words and be cheered to know there is no structural deficit of support for our educators from students and parents in this community, even as some of our elected officials are working overtime to try to create permanent bad blood after this ends.

Since Kevin is a great speaker and writer and a constituent in my ward, I asked him to send me the prepared text to distribute to my email list:
 

######################################

Good afternoon, my name is Kevin Yang. I’m a senior from Newton South High School and one of the students who littered South and North’s halls with orange pamphlets.

Yesterday morning, I went on a long run. Wanting to take a trip down memory lane, I ran a route that weaved through Newton’s many elementary schools. I first ran past Mason-Rice, then Angier, Bowen, Pierce, and finally my alma mater, Countryside. Yet, as I passed these elementary schools, I had difficulty connecting my childhood with the reality of the present day. Rather than seeing these schools bustling with energy, children playing tag on the playgrounds, TAs shepherding kids down the halls, I saw teachers outside, single file, signs hung around their necks, cow bells ringing in hand. In freezing, almost sub-zero weather, my educators stood there. 

This is in stark contrast to what I grew up with. I grew up seeing these passionate, lively adults teaching classrooms of curious, wide-eyed children. I grew up with mentors who would run up to the board to explain why y=mx+b, or teachers who plastered their walls with motivational sayings or started every morning with a physics-related meme.

Yet rather than seeing my educators standing at the front of the class, breathing life into their rooms, I saw a sea of signs, their faces now hidden.

And this is what disheartens me the most about the current state of our schools. It’s not the moldy ceilings of South’s science department, the 30+ student calculus classes, or even the various cut extracurriculars. It’s my school committee’s and Mayor Fuller’s continued disrespect, and dehumanization of my educators.

Because these teachers that stand behind me---the Unit A to Unit E members---they aren’t some expense on a spreadsheet. They aren’t some droppable fraction of a “Full-Time Equivalent” or the first place to reach when you need to cut costs. They’re aspiring parents, ambitious scholars, laid-back mentors, and community leaders. These people are my educators. 

In a crowd, it’s easy to lose sight of these brilliant professionals. It’s easy to look past the day-in, day-out dedication of Newton educators. But in this crowd, I still see the very mentors and TAs who taught me to solve problems with honesty and to approach hardship with kindness and dignity.

So, Mayor Fuller, as we all stand here for another day of rallies, I have a message for you.

If all you see of my teachers are bodies in a crowd or a complication to the city's budget, then it's time to think again; these educators who stand before me are the smartest, strongest, and bravest people I know. If you don’t know that, Mayor Fuller, then it’s time for you to go back to school.

######################################

Kevin, thanks for sharing your speech with our community. (And thank goodness for First Amendment protections for our students!)

See you tomorrow morning.

If you are interested in donating to support the NTA strike fund, that link is here. 

City cites 1919 anti-Bolshevik law on police strikes to explain the importance of school

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I joined more of my former teachers on the picket lines this morning, and some of them commented that things inside the schools have been in a long, steady slide since the failure of the 2008 override referendum and subsequent round of budget cuts. For example, this year a sticking point has been on the issue of teacher absences (usually for serious family or medical emergencies) and lack of substitute coverage, but high school substitutes were significantly cut back to almost nothing after that 2008 referendum. I remember because I was a senior in high school when that changed.

The Newton Teachers Association members feel passionately that they are doing what they are doing right now for the sake of the schoolchildren and their wellbeing in the face of diktats and demands from people who aren’t in the classrooms and don’t seem to grasp the reality of the level of emergency conditions in each school building daily since they reopened in the pandemic.

Today, a judge imposed absurd, if somewhat predictable, escalating court fines on the union if they persist in their strike. The fines began today at $25,000 and will double with every day’s renewal of fines going forward, quickly putting each day’s new fine well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The NTA members were aware of this likely outcome when they voted 98% in favor of going on strike anyway, which should tell you something. If you are interested in donating to support the NTA strike fund to help pay their fines, that link is here.

Is NPS bargaining in good faith even now?

I’ll quote here from Ryan Normandin, a math and physics teacher on the bargaining team for the NTA:

“For sixteen months, we have asked to support our students with a social worker in every building. Superintendent Anna Nolin has said in her entry plan that she wants the same. SO WHY WON’T THEY DO IT?

For sixteen months, we have asked for a living wage for our Unit C professionals. Paying new hires less than thirty thousand dollars a year is an insult to the vital work they do supporting our students. Everyone knows that they need to be compensated. SO WHY WON’T THEY DO IT?

For sixteen months, we have asked them for humane, modern parental leave. We believe that new parents should have 60 days to spend with the newest members of their family. But the School Committee has refused even to remove language from their proposal that only gives parental leave to primary parents. Not only is this language out of the dark ages, it is illegal in Massachusetts. Everyone knows this language needs to be removed. So I ask again: WHY WON’T THEY DO IT?

For sixteen months, we have asked the school committee to adequately staff our schools, our classrooms, so that our students are safe: physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Imagine – though many of you don’t need to – having to sit across from a family with a student who you know needs services, and knowing that they are not getting those services because there aren’t enough behavioral therapists, and the district isn’t willing to put down the money. We have students on IEP’s for whom we are not providing legally obligated services, which means the district is out of compliance, and they can be sued!”

Mayor Fuller’s claims on strike law don’t hold up to historical scrutiny

In the latest email from Mayor Fuller sent to the community on Monday night, she made the following claim: “There is a reason that teachers strikes are illegal in Massachusetts. Being out of school really hurts children. Schools provide routine and consistency for students. Kids learn in school, have fun with friends. Students receive needed support from trusted and outstanding educators and staff.”

In reality, this is a completely made-up claim, even without addressing how damaging it is for the kids to be in an underfunded school system with poverty-wage aides for years at a time. 

The reason teacher strikes are against the law in Massachusetts is that a blanket ban of all public employee strikes was passed in 1919 when the Boston Police union attempted to go on strike. The law was enacted at the height of the First Red Scare, when the United States was cracking down on communism, socialism, anarchism, and trade-unionism a couple years after the Bolshevik October Revolution in the former Russian Empire. Virtually every contemporary newspaper article or politician speech on the 1919 strike, this law, and then-recent constitutional reform debate transcripts in Massachusetts (1917-18) mention the Bolsheviks explicitly. 

I’m not really sure how a backwards law like that is relevant today, but it definitely has nothing to do with the claim made in that email.

To be extra clear: There is no mention of teachers or educators or schools in the General Laws Part I Title XXI Chapter 150E. It refers to all “public employees” and also specifically to police at one point.

This law exists to put the thumb on the scale in favor of public employer management to give them a leg up in bargaining. It does not have anything to do with the wellbeing of children. I suspect schoolchildren in 1919 would be shocked by the more widely benevolent attitudes on child wellbeing today, considering only three years earlier the first federal child labor law was passed, but no one had them in mind when writing this public employee strikes law…

Anyway I guess this is why my NPS teachers taught us not to believe everything you read on the internet and to apply critical thinking to statements from authority figures. Perhaps our Advanced Placement class students can use these citywide blast emails for Document Based Question reading practice, analyzing the statements of opinion for bias and lack of sourcing.

See you tomorrow morning.

Things My Third Grade Teacher Taught Me

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Tomorrow the educators’ strike in Newton will continue. I want to share with you my experiences with my 3rd grade teacher, Mark Canner, who passed away about six years ago. I spoke extemporaneously at his memorial service on behalf of the literally countless students in the Newton Public Schools whose lives he touched.

Mr. Canner, perhaps still the most influential person in my life so far, was an incredibly talented educator and a remarkable human being who worked tirelessly to help every student achieve their maximum potential, even if that was beyond the potential anyone in their lives had ever told them or expected they could achieve. He was especially noted for his ability to work with what we would today call neurodivergent students, those with ADHD or autism for example, whether they were yet formally diagnosed with an IEP or not yet diagnosed.

Parents always commented to each other that he had a unique ability to speak to (and understand the needs of) every child in his class like they were the only child in the universe. Children always knew he spoke to them like a full human being, not a baby. He always took the time to try to find out what was going on if you were having trouble academically or emotionally. 

I remember one time when I was profoundly upset about something and could hardly find the words, he had an aide take charge of the class so that he could sit me down outside the building in a quiet spot and tell me straight up “You can be angry or upset, but you have to respect me enough as a human being, just like you, to take a moment to be calm and find a way to tell me what is upsetting you this much.” I’ve never forgotten that moment. And every student I ever knew who had Mr. Canner has told me some similar story about him.

Third grade was the best year of my childhood and the most engaging year of school I ever had, even if at home we were dealing with incredibly stressful situations with terminally declining health of elder family members who had been living with us. Some of my best friends even now were in that class with me.

Who our educators strive to be for their students

My continued love of learning to this day is intact because of Mark Canner. I know so many other Newton Public Schools graduates had some teacher like him who made every difference in the world to their lives and their childhoods. These alumni have begun emailing City officials, from all over the country, this afternoon to share their NPS educator stories. I also know that just about any educator in the Newton Teachers Association dreams of being able to teach that way, with safe and humane school buildings, sufficient support staff and aides, and realistic class sizes.

They have been crying out for this kind of support for years now, as things have worsened following the 2020-2021 school closures, and they are not being heard. They couldn’t even get in the room with the School Committee without walking off the job, and if they go back now without a contract, I would imagine that the talks will doubtless stall again. These educators and their students are being sacrificed on the altar of some fiscal control whitepapers written when I was still in high school, more than a decade and a half ago, as if the pandemic never happened and changed the situation on the ground.

Mr. Canner always challenged us to do better and be more engaged in the material, if we tried to phone it in or found it boring and below our level. We were expected (and helped) to learn how to read at or above grade level (and to love reading), to spell complex words far beyond the usual 3rd grade level, to memorize every country in the world (except perhaps for some of the new ones that had only just appeared on the map in the 1990s and were still resolving their borders), and most importantly to always stand up for what we believe and be respectful of others because they are humans not because they happen to hold authority.

I remain firm in my convictions

I am one of two Newton City Councilors who refused to sign a letter against the NTA and the strike last week. I have received negative feedback from multiple other City Councilors, some of whom I have known for many years professionally or privately. All Councilors are being further urged to support the position of the School Committee in the current talks. A member of the Council has today demanded that I specifically stop “undermining the negotiating position of the School Committee” (which is perhaps a telling accusation) and to stop “encouraging the teachers to break the law.”

Fortunately, the City Council does not vote on NTA contract matters thereby relieving me of any legal conflict of interest, Mr. Canner taught me better than to back down on saying the right thing here, and my mother and her activism in the Mass Nurses Association union certainly back-stop that belief.

Additionally, I would point simply to the Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley's Sunday sermon at Myrtle Baptist Church in West Newton this morning: "Just last week, all of you all were packed up in one room celebrating MLK Day, and the City of Newton and the Mayor celebrated King. Now they want to claim that this [teacher] strike is illegal. They must have forgotten that Martin Luther King Jr. believed in the importance of breaking unjust laws. It's what King called Civil Disobedience. The true King argued that individuals have a moral responsibility to resist unjust laws and unethical policies..."

I might be alone on the City Council, but I am not alone on the picket lines outside our schools.

A message from Progressive Newton

The general membership of Progressive Newton, a chapter (that I chair) of Progressive Massachusetts, voted today to endorse the four following points as an organization, and we call on other Newton residents and organizations to endorse them as well:

1. We support the NTA in their demands for a fair contract for teachers and aides alike and for safe staffing in the buildings, which will require both raises and additional allocation for new hires.

2. We support the NTA's decision to go out on and remain on strike until they win a new contract.

3. We support S.1217/H.1845 proposed in the current Massachusetts legislature: "An Act uplifting families and securing the right to strike for certain public employees," sponsored by State Sen. Rebecca Rausch and State Reps. Mike Connolly and Erika Uyterhoeven. This bill would restore the right of Massachusetts unions representing non-public safety employees of the government, including municipalities, to legally protected strike actions after 6 months of mediation.

4. We believe any teachers' union has an absolute right to strike regardless of the law.

See you tomorrow morning.

If you are interested in donating to support the NTA strike fund, that link is here.

I met up with my first grade teacher on the picket line, and here are my thoughts

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This morning at 9 AM in the biting cold, I joined the teacher and parent picket line outside Angier Elementary School, where I attended from 1996 to 2002, and I was greeted by not fewer than three of my former Angier teachers. And you better believe I was what you would call a Memorable Student, even back then as a tiny, tow-headed child who talked too much in classes ... and organized too many student upheavals each year.

Ms. Rosenthal, my first-grade teacher and a Ward 5 resident herself, reminisced with me this morning about my childhood ability to survey my surroundings, clock what everyone was up to and what their deal was, and then figure out how to articulate very descriptively and perceptively what was going on. I’ve often been told I still do that.

“Competitive contracts”

When I was a kid growing up in the Newton Public Schools, our community defined a “competitive contract” as the top tier of the competition. We weren’t shooting for the middle of the middle and calling it a day. We were paying top dollar to get top talent and the academic results often spoke for themselves. “Good enough” was not in our vocabulary.

Today, far fewer Newton educators (and almost none of the rising, young talent) can afford to live in the community they serve. We entrust them to help raise, protect, and guide the children of our community, yet our leadership now aims for average when it comes to compensation. (And then badger them for using the family leave benefits they were promised in exchange for reduced salaries, because our leaders don’t want to pay for the necessary level of substitutes and we don’t sympathize with the humanity of people having family emergencies that require extended leave.)

A brighter vision from the people on the front lines

Remarkably, however, the members of the Newton Teachers Association have actually focused most of their demands in this strike on things beyond compensation. They’re putting forth, as they have for a couple years now, a complete vision of a better school system. I’m not even talking about their requests for additional planning time and ways to support students academically, which are all eminently sensible.

Our teachers are witnessing a state of emergency every day inside the schools. They want social workers, mental health crisis specialists, disability aides, and kindergarten aides in the buildings and in the classrooms to get things back on track after the profound social/emotional/learning crisis of the pandemic. And they want those buildings and classrooms to be safe and well-maintained, not crumbling and moldy with broken bathrooms.

That’s what the children of this community need. Many of these positions (along with some literacy and math interventionists) have been cut or under-staffed in recent years because of the inflexibility of the Mayor’s allocation growth.

The NTA vision of the Newton Public Schools is highly compatible with the vision for righting the ship that the new Superintendent of Schools has laid out, but the NTA members have one crucial caveat: The Newton community also needs to be willing to pay people credibly to do these seriously difficult and specialized jobs, and the teachers shouldn’t have to “chip in” financially on hiring essential personnel by accepting a contract that is detached from the economic reality of living in the Boston area in the year 2024. That makes sense to me.

What’s fair?

I’ve been asked what a fair contract means to me, but I would turn that around and ask what amount of money you would have to be paid to do these jobs. Imagine you are a new job-seeker, loaded up with student debt, not yet married, burdened by rent and a lengthy commute (which might make it hard to get to that third job you’ve picked up). And worst of all, there’s a pretty good chance the district will lay you off in a couple more years as part of a burn-and-churn strategy to hire an even younger aide, which means you can’t really make long-term life plans.

If the number $26,000 is not sounding realistic to you, then perhaps you can understand why someone might vote to strike – regardless of potential legal fines – and perhaps you can understand why their colleagues are also saying “enough is enough.”

No one teacher alone can do everything their students need, and that means they need more aides and support staff. All of them need to be paid a real amount of money, especially after the past five years of changes in the economy.

And that means a bigger allocation overall is needed from Mayor Fuller. Just about everyone in office in Newton knows this and understands this. I can’t possibly speculate on why they won’t say so publicly now, but it has been acknowledged openly in every private conversation I have been part of for nearly a year now…

Everyone in this city also knows that it’s not enough to say NPS is the biggest department with the most employees, if the money does not cover what we need done. And they know that saying you have “funded the schools” by listing off every mandatory capital investment remotely schools-related, including the ones voters made happen, when people are obviously referring to annual operations is a farcical deflection more worthy of an Abbott and Costello routine.

Break the austerity mindset

I know the taxes can be difficult in this city as it is – that’s why as a City Councilor I have championed tax relief for low-income households, especially seniors – but even without further tax increases we have other options available to the city financially to provide the necessary NPS funding levels to rebuild our school system and public confidence.

We have wiggle room here and there. We can make different choices on how we provide certain services. We could reassess our growth in non-services set-asides each year. Plus, maybe if we actually fixed our floundering core public services, voters might be a bit more open to tax increases after all.

I’m no profligate spender, especially after four years on the Council’s Finance Committee, getting the inside scoop. I’m all for fiscal responsibility, because that’s how you stretch a dollar further, but that’s not the same thing as imposing arbitrary “fiscal discipline” percentages on the backs of schoolchildren. Find somewhere else to rein in out-of-control growth in appropriations. Putting the austerity squeeze on our kids is reaching a level of abstraction from humanity that I have rarely seen in my life. If anything is “unsustainable,” it is how we are treating our schoolchildren’s unmet needs, not how much we are paying the heroic people who serve them daily.
 

Who this is all for

We’re a municipal government – we’re supposed to serve the people first. The educators of the Newton Teachers Association remember that. But they’re also human beings, not robots. We should pay them to stay and keep rebuilding the Newton Public Schools for our kids, instead of trying to burn through them like they’re infinitely replaceable and interchangeable. I know I couldn’t have replaced my own Newton teachers growing up and gotten the same results.
 

See you at the next rally or picket line. I’ll be standing with the NTA – because it doesn’t have to be this way.

If you are interested in donating to support the NTA strike fund, that link is here.

Mayor Fuller provokes Newton’s teachers to vote for a strike after they hit their limit

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Dear residents –

This afternoon, 98% of the members of the Newton Teachers Association voted to go on strike beginning tomorrow morning. This was not a leadership decision, but a vote of the entire membership of nearly 2,000. They have been working without a contract all school year.

I am a Newton Public Schools graduate, a Newton City Councilor, and a member of the Council’s Finance Committee. Newton teachers made me who I am today. I’m also the son of a union nurse. I know firsthand that when a union member votes to go on strike, it is always a last resort and never taken lightly. If the teachers are outside their school buildings, it means something has gone very wrong inside City Hall. Even more so in the bitter cold of January! When a union member goes on strike, it means they have been pushed past the breaking point by bad faith negotiations and unreasonable behavior by management over a long period.

Working people today live in an era of out-of-control, day-to-day cost-of-living burdens and inflation, and the reality of personal finances today is significantly worse than even just five years ago. Some NTA members already have starting salaries below $30,000 as it is, which should be shocking to everyone, but even some of the members being offered around $70,000 would struggle to pay rent or cover their mortgage these days unless they happen to have a wealthy spouse or tons of roommates. (That’s not really a good way to plan contracts!)

Our public schools educators fully understand that a municipal government is more constrained than the private sector in terms of available revenues, and they have always been willing to compromise on that point when it comes to settling contracts. (Many private sector unions are asking for 30% or 40% raises and winning more than 20% raises right now, for contrast.) But there’s a limit to compromise, especially when it comes to negotiations with people who won’t budge, month after month and year after year.

What’s the holdup?

Any elected official in this city could tell you, even if they won’t go on the record, that this situation comes down to the total and absolute inflexibility on city finances from one person: Mayor Ruthanne Fuller. 

The Mayor alone has the ability to set the allocation amount for city revenues to the Newton Public Schools, and she has refused to consider the possibility that she might have to change that number to settle a contract.  (Nearly everyone else agrees the total funding is insufficient to current, often emergency, needs, even before there’s a new contract. The School Committee is reluctant to sign a deal for raises without more funding overall because of the risk of layoffs.) This is unfortunately within a broader “my way or the highway” approach to municipal finance that has shown no adjustment to the macroeconomic upheaval and new realities that began in the United States in 2020.

Mayor Fuller almost single-handedly tanked the passage of an operating tax override referendum last year to fund the schools that she herself put on the ballot. I knocked more doors in support of that override than anyone else in the city, nearly 2,000 doors myself, and with the exception of just a handful of voters whose objection was purely opposition to a tax increase, what I heard over and over and over again was no confidence from the public in the Mayor’s fiscal strategy and in the approach to bargaining with the teachers. Time and again, voters told me they were voting no to send a message of opposition to Mayor Fuller. The same came up again and again during the November municipal elections. 

Meanwhile, Mayor Fuller spent the month of December calling major donors to tell them she intends to seek a third term beyond the two remaining years in office. I am sorry to say, however, that a unitary approach to governance without collaboration means that no one else is responsible when a crisis like a teachers’ strike occurs. The buck stops at one desk only.

Can we afford to do more than has been offered?

I know from my years on the Finance Committee that Newton has the resources to settle a fair contract, if the allocation were increased – and if we make some cost-saving in-sourcing moves and reduce our excessively aggressive lock-boxing of certain funds each year. (Whenever these are floated, we are told simply, “I won’t do that.”)

It’s all about priorities. We have options for fiscal flexibility that will not cannibalize key city services. The pessimism of austerity is not an immutable truth, just one point of view.

Our city’s long-term fiscal health has been built on the strength of its public schools. I agree with our front-line educators that they know better than anyone how badly our school system is struggling and how many challenges our students are facing. (That’s one reason they are asking for the hiring of more social workers and interventionists to stabilize a state of emergency.)

The Newton Teachers want to make sure our students have the staffing and programming they need to thrive. It’s also our responsibility as a community to pay a fair and livable contract to every educator in every building. It is not the responsibility of our educators to take an effective pay cut against rising costs of living in order to subsidize the level of services this community wants to provide. Being an educator is not a hobby activity, and these workers need to keep a roof over their heads and feed their families too.

Is anyone listening?

The Newton Teachers Association members, who raise, guide, and mentor the children of this city, have reached a collective decision today to go on strike and wake up the leaders of this city about the realities of what it costs to live these days. I stand in solidarity with these workers, and I call on my fellow residents to stand vocally with our educators, too!

I was disappointed that 21 of my 24 Council colleagues chose to sign a last-minute letter accusing our beloved educators of hurting our children if they voted to go on strike. We all know how difficult and unfair the experience of a strike is. But it is not the teachers and aides who have provoked this situation. Imagine how bad the morale inside our schools must be for literally 98% of our educators to vote, with great reluctance, to go on strike and face all the consequences that come with that. That strike vote alone is a desperate plea to be listened to.

After reading that letter and watching the TV news statements from Mayor Fuller, it is hard not to feel there is a real absence of viable leadership options in this city. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Strike legalities

A final, somewhat arcane but important point: Many of the emails residents have received in recent days from the Mayor and School Committee have chosen to emphasize a melodramatic claim that a strike by teachers would be “illegal.” It is perhaps unlawful or open to liability, but it is not illegal. It’s also not wrong: Even if it requires an act of civil disobedience against an out of date law, it is always the right of the worker to withdraw their labor to get a fair deal, so that they can pay their bills. The union might have to pay a fine or damages, but it’s not a criminal matter.

I am a firm supporter of S.1217/H.1845 proposed in the current Massachusetts legislature: "An Act uplifting families and securing the right to strike for certain public employees," sponsored by State Sen. Rebecca Rausch and State Reps. Mike Connolly and Erika Uyterhoeven. This bill would restore the right of Massachusetts unions representing non-public safety employees of the government, including municipalities, to undertake legally protected strike actions after 6 months of mediation.

Workers in Massachusetts have had a recognized constitutional and moral right since 1842 to assemble into organizations for directing their labor or their withholding of labor for bargaining purposes. Current state law prohibiting normal public employee unions, such as teachers unions, from striking are wrong and should be repealed through this proposal. No law can take away that fundamental right.

A strike is always a last-resort labor action anyway, and it is wrong to stack the deck in negotiations in favor of management by applying legal penalties to try to force unfair and unlivable contract settlements by taking options off the table. 

It is the responsibility of any hiring entity, public or private, to pay all workers a fair wage while operating within financial means; it is not the responsibility of workers to subsidize additional services or capacity by accepting lower pay and/or being pushed to live far outside of their work area. 

To paraphrase FDR, any business or government that can only operate by not paying living wages does not deserve to continue to operate – and that means it's time to rethink the operational model and cashflow.

Taking Inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 2024

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This morning, for my fifth time as a Newton City Councilor, I attended the Harmony Foundation’s annual celebration of the life and mission of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Each year there are various musical performances by students and community members, speeches by dignitaries and keynote guests, and more. And although there are always thought-provoking reflections and commentaries on themes of harmony, unity, and racial justice, I often find myself thinking about what is conspicuously missing from Newton’s annual celebration of Dr. King.

This year the theme of the event was “everybody can serve,” which is a line from the final sermon that Dr. King delivered at his own church prior to his assassination in 1968. The speech is often referred to as “the drum major speech” and was replayed at his funeral, lending it greater prominence. One speaker today also quoted the speech’s line about how Dr. King wanted to be remembered at his eventual funeral: “I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.”
 

Some absent messages today

But what was not lifted up at today’s event, as it never seems to be each year?

Just two sentences later in the same speech comes the following line, delivered during the Tet Offensive period of the American war in Vietnam:

“I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question.”

It is curious to maintain silence on this point of his legacy, with various major wars in the world dominating the news headlines each day for months or years now.

And the very next sentences beyond that are these:

“I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.”

To my mind, the three things that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was best known for, in his own lifetime of activism, were his struggle for racial justice and civil rights, his pacifism and opposition to war, and his struggle for economic justice. Each January in Newton only one of these makes the cut to be remembered and acknowledged by the scheduled speakers.
 

Dr. King and the Labor Movement

Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee while he was there rallying with AFSCME union public sanitation workers striking against the city government after the deaths of two members. They were striking for better pay, safer workplace conditions, and recognition of their union by the city.

At many crucial points in the racial justice / civil rights struggle, Dr. King was closely aided materially by the United Auto Workers union under the leadership of Walter Reuther, who wanted the vehicle of union organizing to be a method of broader social and economic change in the United States. For example, the UAW was deeply involved in the famous March on Washington, where Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. (Reuther also participated in the post-assassination push to bring the Memphis strike to a successful conclusion for the sanitation workers’ union.)

This is something to think about – and take inspiration from – as the union representing our public educators here in Newton finds itself increasingly at an impasse with the Mayor and School Committee in their efforts to secure a contract with a living wage for all members and sufficient, safe staffing levels to care for and help raise our children.

In fact, the only mention of this at all today came from unscheduled remarks by an elementary school music teacher who took the microphone for a few minutes to comment on this situation before conducting a musical number by students.
 

Service against cynicism

True harmony comes from fairness and justice in a community and a society’s commitment to peace and reconciliation. It does not come from cynically hand-waving away or suppressing acknowledgment of the differences, divisions, and material inequities in the name of some false unity.

The dreamers who want our society to live up to its full promises are not naive. They are the only ones who understand what is actually required of us to live and thrive together successfully and permanently. The dreamers know that the people who don’t want to push for challenging changes are the unrealistic ones, whose way of life cannot be sustained on its uneven foundations in unstable soil. (As engineers will tell you, rigidity is brittle and flexibility is strength.)

We are each called to serve one another in love and humility because humanity only survives together – and if we do not step up to serve, then who else will? 

Among many aspects, that service inseparably includes promoting peace and economic justice.

Newsletter: Reflections on 2023 (and a few city announcements)

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Tomorrow marks 150 years of Newton being a city! This final newsletter of the year and the City Council term offers some reflections on things I learned this year, but first I have some announcements about city matters.
 

Announcements

• Thank you to the Newton Fire Department for your work on the morning of December 13th at the scene of a tragic 2-alarm fire in Ward 5. My thoughts are with the brother and other loved ones of the resident who succumbed to injuries after an initial rescue. Our Fire Chief Gregory Gentile has reminded residents to double-check that smoke alarms are working on every floor, especially if anyone in the home has mobility challenges, because extra seconds and minutes count in being able to evacuate safely.

• Due to the volume of organic material chaos left behind from recent storms and in view of the reality of residents’ holiday travels, the Department of Public has extended yard waste pickup through January 12th. (That’s a nice easy perk of having brought the service back in-house instead of contracting it out.)

• Earlier this month, I spoke to NBC 10 Boston about Newton’s water bills crisis. I have been raising concerns in writing since the beginning of the year with the City and the Fuller Administration about the potential problems with water bills going uncollected (except for estimate payments) for years. As new meters and transponders are gradually installed, back billing is occurring and bringing the problem unavoidably to the foreground. I recognize that the city has already paid the MWRA for the used water, but I think we might have to accept at some point that it is the responsibility of the city to be regularly billing people all along and that after a certain span of time it doesn't really work to hit people with surprise bills and say that they should have been paying the whole time and submitting corrections. This is starting to feel like a fairly significant breakdown in process, which isn't the fault of the water users. I know 12 months is Newton’s standard period for a zero-interest payment plan to smooth out an unexpected bill, but the city was failing to collect actual readings and send actual bills for much longer than 12 months. It might make more sense to extend the payment plan period for a comparable length of time. We might also need to look at some forgiveness in some (or maybe many) cases.

• It was also great to speak to WBZ-4 earlier this month about bringing back economic vitality and new housing to Newton's village centers. The City Council eventually voted through a significant (compromise) rezoning proposal around Newton Centre, Newton Highlands, Eliot, Waban, Newtonville, West Newton, and Auburndale.

• Congratulations to the 9th ballot winner of our Newton City Council President election, former and now returning President Marc Laredo. Thank you to my 11 other colleagues who cast votes for me on 3 different ballots at the December caucus for City Council President! Three tied ballots for President with half the Council's support in the middle there for me was pretty neat, especially because I didn't expect to run on any ballots until earlier in the week and I didn't campaign for it. (I also was not on the final ballot.) I am pleased to be appointed Vice Chair of the City Council's Programs & Services Committee for the coming term, and I will also continue to serve on the Finance Committee.

• Great work on December 15th by the Newton Upper Falls Area Council and Community Development Corporation on the first Caroling, Cocoa, and Cookies event outside the former train station!

Reflections on 2023

The year 2023 was a particularly reflective year for me, now four years into my City Council tenure. I wanted to share a few of those reflections, observations, conclusions, and experiences.

1. The importance of political vision

To my mind, there are currently three basic genres of politician, regardless of their affiliations, backgrounds, or beliefs. 

There is the politician who always defaults to saying no. They are not trying to get to yes, and they are not offering an alternative, and they have to be persuaded that any move other than saying no is a worthwhile idea. Plenty of voters find this compelling, especially if they’re really upset with how things are going. But this politician struggles to govern when in power. Everything tends to grind to a halt until they lose again.

There is the politician who says nothing will ever get better and we should just make the best of a permanently bad situation. The default or baseline assumption is that we probably can’t do much and that all plans should be geared around slowing and managing decline. Looking around at the state of the world, that’s a seductive offer to many voters, despite how deeply pessimistic it is. (I myself sometimes find this outlook tempting, but that kind of hopelessness posing as seriousness is just not who I am in the end.)

Finally, there is the politician who believes in and offers voters a vision for the future. Sometimes it’s a vision that some of us might find alarming depending on our personal beliefs about society and the economy, and sometimes it is a classically upbeat platform for a better world and less pain, but either way that politician promises to do something new and wants to find a way to tell the voters yes instead of no to something they are asking for. The pitch is not about pure opposition, and it is also not about slowing the rate of descent.

I think lately many people who would like to run for office with a positive message have found the hostility in politics to be daunting and deterring, but we would be better off with more of them as candidates and leaders, and it’s probably the only thing that can stop the acrimony. Hope and kindness are a good cure for anger and despair.

2. We have to actively tell voters what we are doing and why

It is as much a false promise to offer policy without politics as it is to offer politics completely unencumbered by policy. Good policy and political vision go hand in hand, and to attempt either one without the other is doomed to failure.

In Newton, I often hear concern about political demonization and demagoguery, whether here at home or federally, and I hear the expression of a desire to “get the politics out” of good governance and wonky policymaking. This is just as foolhardy as pure politics without a scrap of policy.

First, in a space with finite resources (whether the local limits of revenue collection or the planetary limits of our ecology), there will always be a contest over the allocation of resources to competing priorities, and without a political vision or idea of how a community (or beyond) should look, the best case scenario is a haphazard and chaotic distribution, while the worst case scenario is egregious misuse of resources that fuels an eventual political backlash. 

Second, there is simply no such thing as “just the facts” or “the numbers are the numbers” or “data-driven” with no politicization. Virtually any number or datapoint can be twisted to suit any agenda, good or bad, and even the collection of data itself to solve a policy problem includes implicit or explicit bias in the decision-making on what questions to ask to collect the data being used. And blasting too much unfiltered, raw data to the public is not the solution either because that lacks any coherence and becomes overwhelming.

And third, even the best, most creative, most ingenious policy ever devised cannot be successfully implemented if those in power do not know how to explain it to the public and obtain their consent. Worse, with the collapse of local media coverage, unexplained policy work comes to be viewed with a skepticism verging on conspiracy theory, which is the fault of the political leaders who fail to communicate and articulate the bigger ideas underlying their choices, not the fault of the public trying to piece things together from fragmentary information. 

3. On leadership, consultation, and compromise

Prolonged indecision, self-doubt, and over-consultation do not lend themselves to good governance, but equally true is the reality that too much self-confidence, a closed bubble, and inflexibility are ineffective as well. Whether you are sure your view is correct, or you are afraid there is no alternative, there is always a choice. Ask around and you’ll hear new ones.

Decision-making processes for big choices and major proposals should consult a wide enough circle to get fresh ideas, hear dissenting voices, and get consent from the stakeholders and power blocs that can either thwart or implement a decision – but those decisions and consultations also need to be made in a timely and firm manner. It cannot be drawn out, which hardens minor differences of opinion into true animosity, and it cannot be constantly back and forth, which creates destabilizing and often expensive uncertainty for everyone. Nor can everything be decided by committee, if it is the responsibility of a single office. For the big things, one person has to be the final decider. (The situation differs for a legislative body.) And if the situation changes or the plan goes wrong when implemented, a good leader is adaptable enough and sufficiently open to (and hearing) criticism to adjust course and take responsibility for the mistakes.

If it becomes clear through the process of consultation on a key decision that there is enough disagreement to require a significant compromise (or that refusal to compromise in one area might generate lingering ill feeling in an unrelated area where obtaining consent could be more difficult), the best and most strategic version of a compromise is one that gives everyone some of what they want – but the most dangerous and alienating compromise is to give some people everything of what they wanted while giving others nothing that they wanted. It is always easier to go back and work on an issue again if everyone in a coalition agrees that there is more to be done and that they have a self-interest in continued work. It is very difficult to return to work on an issue where some people got all the things they hoped for and then checked out of the process. 

4. Incrementalism is a result, not a process or purpose

Progress by increments might be the reality of politics and governance, and it often does help to persuade and reassure skeptics and doubters of the merits of wider change, but incrementalism is not itself the goal. Political vision develops a view of the destination we are trying to reach with policies we propose. Incremental, intermediate steps we reach on that journey via compromise can be minor victories that we celebrate to recruit new converts to the broader political vision by demonstrating forward momentum, but they should be lauded for the good they do and not for the process by which they were reached. There is nothing inherently noble or aspirational in consensus, even if it is sometimes necessary to manage competing power centers, and voters prefer real forward momentum on solutions more than they are eager for a unanimous vote. Additionally, these compromise measures should not be dead ends for years or decades at a time. Incremental policy reforms should ideally open the way to continue making more improvements and not cut them off or forestall them.

Choices we make now should clear future obstacles, not add more of them. It is better to do nothing today than to restrict the possibilities of future leaders, unless that is explicitly the objective of a policy choice rather than the byproduct of expedience or desperation in the present. But I also have a great deal of confidence in future leaders to make good decisions if we give them flexibility instead of foreclosing some possibilities for lack of faith today.

We should always be striving to set ourselves (as a community) up for future success and not constraining our future out of a gloomy conviction that it would be irresponsible to imagine a brighter future with more resources available. Because local resources are in no small part a direct function of public confidence in the community’s future and its government, fiscal austerity is not synonymous with fiscal prudence. Disinvestment creates its own decline in future revenues. Although we cannot allocate funds to everything we want to support or provide – that is why political prioritization of policies is unavoidable – and we will sometimes have to make cuts, we should be careful not to prune back too far the core services (e.g. public works, public schools, and public safety) whose reliable functioning undergird long-term public confidence and in turn decides our fiscal outlook. It is better to do the important things well first than to try to fund everything a little bit but not enough to meet expectations. 

Major expansions to programs and services cannot and should not be a purely top-down process, even when elected officials are advancing a cause, because securing adequate and permanent resources to support them requires neighbor-to-neighbor organizing to convince a majority of the voting public that it is in the community’s broad self-interest to fund and sustain these services. Without that, they are vulnerable to future cuts.

5. A community for everyone, with continuity to the past and culture for the many

An effective political vision shows a path forward that bridges the past to the future with an appropriate balance between familiar continuity and the growth and change necessary to adapt to life in an ever-evolving economy and society. As a fifth-generation Newtonian, I am for historic preservation of the things that make this community feel uniquely like home, and I am also for growing and diversifying our local economic activity and population to provide us with new revenues for services and more users for the expensive but under-capacity fixed-assets we already have. I want people who already live here in Newton to be excited to live here, and I also want new people to feel just as excited about getting the chance to live here.

Some of the impediments to that growth and change are more mundane facets of economic opportunity, some of which are difficult to control within a wider society and some of which can be ameliorated through policy adjustments if that is a political value we want to address. Others are cultural obstacles, which also flow from policy. Do we have a welcoming culture? An engaging culture? An accessible culture? Are the community’s amenities and features for everyone or only for a few?

And though I have noted the importance of adequately funding core services to fortify public trust and strengthen future revenues, I also believe that supporting arts, recreation, and culture will always be a crucial component of strengthening a sense of community and a sense of place. For many of us, these are the things that give our lives meaning and fulfillment. Investing in them is not only economic activity itself, as well as making our community an attractive place to live, but it also provides an intangible revitalization to our spirits and an immeasurable harmony between people.
 

I hope these reflections give you something to contemplate, too, and I wish you all a happy, hopeful, fulfilling, and peaceful new year in 2024.

Newsletter: Lights in the dark, zoning, recount, contract

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Festivals of Lights

This evening, the Waban Improvement Society invited us to the Waban Library Center (inside due to the rain) for the annual Waban Square Tree-Lighting festivities, including hot cocoa and caroling.

In dark times, it is important to be able to gather together and share light and joy. It is no accident that so many cultures and faiths around the world feature festivals of lights, community, dancing, singing, and good food each year when the daylight hours grow short. These events serve as a reminder that humans get through difficult times more easily through cooperation, connection, and solidarity than through solitude and individualism, and they also serve to remind us that the light always returns for those who make it through the dark.

Zoning update

In the spirit of cooperation, or at least in an attempt to compromise, last week a supermajority of the Newton City Council members (including me) voted during this term to table proposed rezoning for commercial centers not adjacent to the transit lines and just to focus on new zoning for areas with MBTA rail service for now. 

I believe that, in the long run, many residents who asked for this concession will come to regret this decision, as it leaves behind their nearest economically struggling commercial centers, like Four Corners, while putting more uneven redevelopment activity into a smaller set of areas and creating more cross-town car trips instead of more people walking or driving a very short distance to the closest commercial hub. 

But this is what people seem to be asking for, and we can return later to these other areas, if folks start to feel left out after all. So, I felt it was best to improve and stabilize the areas of the city we could reach agreement on.

Debate will continue this week, looking at Auburndale and a few other areas more closely.

(And if you are tuning in hoping for a final debate on the long-awaited reform to the Tree Protection Ordinance, we have sent it out of committee, but we will be postponing it immediately at the full Council until December 18th.)

Ward 6 Recount update

Ward 6 Councilor-elect Martha Bixby successfully defended her election in yesterday’s hand recount of that race at the Newton Free Library, receiving the official certification from the Newton Election Commission as the winner, and her opponent conceded today. It was an interesting process to watch all day, and I came away with the distinct sense that introducing human error and human subjectivity to the process, overriding the machine-read results, was actually less helpful and less reliable than just counting on our very good optical ballot scanners.

With just four machines in this race, the outcome was never in doubt, because each machine would have had to have had a very high average error rate in its readings to change the result – so high, in fact, that it would have meant several of the citywide results would also have been in serious doubt if that error rate were consistent across the whole city.

Councilor-elect Bixby is continuing to raise money for her committee to pay the legal costs associated with defending her election win.

I’m really excited to serve alongside Martha, who has been a very engaged community member and has a talented political mind.

Teacher Contract?

Although the City Council has no role or involvement of any kind in this matter, which is handled by the School Committee, the Mayor, and the Superintendent, I continue to receive many calls and emails that express concern about the continued lack of resolution to the expired contract for Newton Public Schools educators. I share the view that the negotiation process has been incredibly disrespectful and antagonistic toward the Newton Teachers Association. The constant stream of emails blaming the NTA and attacking their tactical responses to the breakdown in meaningful negotiation has been especially harmful. 

Ultimately, the dispute is a contest for relative distribution of some of Newton’s resources – which the educators are arguing they need in order to attract and retain top talent and to provide adequate wraparound services for our kids struggling with mental health challenges, learning disabilities, and learning loss – more than it is about any superficial issues of respect, but that doesn’t help. (And of course the most meaningful way to show respect for employees is to pay them fairly. My mother, active in her nurses’ union, can attest that empty gestures of “appreciation” and occasional branded swag from an employer don’t stack up credibly against good pay and benefits…)

I am cautiously optimistic that perhaps the election of new leadership at the School Committee, taking office on January 1, will help reset the situation, if we can get there before things break down further.

New sidewalks, new crossings, new intersections, new fields, and more

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I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving break (and before that a happy Diwali, which we celebrated at City Hall). 

This newsletter contains my November update for Ward 5 and beyond. Thank you Ward 5 voters for not only re-electing me to a third term but also giving me more votes in Ward 5 than any of the 18 citywide Council candidates listed on the Ward 5 ballot, whether contested or uncontested. I take this as confirmation that you are satisfied with the job I am doing as your City Councilor and want me to continue doing what I am doing.

The new term will begin on January 1 (and before then we still have an incredibly busy Council schedule to close out this session). Your new Ward 5 team in 2024 will be me, Andreae Downs, Rena Getz, and School Committee Vice Chair Emily Prenner. We don’t yet know our Council committee assignments for the term. The incoming Council has not held leadership elections so far.

Thank you to departing Councilor Deb Crossley for her 14 years of service to Ward 5.

I am also encouraging everyone to donate to the campaign committee of Ward 6 Ward Councilor-elect Martha Bixby, who is having to pay for lawyers to defend herself (and our city’s election integrity in general) from a frivolous recount petition alleging that the Ward 6 election was stolen, much like the claims by the former President. There is no realistic possibility of a result of that margin in a four-precinct race changing on a recount unless every single machine was so broken that we needed to run the entire city’s election over again. I would never discourage a recount for a legitimately close race where there could credibly be an error, but this recount petition is a dangerous sign for Newton. There is absolutely no evidence being offered to support the allegations being made to justify the recount. Councilor-elect Bixby will also need volunteers to participate in the recount process on December 2. Let us know if you want to help.

New Chestnut St sidewalks

You might have noticed that as part of the ongoing comprehensive Chestnut St repaving work there are brand new, paved sidewalks for the first time ever on some sections of the east side between Beacon St and Commonwealth Ave. (Some spots were not feasible for us to add paved sidewalks at this time.) This followed years of community meetings and public input on pedestrian safety and better crossing options in this twisty, slow, scenic roadway stretch. Thank you to Councilor Andreae Downs for leading these efforts. Work on the road itself will continue next year.

Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon safety

Newton has recently installed another 20 plus Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) at crosswalks around the city, including at Chestnut St/Amherst Rd/Tamworth Rd in Ward 5. The Newton Safe Routes to School Task Force, at the urging of the Newton Police Department following some recent collisions and near-misses, is working to help educate drivers and pedestrians about how to use these new crossings and why they are there.

Two key things to know: If you are a pedestrian, you should be pushing the button to activate the beacon. (And obviously use your judgment to make sure it is actually safe to step into the crosswalk after activating the beacon. Try to make eye contact with the driver if possible) If you are a driver, by law you do still have to stop at any crosswalk with a waiting pedestrian, even if they have not pressed the button to activate the beacon. 

These beacons exist to help draw your attention as a driver to the fact that someone is waiting to cross and to get you to slow down, but you legally (and for safety!) should be doing these things anyway, and so you should not be relying solely on whether or not the beacon is active. It is not the same situation as an intersection crosswalk with a traditional walk signal tied to a traffic light, where the pedestrians are waiting for you.

If you are a driver, no matter where you are on our city streets, if you are moving too fast to be able to stop safely for something unexpected that appears in front of your vehicle after you spot it, then you are likely driving too fast in general. The City of Newton is trying to improve visibility at many crosswalks, but we should all be striving to drive more safely and defensively regardless. I know this is a work in progress for most of us, but it never hurts to remind each other.

Pedestrians and drivers alike should be especially careful when approaching an RRFB-signaled crosswalk with more than one lane in each direction. You might have difficulty seeing around a car in one lane to be able to check the other lane to confirm whether it is safe to cross or safe to drive through the crosswalk. 

If you are driving and see another vehicle slow or stop at a crosswalk, you should of course assume they have a good reason for stopping, and you should never try to go around them. That is why we had to start installing flex-post barriers in Waban Square to try to discourage drivers from impatiently passing vehicles that were stopped for children crossing before and after school. I think this should be common sense, but …

Pettee Square Traffic Work

The Pettee Square (Chestnut St/Oak St) Intersection Improvement Project in Newton Upper Falls is moving forward. This project will create an attractive, functional space for residents, local businesses, and Greenway users. Improvements include wider sidewalks, new streetlights, updated traffic signals, narrower roadways, and a raised, simplified intersection at Oak Street and Chestnut Street. Minor drainage work will take place fall 2023 with additional construction in spring 2024. Construction is expected to be substantially completed by fall 2024. This project is significantly supported by competitive grants from the state’s MassWorks Infrastructure Program.

Northland construction update

Work is continuing at the Northland Needham St site in Newton Upper Falls, and you can read a recent progress update from the Northland/Community Liaison Committee, covering the topics of the adjacent Community Splash Park, the South Meadow Brook culvert/drainage improvement/daylighting project, and underground utilities work.

NSHS Athletic Fields and Lights

In late October, I participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly renovated athletic fields and recently installed lights (donated by the Booster Club) at Newton South High School. The old fields were in dire need of replacement and had become dangerous.