Benka Shows Up.
By Jim Conley • Apr 1st, 2008 • Category: Asbestos, Brookline Politics, Brookline Selectmen, Campaigns, Robert Allen, Spooner Road, St. Aidan's, The Allen FilesGee, you would think that after imposing the burden of the St. Aidan’s housing project on residents around Pleasant Street, our selectmen would show up to hear their neighbor’s concerns over lead and asbestos abatement. You’d be wrong.
Sure, Bobby Allen was on hand to provide his concierge service to this developer. But no others made [...]
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Pimp My Town (2).
By Jim Conley • Oct 24th, 2007 • Category: BPD of Counsel, Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Selectmen, Spooner Road, The Allen FilesSources tell me that the same police officers who rushed into court to charge Town Meeting Member Arthur Conquest from the Brawl at Town Hall [view the police reports here] were also involved in another arrest at the site of a controversial real estate development a few years back. The where and when is [...]
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A Hollow Cheer.
By Jim Conley • Oct 2nd, 2007 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Selectmen, Spooner Road, The Allen Files“Increasingly, there has been much to say by way of the media or in other forums by some who feel the Building Department could better enforce the Zoning By Law.” - Brookline Building Commissioner James Nickerson announcing his retirement.
Damn that media and other forums. Why, if they only knew the truth it’d be clear [...]
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Spooner Road Developments.
By Jim Conley • Sep 11th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, DeWitt Demotion, Spooner Road, The Allen FilesThere have been two significant developments in the legal wrangling over a residential building project at 71 Spooner Road. The abutters to the project have been granted “standing” (deemed a potentially aggrieved party) by a judge in the Land Court.
And also last week, the Court upheld the validity of a section to Brookline’s Zoning [...]
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Got the Message.
By Jim Conley • Aug 21st, 2007 • Category: DeWitt Demotion, Spooner Road, St. Aidan's, The Allen FilesIn reporting the circumstances that led to the demotion of Brookline Preservation Commission Vice-chair Dennis Dewitt to alternate member [see articles], I noted that the casus belli for such were alleged difficulties with the public. It was then that Selectman’s Chair Robert “The Mensch” Allen stepped in.
Allen, of course, was highly compromised in his [...]
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Don’t Get Your Hopes Up.
By Jim Conley • Jul 20th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Spooner RoadThis week’s TAB features a story on the brewing “lack of confidence” in the Brookline Building Department, especially in its zoning and code enforcement activities. The story features the clueless Gil Hoy’s suggestion that a performance review concerning Building Commissioner Jim Nickerson will show whether there is cause for a change in that department.
Classic [...]
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On Brookline Reprise.
By Jim Conley • Jul 1st, 2007 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Selectmen, DeWitt Demotion, Spooner Road, The Allen FilesThroughout the week, I’ll be pulling material out of the On Brookline archives for the benefit of new readers and those of us who are work-bound during the Independence Day holiday. Our first installment is the two part series concerning the “demotion” of Brookline Preservation Commission Vice Chair Dennis DeWitt.
Click here to read the [...]
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Connect the Dots.
By Jim Conley • Jun 14th, 2007 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Selectmen, DeWitt Demotion, Spooner Road, The Allen FilesThere’s an interesting development concerning ZBA member Lawrence Kaplan (the central figure in the Brawl at Town Hall).
In an e-mail posted on the Town Meeting Member Association’s Web site, a resident is alleging that Kaplan conducted himself in a fashion similar to that he directed at Ruthann Sneider and Arthur Conquest on May 24th.
You can [...]
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Deep Ethics Doo-doo.
By Jim Conley • Jun 5th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Spooner RoadWhich member of the Brookline Board of Selectmen used official Town of Brookline stationery to write a letter vouching for developers (in support of a $2.6 million mortgage application) at the controversial Spooner Road project [see posts]?
Do I really have to answer that for you?
Update: Here’s the story on the letter. I had heard [...]
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Bob Allen Hearts the ZBA.
By Jim Conley • May 31st, 2007 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Selectmen, Spooner Road, The Allen FilesA classic e-mail from former Selectman’s Chairman Robert Allen landed in my lap this evening [click here to read].
Allen might have mentioned how grateful he is that the Zoning Board of Appeals agreed to let a Court decide whether his corporate client’s development on Spooner Road ought to be torn down.
And, um, Bob…no one’s saying [...]
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The New Window of Light?
By Jim Conley • May 23rd, 2007 • Category: Spooner Road, The Allen FilesIn a kind of harmonic convergence of superciliousness, tomorrow evening’s town calendar features a Housing Advisory Board meeting where the developer’s at St. Aidan’s will likely ask for more funds to waste. And the Brookline Zoning Board of Appeals will determine whether the Building Department allowed a developer to grow a residential project at One [...]
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Jesse Stands by Her Mentor.
By Jim Conley • Mar 21st, 2007 • Category: Brookline Politics, Condo and Metro, Liquor Licenses, Spooner Road, The Allen FilesI’ll give Brookline Selectman’s candidate Jesse Mermell credit, she’s not budging from her support of her campaign co-chair (and Selectman’s Chairman) Robert L. Allen. That’s awesome!
I asked Jesse if she has any thoughts on the revelations - at this site and other places - concerning Chairman Allen’s seeming difficulty with public integrity.
You know, [...]
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Kelliher’s Pigeon Drop.
By Jim Conley • Mar 21st, 2007 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, DeWitt Demotion, Spooner Road, The Allen FilesPeople at Brookline Town Hall blanch when I call the denizens of the sixth floor “hacks”, especially our so-called professional managers. But every now and then an act or document brings what I’ve imagined into sharp focus. Such is the case with the e-mail TAB reporter Jessica Scarpati has posted on their blog. [...]
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What Dumping Dennis DeWitt Looks Like.
By Jim Conley • Mar 20th, 2007 • Category: DeWitt Demotion, Spooner Road, The Allen FilesWonder why the Brookline Selectmen didn’t want to give up their e-mails on the Dennis DeWitt demotion to the TAB? [see previous post].
Here’s your answer. Reporter Jessica Scarpatti just posted correspondence between Board Chair Robert L. Allen, Jr. and Selectman “Gentleman” Michael Merrill. [read the e-mails here].
Readers can draw their own conclusions, but I think [...]
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That’s Nothing.
By Jim Conley • Feb 28th, 2007 • Category: Brookline Politics, DeWitt Demotion, Spooner Road, The Allen FilesNew readers to this site (and there have been quite a few these days) may see the posts below as the sum total of evidence offered to support claims of Brookline cronyism.
Oh no old darlings. The sine qua non of Brookline cronyism is On Brookline’s two part series on the demotion of Dennis DeWitt [...]
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