On Brookline

News and commentary (mostly commentary) on events in Brookline, Massachustts.

Archive for October, 2007

Call Off the Call to Red.

By Jim Conley • Oct 21st, 2007 • Category: News and Updates

I’m still stunned by the announcement yesterday from the Red Sox exhorting fans to wear red in “support of the team.” Suffering Jaysis, as if an $85 face value ticket isn’t enough to show support.
I was even more stunned to see the numbers who complied with the call to collective color. This is [...]



Moving Target.

By Jim Conley • Oct 20th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, St. Aidan's

How is the Brookline Board of Selectman’s investment of $6 million in the Boston Roman Catholic Archdioces’s housing project at the former St. Aidan’s church working out?
Well, if meeting start dates is any indication, I’m inclined to say that it’s not working out too well.
During the last round of throwing millions at the ill-conceived project, [...]



Allergic to Oversight.

By Jim Conley • Oct 19th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, The Allen Files, The Scream Team

Maybe I haven’t made the point well enough, but the problem with Brookline Town Government is that the Board of Selectmen have abdicated all responsibility they have in protecting the taxpayer’s interest.
It’s called oversight. And they don’t do it.
I think back to the January evening a few years back when a member of the [...]



Police Reports Released Monday.

By Jim Conley • Oct 19th, 2007 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Selectmen

I’ve just now received a call from the Brookline Town Counsel’s Office telling me that the police reports from the Brawl at Town Hall will be released on Monday. I’ll have them on-line as soon as I get them.
There’s been a bizarre twist to this whole episode that I’ll save for next week.
And boy, [...]



High-minded Brookline.

By Jim Conley • Oct 19th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, St. Aidan's

News out of Portland, Maine is that a middle school in that city will provide access to birth control prescriptions through an independent health center located at the school [see story].
In Brookline, Mass. news, it looks like all systems are go for the town to “gift” an additional $1 million in public funds to the [...]



Hey, Hey, Whaddaya Say…

By Jim Conley • Oct 18th, 2007 • Category: News and Updates

Apparently a “BU student militia” has been ginning up a weekend protest in Brookline [read about it at Universal Hub].
Over what, you ask? An Iraqi War that’s killed thousands of their peers? The draconian policies of government at all levels which have forced many Americans into abject poverty? The rampant fraud and [...]



The Gathering Gloom.

By Jim Conley • Oct 18th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Override Ballot

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the idea of raising the property tax in Brookline through a Proposition 2.5 over-ride itself already has us screwed.  Today’s New York Times has a story in on revenue pressures on cities from the current housing downturn, saying:
“In interviews, some city and county budget officials [...]



I Have a Question.

By Jim Conley • Oct 17th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Override Ballot, Schools

Perhaps those attending tonight’s public hearing to tee up a Proposition 2.5 over-ride in Brookline can help me out. (I’d go to the hearing, but I’m in a rock fight and I don’t want to miss it.) I have a question for the Selectman’s Study Committee, if a reader might be kind [...]



Brawl at Town Hall Investigation Wraps Up.

By Jim Conley • Oct 17th, 2007 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Selectmen

Word on the street is that the Brookline Police Department’s internal investigation into Town Meeting Member Arthur Conquest’s citizen complaint into alleged racial bias during the May 24th Brawl at Town Hall has wrapped up.
The allegations have been determined as “not sustained and unfounded.”
There’s a sorry history with this affair and only until we receive [...]



Warnings of Mass Desperation.

By Jim Conley • Oct 16th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Override Ballot, Schools

Tomorrow evening, the group studying the need for an Proposition 2.5 over-ride for Brookline will hold a public hearing on the matter.
Good for them. Too bad for us.
Look, this hearing will be like every other in Brookline - it will be over-run by those trying to protect their narrow interests. Earlier this [...]



Nothing from Nothing.

By Jim Conley • Oct 15th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Farmer's Market, Brookline Selectmen, Schools

What do you get when you divide zero by zero? Nothing.
So it’s more than a small curiosity that the Brookline Selectman will take up an item at tomorrow night’s meeting to create an “Economic Development Division in the Department of Planning and Community Development.”
Here I am thinking that the hundreds of thousands spent on [...]



A Public Service.

By Jim Conley • Oct 12th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Politics

On Wednesday I wrote that I’m getting anxious as to whether additional resignations from the Brookline Zoning Board of Appeals (or other areas of town government) will come about, as alluded to by ZBA member Lawrence “The Chainsaw” Kaplan during his resignation tirade.
Inspired by Kaplan’s letter of last week, I’ve put together a form letter [...]



I’m Lucky If I Can Find My Way to the Polls.

By Jim Conley • Oct 12th, 2007 • Category: Politics

In an earlier post I mentioned that by covering the proposal to make the Coolidge Corner Planning Council permanent, it may appear to some like “I have a dog in the fight” because I live and vote in Precinct 10.
Hey, what do you know? According to readers who have contacted me, I vote in [...]



A More Diverse Brookline ZBA.

By Jim Conley • Oct 12th, 2007 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Selectmen

Archie has a new installment in his “World of Brookline Zoning” series.  He calls for more (vocational) diversity on the ZBA, in the wake of the hissy fit resignations of last week.
Read the installment here.



Now Let’s Give Them Public Funds.

By Jim Conley • Oct 12th, 2007 • Category: St. Aidan's

Here’s what won’t be discussed by the social workers at the St. Aidan’s “public” housing project.