Traffic and Safety
Newton has been without a City Traffic Engineer for well over a year. The position was filled starting this September.  Road and pedestrian safety issues have gone unaddressed all over the city leaving our citizens at risk.

Newton North
Bad air, bad feelings, bad planning and bad execution have doomed this project from the beginning.  A stew of committees, conflict and confusion.  A non-binding advisory referendum should have been put on the ballot this fall, not next year, to give the people who matter most in this debacle a voice - the taxpayers. 

Community Preservation Act (1% surcharge on property taxes)
CPA money has been distributed throughout the city on various projects, but what are its big ticket items and how will they affect your future and taxes?  An education for all is badly needed on this initiative.  This money cannot be used to fix our streets, maintain our parks, address infrastructure issues in our schools or municipal buildings or pay our teachers and safety workers.  Many issues citizens want addressed with these monies simply do not qualify for them.

Needham Street
Mayor Cohen pledged to address this issue when he ran against Tom Concannon in 1997.  Five years later a road design plan has yet to be completed.  Will this design be available this fall as planned?  The traffic is dangerous, the gridlock is intolerable.  New housing and stores are being built to use a street that is not prepared to handle the additional traffic. 

AvalonBay/Countryside School
Avalon Bay is a newly developed housing community on Needham Street in Newton Highlands.  50% of its children (31) will be attending the Countryside School.  The school will have the largest population in the elementary system with 463 students. As of yet there is no sign that our municipal leaders have sought mitigation funds from Avalon Bay to ease the additional stress on the Countryside School Community.

Parks and Recreation
The recreation facilities in Ward 5 are among the worst in the city.  The water bubblers at both Whitmore and Braceland playground are over 40 years old and inoperable. Full court play is impossible at the Whitmore basketball courts because of a patchwork of sloppy repairs and a large sinkhole.  The Braceland basketball court has not been resurfaced since 1977 and there are no hoops or nets.  The Braceland playground has been a dumping ground for snow and garbage.  I used both of these playgrounds as a child and their current condition breaks my heart.  There are funding opportunities available to address these playgrounds and they need to be addressed. 
Click here to see more photos.

Budgets (Municipal and School)
Our citizens need a full accounting of how their hard earned dollars are spent.  Former Newton Mayor Theodore Mann, use to enclose a "pie chart" in tax bills allowing a view of city expenditures.  I believe 3 "pie charts" are necessary to provide clarity and transparency in expenditures.  One would be for municipal spending, one would explain CPA expenditures detailing projects those monies are used for, and the third would breakdown the school budget to show percentages spent on administration, teachers, infrastructure, special education classroom materials and technology.

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