17 thoughts on “LETTER: So, What Happened to the Logo Project?”

  1. Thank you, Ms. Scott, for your dogged determination. You shouldn’t have to do this, but I’m glad someone is! It may be “just” a logo, but process is always important. If they don’t hand out medals for citizen journalism, at least they ought to hand out thanks.

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  2. Linda is a very determined person and we are or should be thankful for her following key issues and digging in to find the necessary details. The formation of a logo may not be a big deal for some, but for others it is.

    We are being told that the logo would never replace our historic Watertown Seal depicting our founding, but if you read some of the verbiage in Linda’s editorial, you will see that this comment was made in the records:

    “February 28, 2023 An e-mail sent from Jeanne Ostroff to Sebastian Ebarb Subject: Watertown logos and design guidelines questions

    “Hello Sebastian,

    Thank you for the info you sent about designing a new seal for Watertown. (My underlining). The City and Deputy Managers think a seal should be a longtime process if the City decides to go in that direction.

    This certainly indicates that thoughts have come forth with different considerations that are currently being denied.”

    Another conversation goes like this:

    “March 13, 2024 from Emily Monea to Sebastian Ebarb

    Subject Watertown Brand Updates

    “Hi Sebastian

    Hope you’re doing well. A few updates for you:

    George liked the suggestion of using the City logo for the City Manager’s Office.”

    Why would replacing the city seal in our Watertown Administration Building with some kind of an insignificant logo on the City Manager’s office door even be considered if the plan wasn’t to eventually get rid of the seal?”

    We have already lost so much history in Watertown. We haven’t preserved many historic buildings. History is important to maintain and I hope that people will take this into consideration with this logo/seal issue. Let’s keep the seal and not spend frivolous money to make unnecessary changes.

    How much money has already been wasted or committed to a project that most people didn’t even realize was happening? There are so many more important areas for which we could spend our precious tax dollars.

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  3. Thank you once again Linda, for your time and research on this matter. Aside from the issues brought up about transparency and process, I’m still puzzling over why we need a logo. I understand the trend that many cities have undertaken to wipe a perceived negative history from city seals, and If that is the goal, please, let’s make sure any replacement is recognizable as belonging to Watertown and is representative of a resource or landmark – the river, city hall, the library, etc. The cartoonish magic mirror logo in one of its several iterations stenciled on the side of a Watertown DPW truck or other city vehicle will look like a mobile hairdresser’s truck. It says nothing about Watertown, its history, its natural resources, or anything recognizable as Watertown. I am happy to know that the next round of designs is being opened to Watertown artists who know their city. That’s where the search should have begun in the first place.

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  4. Thanks, Josh. Your words are appreciated! Just trying to shed some well needed light on this situation. Believe it or not, the logo is a big deal to a lot of Watertown residents who feel pretty strongly about our history and how we are represented as a community.

    But, besides that, there is a very old expression: Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves.

    I believe anytime we can call out situations where the public is left out of the process in municipal matters, no matter how large or small, it helps to make residents aware so that other issues have more of a chance of being handled in a transparent and equitable way.

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  6. Thanks, Joan.

    I always appreciate your thoughtful input. Pointing out the specific wording in two key documents adds an interesting context to this conversation. Words, after all, do matter.

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  7. Thanks, Anne.

    Your words echo the sentiments of many Watertown folks that I have spoken with on this issue. The sheer frustration of being kept at arms length and, in essence, feeling like their input is a pro forma afterthought leads to distrust in the community.

    They’re told, for instance, that a “cartoonish magic mirror” represents our historic City…because the experts say so. And then told after they weigh in that they didn’t really mean what they said or that they shouldn’t have weighed in, because they felt strongly about the issue. This is an exercise in frustration and anger for many, and this “process” is reminiscent of an Alice in Wonderland quote, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”

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  8. Erik,

    Thank you. You have reached the conclusion that many other residents have reached, for many different reasons. Now, if we could just get the City (I use “City” to refer to “city administration” here, since, in this case, our councilors didn’t seem to be kept in this loop either) to listen a little better before they spend money that could be used for essential services that have not been adequately addressed for years.

    I call this attention to shiny objects. Sugary desserts are always tempting, but a plain, hearty soup or meat and potatoes are what keeps you going! Then, and only then, does dessert make sense.

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    • Linda:

      I fear that some hidden forces are working toward the elimination of our Seal, like Concord did with historic signs some considered inappropriate for their woke perception.

      Can we get enough signatures to kill this logo nonsense and establish our Seal as the only representation for our City?

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      • “Hidden forces” in the Watertown “deep state”! How you people love to go on.

        Communities across Massachusetts do branding and logos all the time. It doesn’t affect their seals at all.

        But keep digging by all means!

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        • It affects my pocket when my tax dollars are spent on worthless projects in Watertown. But you wouldn’t know about it.

          Reminder, the term “you people” is pejorative. Stop using in it this forum. That goes for “these people” as well, as you have mentioned repeatedly.

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  9. Hi Erik,

    I really am in no position to name the intent (covert or overt) of the designing of a City logo, and, ironically, you’ll notice that with all of the time that went into my research, I still can’t answer these simple, straightforward questions:

    Specifically, from where and by whom did this idea for a Watertown city logo originate?

    How was this artist, Sebastian Ebarb, introduced to the Watertown decision-makers?

    Who were those decision-makers, and what process did they use in making the decision to hire this particular artist and go in the direction that they did with the logo?

    These are very simple, process questions. I’m not asking something incriminating like, “Did you rob a bank?”

    It would be nice if Mr. Proakis would very quickly shed some detailed transparency into the process that he (not our City Council) used. I think that that would be the most honest thing to do, and, selfishly, would save me some time and work.

    If, for some reason, Mr. Proakis finds these questions unacceptable or feels that half answers will suffice, I come from a family where the attitude was intellect was great, but hard work was the gold standard, so I really don’t mind continuing my research.

    As I said in my Watertown News letter, I was simply working on an article on the selected City logo design, when it occurred to me that there was more to the story. But then I changed my mind about publishing what I had.

    Up until last weekend, after I’d spoken at the February 12th Personnel and City Organization meeting and submitted my information to all of the City Councilors, I figured my job was done. I had no intention of submitting this to Watertown News.

    I had a Watertown friend read what I had written. I told this person that I thought that it was enough to submit all of this to the City Council and let them handle it, since the decisions made by our City Manager were ultimately a breach of trust with them.

    My friend asked, “And what if it gets buried?”

    I thought about that for a moment and said, “Then I’ll have to re-evaluate submitting this information to Watertown News.”

    When I realized over the weekend that in the two places where this topic should have been brought up (The City Council Update and the Personnel and City Organization minutes), there was nothing, I decided it was time to publish.

    I’m not assigning blame to some “hidden forces” or assigning some sort of malice to anyone. I simply saw a municipal process gone awry and an information void, and I filled it in a timely manner so that it would be easier for Watertown folks interested in this topic to be informed about what was going on.

    As for your direct question, I’m more a process than a policy person on this particular issue, and I honestly believe that people on both sides of this issue (keep or get rid of the seal) have reasons to feel strongly about them.

    Here is my opinion, and I’m sure that it will not please either side of this argument:

    History is history. Bad things happened, and our founders, especially Saltonstall, who was known for being hauled into jail and court on a regular basis, for charges like beating people without a witness present, were no angels.

    For instance, an historical fact that is on our record books: When the Native Americans in Watertown asked permission to fish the same area of the river near the falls where the settlers fished, the Watertown leaders had just one word for them, “No!” Keeping Native Americans and settlers apart on the river, it is written in our records, was how the settlers “kept the peace.”

    Would I have been happier if they’d designed the seal with the words, “working on peace”? Sure. But they didn’t. And I predict and fear that the very compelling and cautionary tale that can be told about who lived on this land first and how power can be used and misused will eventually disappear.

    I believe that it’s a topic that will never be brought up with Watertown schoolchildren in the future, if our City comes to be represented by, as Anne Civetta called it, “a cartoonish magic mirror.” There will be no context for a conversation about both civic pride and acknowledgement of what historically went on here.

    I know that the spoken intent is to keep the seal for important things, but, as you’ve seen from my research, there was already an on-line conversation about using the new City logo (rather than the historic seal) for the office of the most important public employee and leader in Watertown, our City Manager…slippery slope, I’m guessing.

    So, those are my thoughts, and they’re worth what you paid for them.

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  10. The issue of the seal/logo is one of different perceptions for sure, but they should be separate. I don’t think we need a logo and all the expenses that will be incurred in developing and implementing it in so many areas of our City. Let’s try to retain and maintain some level of history for Watertown.

    I suggest that we leave the seal alone. Although there are different interpretations of the prior injustices between our early settlers and the indigenous people in the area at the time, there can be no negating the fact that Roger Clap, soon after he landed in 1630 via the Charles River, was greeted by the local Indians.

    This is the scene shown on the Watertown Seal and on one side of our Founders Monument on Charles River Rd. This monument has two bas reliefs on either side of Sir Richard Saltonstall’s statue along with the names of dozens of the early settlers. We can readily see the shaking of the hands and the peaceful sharing of fish and bread.

    Situations can change over time as we’ve seen even in the modern day world, but peace should always be the beginning and guiding principle. When we get greedy people with not good intentions involved, we can see that a lot of good is eroded.

    The Treaty of Watertown was signed on July 19, 1776. This treaty was the first to be signed between the new United States (represented by Massachusetts) and a foreign power (the Mi’kmaq and St. John’s First Nations, including the Maliseets.) This information was taken from the Edmund Fowle House website.

    This agreement with these Native Indians was in support of the new nation in its fight against the British. It couldn’t be signed until we were able to declare our independence from Great Britain. This shows that there were ongoing good relationships between different Indian groups and US representatives.

    As a point of information The Edmund Fowle House is the second oldest surviving house in Watertown. At the beginning of the American Revolution it served as headquarters to the executive branch of the Massachusetts government from July, 1775 to September, 1776. The treaty was signed on the second floor.

    Watertown has continued to maintain a wonderful relationship with many descendants of the original Indian tribes over the years. There have been long-time annual memorial celebrations of this special event at the Edmund Fowle House, typically in July around the time of the signing.

    Many of these descendants and their delegates are located in what is now Maine and Nova Scotia, Canada and make the trip here for this historic event so that we can honor them for their part in our history.

    In the last couple of years, this memorial celebration has been taking place at our Watertown Senior Center as the Edmund Fowle house has no air conditioning. This is an event that we should encourage people to attend. Many of the attendees from the Native American groups are aging and some have passed, but this tradition should be continued so people are aware of these details.

    Joyce Kelly of our Historical Society said that 4 Grand Captains came down from Nova Scotia to partake in the event last July. So this seems to be an important event in their history also.

    Let’s leave the seal alone. The Native Indians have been and continue to be part of Watertown’s history. Having them on our seal helps to honor them and our starting goal of peace.

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