Early in the pandemic, O’Neil Outar faced an unusual line of Newton Center traffic. He presumed the cause was an accident but was startled to see that it was a queue for the Newton Food Pantry. Soon he began supporting the Newton Food Pantry and the Centre Street Food Pantry,…
Fig City News
Newton Highlands resident and former Ward 6 Councilor George Mansfield passed away on December 5. Ward 7 Councilor Lisle Baker, a long-time colleague and friend of George, informed the City Council of his passing after learning the news from former Ward 6 Councilor Richard Blazer. George’s obituary is here. George…
Recent honors and appointments for people who live or work in Newton…
On December 7, City Councilors-Elect met in caucus to elect leadership for the coming term. In the voting for President, there were three ballots for each three rounds: In the voting for Vice President:
The Programs and Services Committee met on December 6 to discuss an item docketed by several City Council members calling for the creation and enforcement of a City Council Code of Ethics (see page 20-24 of the agenda). The City Council is an independent, self-governing body of the local government…
Could there have been better timing for the Walnut Street Minyan‘s Soulful Shabbat/Shabbaton with Jacob’s Ladder Jewish Bluegrass Band than November 2023? If ever a Jewish community needed to come together, it was then. Exactly four weeks before, Israel had experienced the worst attack on the country since its 1948…
After months of heated debate, the City Council voted on December 4 to approve a zoning package designed to comply with the MBTA Communities Law before the December 31, 2023 deadline. That law, as applied to Newton, requires zoning that allows “by right” development of multi-family housing within a half-mile…
The December 4 School Committee meeting agenda included the Superintendent’s regular report, as well as updates regarding negotiations with the Newton Teachers Association, progress on this year’s NPS systemwide goals, human resources, PTO spending, and NPS budget planning. Kathy Shields (Ward 7, Vice Chair) who sits on the SC Negotiations…
On December 2, more than seven hours into the recount for the the Ward 6 Ward Councilor race, Election Commissioner John McDermott announced the results: Martha Bixby had prevailed over Lisa Gordon by fifteen votes (1324 to 1309). The margin had narrowed from when Martha Bixby had defeated Lisa Gordon…
At 8:30AM on Saturday, December 4, approximately thirty-five residents of Nonantum and Newtonville gathered in the Horace Mann Elementary School cafeteria for a presentation by Boylston Properties of its proposed development of market-rate and affordable (under Chapter 40B) apartments at 78 Crafts Street in Newtonville. The project — which Boylston…