YourArlington.com | Your news, your views in Arlington, Mass.

YourArlington celebrates 6th year

Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 December 2012 09:47 | Written by Publisher |

| Hits: 579

YourArlington, an alternative online source of local news and opinion since 2006, celebrated its six birthday on Monday, Dec. 10.

The site is happy to include among its advertisers Arlington's Leader Bank.

The number of people following the site's news and opinion has grown significantly this fall: November and October were its best months ever overall. See the numbers here >>

In September, the site revamped its look, and since then, it has added new software for Your View, the site's only blog, a well as for user's comments. The site has added a column of restaurant review written by Arlington residents.

The site's main goal remains, as it has always been, to welcome Arlington residents to report -- and express opinions about -- their town.

A more recent direction is to expand the website's reach through a partnership with news outlets in Medford (InsideMedford.com) and Cambridge (Cambridge Day).

YourArlington has been a partner of Boston.com's Your Town sites since January 2010. Under that connection, YourArlington's main content connects via a feed to Boston.com.

The partnership with two other local sites includes shared news and advertising. Leader Bank is among those shared advertisers. To that end, YourArlington's new look offers a wider array of ad spots, with continued modest pricing. See rates here >>

As for content, watch for features that focus on people, familiar and unfamiliar, as well as continuing Arlington news that offers angles competitors miss.

The site's platform, open-source Joomla!, has migrated to the latest version, 2.5.8, a change that permits, among other things, faster site loading.

To find out about advertising, see www.yourarlington.com/advertise In the past year, the site has averaged about 11,000 unique visitors monthly.

To report and express an opinion of some length, register to join the 452 people who have signed up for the site. See www.yourarlington.com/join

Is there a viewpoint you believe other local media is not expressing or a story it is not telling. Join and share. Your voice is welcome.

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Category: Media outlets / YourArlington

Cut out voters in finance revamp? No, moderator says

The following viewpoint was submitted by John D. Leone, moderator of Arlington's Town Meeting: The most important vote at this year’s Town Meeting, was not the passage of our budget and capital plan, the leaf-blower bylaw compromise (passed) or the plastic water bottle ban (failed). It was the unceremonious and near unanimous, no-action vote on Article 22. For those unaware, Article 22 sought permission from Town Meeting for the selectmen to file home-rule legislation to allow for the creation of an appointed "coordinated department of municipal finance" and the dissolution of the elected treasurer’s position. In essence, this misguided article wanted to eliminate the elected treasurer position and replace the entire office of the treasurer with a new coordinated finance department headed by an appointed director of finance under the authority of the town manager. ...

An artist’s lament

The following letter to the editor was submitted by Tova Speter, lead artist for the Arlington Bus Depot Community Mural Project. Find out more about her work at www.tovaspeter.com: Read a news story about this issue here >> I am devastated, frustrated, disappointed and saddened. Devastated, on behalf of the community mural that I facilitated in Arlington that was recently destroyed without warning. Frustrated, on behalf of the students at Dearborn Academy who worked so hard to design and paint a mural that represented the colorful past and present of the town. ...

Scoop poops out

I would like to commend "Menotomy Observer" – aka Steve Harrington – for first reporting about the dumped snow in the athletics field behind Stop & Shop. The report was published Feb. 13 at Truepersons.com. He got the scoop, but he failed to document key claims with respect to the field. He writes: "The DPW used the high school practice fields for a snow graveyard resulting in extreme damage and runoff that will affect spring sports." In fact, the damage will require a $100,000 repair, as the town manager told me. ...

Why I quit over mural miscommunication

This is an edited version of the statement handed out at the Thursday, May 2, meeting of the Arlington Cultural Commission. It is titled “My Odyssey – by Scott Samenfeld, Former member of the Arlington Cultural Commission.” He is a musician and a consultant to nonprofits as well as to YourArlington: So, before I begin to recount the details of my odyssey, I want to explain my byline above. I have resigned from the Arlington Cultural Commission in protest over the way the town has mishandled this entire situation. I have worked for several years in Arlington to build support and momentum for creating more opportunities for art and artists in Arlington. It was with great sadness, disappointment and frustration that I resigned, but it became clear that it was a necessary thing that had to be done in order to get this to be dealt with appropriately and fully and to maintain my own integrity. That having been said, I will begin the story. Keep this in mind: "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem." News story: Is Arlington art-friendly? ...

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