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Brookline Newcomer

Town election campaign sidesteps substance

Published in the Brookline TAB

April 6, 2000






There's a town election in four weeks, but I don't know much about who's running for office or what they want to accomplish. I had imagined election campaigns in Brookline might be lively events, with issues-focused debates and substantive position statements. Yet all I've really seen are a few thousand signs telling me to vote for Robert Allen for Selectman, some signs for incumbent Don Weitzman, and a couple for Roberta Winitzer for Library Trustee. None of the candidates for any office have clarified publicly and widely why anyone should bother to vote for them.

Perhaps longtime residents have some secret knowledge they're reluctant to pass on to newcomers. Maybe they all hold secret meetings where the candidates elaborate their vision of a better Brookline, or maybe longtimers instinctively know the issues without having to discuss them. And maybe the people who matter in town like it this way, keeping the rabble ignorant so that we don't muck things up on May 2nd.

The TAB's too-few election articles haven't done much to help sort out the players. It's interesting to know that Allen is "Brookline's Own" and that he wants to do a good job and give young people a voice. And ordinarily I'm sympathetic to people who want to kick out incumbents. But it would be help to have a decent reason.

On Allen's website I learned that he's "committed to providing the necessary resources to fund our schools" and that he'll "advocate for additional park land and open space, a more comprehensive affordable housing policy and neighborhood traffic calming." He'll also "encourage appropriate commercial development" and "provide strong and thoughtful leadership, and promote communication and participation within the community." This all sounds good. But then again, who would disagree, at least publicly? It's not much to go on when trying to figure out if Allen would be better or worse than whichever incumbent he's trying to unseat.

But at least his comfortable generalities are more than the other candidates provide.

I learned in the TAB in mid-February that Allen and incumbent Donna Kalikow both say they're "fiscally conservative and socially liberal," which worries me but doesn't tell me as much as I'd like, and that Weitzman is a "leftist-progressive," which at least is in the right ballpark, and that Mark Levy, who I hear is running even though the TAB hasn't yet said so and I haven't seen any evidence, describes himself as "basically progressive." But labels are only marginally more useful than signs.

No doubt the issueless election stems from the political instinct to avoid controversy. And it's true that polite blandness suffices for those voters who believe political philosophy is irrelevant. But I can't be the only Brookline resident who'd like to know what differentiates the candidates. When do they disagree with one another, and why? On which issues did Weitzman and Kalikow differ while serving together on the Board? Which recent decisions do Allen and Levy reject?

Or does it all really just come down to labels, personality, and ambition? Vote for me because it's my turn. Trust me.

People tell me Brookline used to be a progressive town. But even though many Selectmen and Town Meeting Members call themselves progressive, or liberal, or half-liberal, or almost-leftist, even though they show up in droves at Brookline PAX meetings, at the local level the town today hardly exemplifies progressive principles.

Residents may get all hot and bothered about gun control and abortion rights, they may raise money for Quezalguaque and shed tears for oppressed people everywhere. But a progressive town wouldn't let the budget slide and then accept overdevelopment just to make ends meet. It wouldn't cave in on affordable housing, townwide recycling, or adequately funded schools. It wouldn't let chain stores displace locally owned businesses. Expressing concern for issues such as these is easy. Functional policies would be more useful.

So I don't know whether the town's remaining progressives have given up, whether they're just keeping out of sight because they're outnumbered, or whether they're only telling people on the right mailing list what they're up to. Whatever the situation, before I abandon my basically anarchist impulses to vote, I'd like to see some detailed indication of why I should bother.

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