Watertown News (https://www.watertownmanews.com/author/guest-writer/page/696/)
To the Editor,
If your wondering if the CPA money will be spent responsibly, just look at what the Town Council just approved. In a 7 to 2 vote on Tuesday October 25 they voted to spend $800,000 to take a home on Winter Street, across from the old police station. Why is the town buying this house? To extend a bicycle path!! Is this responsible use of taxpayer’s dollars?
Almost all of the money that funds the legalization of marijuana comes from out of state Washington, D.C., special interest groups. It is all about the money for them. All of the vote “no” money comes from those concerned with public health. That alone should tell you something. Joan Vennochi’s Vote No Globe article on Friday outlines how this ballot question was written by the proponents and lacks many of the safeguards which it would need if passed.
One Drop of Love, a multimedia one-woman show exploring the intersections of race, class and gender in search of truth, justice and LOVE comes to the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown November 4 and 5, the center announced. One Drop of Love is written and performed by Massachusetts native Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni. This extraordinary one-woman show produced by Cox DiGiovanni, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, incorporates filmed images, photographs and animation to tell the story of how the notion of ‘race’ came to be in the United States and how it affects our most intimate relationships. A moving memoir, One Drop of Love takes audiences from the 1700s to the present, to cities all over the U.S. and to West and East Africa, where Fanshen and her father spent time in search of their ‘racial’ roots. The ultimate goal of the show is to encourage everyone to discuss ‘race’ and racism openly and critically.
The Watertown Historical Society announced two upcoming events, one about the history of the China Trade and the second seeks to find homes for family photos from the 1940s and 1950s. Massachusetts and the 19th Century China Trade
A Slide-show and lecture will be presented by Doug Stewart on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016 at 7 p.m. at the Watertown Savings Bank Meeting Room in the Watertown Free Public Library, 123 Main Street, Watertown, MA 02472.
Two hundred years ago, greater Boston was the richest corner of the nation, thanks to the tea, spices, porcelain, silk, and other luxury goods that daring local shipmasters brought back from East Asia. The early nineteenth-century China Trade merchants of Massachusetts included the new nation’s first millionaires. Many Boston-area institutions, from MacLean Hospital and the Museum of Fine Arts to Theodore Lyman’s Waltham estate, were built in part with China Trade wealth.
To the Editor:
I hope Watertown voters will vote yes on Question Five to join the 161 other Massachusetts Communities, including our abutting neighbors in Waltham, Belmont, Newton and Cambridge, that have adopted the CPA. Watertown residents have contributed over $2 million to this fund for more than the past 12 years and have helped lots of other communities. While I like these other towns and cities, and in fact I represented all or part of every one of the above listed communities in the legislature, I would like to see Watertown benefit like other communities have! In fact, the CPA has been so successful that NOT ONE community out of 161 has ever repealed it. There is a cost of approximately ten dollars per month for the average homeowner, with exemptions for low and moderate income folks, but the state provides matching fund of varying percentages thereby making it a good deal for communities.
Fellow Watertown residents please don’t fall for this ballot question #5. The CPA is a bad deal for all of us and will leave the town in future debt that will limit progress for the future. I do not see any great need for taking on the liability of this tax increase. Most “open space” upgrades and projects to rehabilitate or restore historic buildings should be achieved within the community and leveraging businesses to help or selling off under utilized property. The money the state potentially matches IS NOT ‘found money.’ This can change at any time under many circumstances and the town is then on it’s own to supplement that expense through bonds with interest or additional taxes or fees.
The Watertown Education Foundation and the Watertown Community Foundation announced they are teaming up to offer a new School Grants Program for the 2016-2017 academic year. We are excited to announce that $35,000 is available to seed innovative programming for Watertown’s public schools. Applications will be available on the Watertown Community Foundation website (WatertownFoundation.org) starting on November 1, 2016. Completed applications are due on December 16, 2016 and grants will be awarded by January 20, 2017. It is our hope that this new joint program will provide a more streamlined process for the teachers, administrators, and not-for- profit organizations working in our schools, giving them more time to focus on our students.
The Watertown Senior Center won first place in the 25th Annual Scarecrow Contest sponsored by the Watertown Mall. Mall officials announced that the winning entry was the pumpkin-headed scarecrow is dressed in a tuxedo with his cane resting on his chair and reading a copy of the Watertown Senior News. The scarecrows were on display during the later half of October, and mall visitors could vote for their favorite.