LETTER: Watertown Affordable Housing an Inside Story, Part Two

By Linda ScottWatertown Resident

Is There Any Other Way? – What other Strategies can we use to add to Watertown’s housing stock? People, there just has to be a better way or a combination of better ways for us to provide affordable housing and grow our community. Here are just four possible approaches:

1) One way that we could add significantly to affordable housing units in Watertown would be by banning STR’s (short term rentals … AirB&B’s) in Watertown. There are hundreds of them in Watertown.

Holiday Makers Market Coming to Mosesian Center for the Arts

The following information came from the Mosesian Center for the Arts:

On November 25 & 26, the Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving Weekend, join Mosesian Arts for our first Holiday Makers Market! Crafters, creatives, artists, and artisans from Watertown, Greater Boston, and around New England offer a wide range of affordable, giftable, one-of-a-kind creations.

Watertown Social Services Resource Specialists Given Latino Excellence Awards at State House

Wayside SSRS Clincians Maysa Ramos (second from left) and Sophia Suarez-Friedman (second from right) received Latino Excellence Awards from at the State House. Also pictured are State Rep. Steve Owens (right) Kimberley Hutter, Sen. Will Brownsberger’s District Director. (Courtesy of Wayside)

Watertown’s two Social Service Resource Specialists, Sophia Suarez-Friedman and Maysa Ramos, recently received the Latino Excellence Awards at the State House.

LETTER: Watertown Affordable Housing, an Inside Story, Part One

By Linda ScottWatertown Resident

I have a quick transcript from a Watertown Affordable Housing Trust meeting, where Brett Buehrer, Senior VP of O’Connor Capital Partners (New York) is discussing plans that his company has for a very large apartment building on Main Street, where the Post Office is currently located. There is an initial discussion with the Trust. Buehrer comes back a few minutes later to discuss something that he “forgot.”

Watertown Scouts Collecting Food for the Watertown Food Pantry

Watertown Scouts will be collecting items for the Watertown Food Pantry. (Courtesy of Watertown Scouts)

The following announcement was provided by Watertown Scout Pack 30 and Troop 30:

Help Scouts feed Watertown

Pack 30 and Troop 30 scouts are flyering their neighbors this week, hoping to collect bags of groceries from doorsteps Nov. 18. It’s part of a drive we call Scouting for Food, and we’ll collect tons of food for the Watertown Food Pantry, the largest one-day drive serving our community.

James Beard Award Winning Chef Cooking in Watertown Indigenous Food Week

The following announcement was provided by the Pigsgusset Intitiative:

Starting on November 16 and for one week only, diners can sample award-winning Indigenous cuisine prepared according to recipes by Mashpee Wampanoag Chef Sherry Pocknett, 2023 winner of the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Northeast. Branch Line restaurant in Watertown will feature Chef Pocknett’s butternut squash soup, corn cakes, and cranberry chutney as part of Watertown’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration and in recognition of Native American Heritage Month. In 2022, Branch Line hosted the first Indigenous Food Week with Chef Pocknett.