Your View
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After a 23-hour session, the state Legislature has decided to close the 2021-2022 session by declining to act on billions in tax relief.
Our leaders voted in favor of sports betting, mental health and gun control. But Democrats said they were being "fiscally responsible" by pausing talks over tax-relief and economic-development spending. They want to see how much money in state revenue must be returned to taxpayers in the light of a 1986 ballot law that capped state revenue growth.
Outgoing Republican Gov. Charlie Baker insists the state can afford to do it all, the House and Senate plan to return to parts of the package over the coming months -- a risky move while in informal session when one objection is enough to block a measure.
What do you think?
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YOUR VIEW: Opinions: AG, taxes, Hill's, news loss, poetry, Mugar, Alewife
Letters: Emailing Advocate & Star? Copy it here; it'll be published first
YourArlington's policy about letters to the editor UPDATED Aug. 13: YourArlington welcomes opinions of all kinds from local residents, including national issues so long as you can draw a local connection. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in June on Roe v Wade must have echoes here, too. Letters are reviewed for fairness, factualness and taste. This site welcomes letters about any issue that stirs the public mind. Longer opinion pieces are also welcome. NOTE: When email...
No. 123: Red Letter Poems 3.0: Pointed lyric
UPDATED Aug. 12: Steven Ratiner, Arlington’s poet laureate, sought submissions in February 2020 from Arlington residents to contribute to "a rather unconventional, utterly delightful way to inject poetry into the everyday." It was to remain secret until its debut during April’s National Poetry Month. Then the coronavirus hit. In June 2021, he offers Red Letters 3.0. PUBLISHED: I was asked to write an essay for Askold Melnyczuk’s Arrowsmith Journal about what I learned from the first y...
Alewife Brook sewage campaign: Dredgery, Globe notices
Worst Offender: Somerville’s SOM01A combined sewer overflow. UPDATED Aug. 11: Precinct 13 Town Meeting member Kristin Anderson, who is monitoring the combined sewer overflows into the Alewife Brook, provided this update via her blog, Save the Alewife Brook. The Environmental Protection Agency’s mention of dredging the Alewife Brook in its response to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s April 2022 draft scope for the new CSO control plan has revived the discussion ab...
For transparency, resident backs Palfrey for AG
This letter was written by Guillermo S. Hamlin, a Precinct 14 Town Meeting member who works at Tufts Technology Services and previously ran for the town Board of Assessors in '21. Did you know that Massachusetts ranks 46th in the country on government transparency? Read that back again and sit with that realization. Is that really what we’re willing to pay for? Seriously, the State House regularly fails to report back to its taxpayers, and that’s most of the time. This is unacceptable, we need t...
Beacon Hill delays tax relief; what do you think?
After a 23-hour session, the state Legislature has decided to close the 2021-2022 session by declining to act on billions in tax relief. Our leaders voted in favor of sports betting, mental health and gun control. But Democrats said they were being "fiscally responsible" by pausing talks over tax-relief and economic-development spending. They want to see how much money in state revenue must be returned to taxpayers in the light of a 1986 ballot law that capped state revenue growth. Outgoing Repu...
At a loss without Advocate? Click here ...
This letter was written by Howard Winkler, a former Arlington resident who lives in Lexington: Click image to access >> After living in and being active in Arlington for 54 years, I moved to a retirement community in Lexington. I now sleep in Lexington, but my heart is in Arlington. It was sad when the Advocate shut down [merged], as it connected our citizens, and recorded the life of our community. Now, it would appear that our citizens are in the dark when it comes to knowing what the va...
Mugar project opponents raise $9,515 of $50k goal in legal fight
UPDATED July 24: The Coalition to Save the Mugar Wetlands has set an initial target of $50,000 to support the efforts of the residents of East Arlington who filed suit last year to prevent the construction of Thorndike Place, a 124-unit, four-floor rental building near documented wetlands. Since June 30, the group has raised $9,515. Arlington Town Meeting and the Select Board do not support this development. Neighborhood residents say they have spent about $18,000 in legal fees to date. For...
Your Businesses
13Forest Gallery: Among businesses offering tax-free weekend
UPDATED Aug. 12: 13Forest Gallery, which reopened at 167A Mass. Ave. on May 21 after having been…
Thrive Juice Cafe reopens after '21 fire; see ACMi video
Derek Fleming smiles in 2019. UPDATED Aug. 8: Eleven and a half months after fire closed Thrive…
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Bob Sprague
Letters: Emailing Advocate & Star? Copy it here; it'll be published first
17 January 2022
Let the public know with a letter to the editor. For details, see https://www.yourarlington.com/easy...
Your People
Town rights commission cofounder dies at 66
McHugh UPDATED Aug. 4: Susan Rachel McHugh, a cofounder of the Arlington Human Rights Commission in 1993 and its first chairwoman, died in June after a brief illness at age 66. Those who worked with her remembered her immediately after her June 20 passing. The Boston Globe published her obituary…
'Tiger Wizard,' an AHS grad, drums up a future
Julian Carpenter, Berklee drummer. / Liam Garcia photo Musician Julian Carpenter, a 2019 Arlington High School grad, aims to feel the beat of the big time as he is among the performers at the Lollapalooza Festival, four days of sounds in Chicago that runs from rap to electro pop and indie to…
Housing Authority
Local, state, federal funds support ambitious AHA projects
Hauser electrical panel. / Melanie Gilbert photo 'We're grateful to the CPA and Town Meeting.’--…
Housing authority revives $2m special-needs funding
Atwood House on May 23, 2022. / Melanie Gilbert photo 'I’m reaching out to the state.'-- Jack Nagle…
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Your Arts
13Forest Gallery: Among businesses offering tax-free weekend
UPDATED Aug. 12: 13Forest Gallery, which reopened…
Respond by Aug. 24 tp help ACA plan its future
The Arlington Center for the Arts is in the midst…
Call for art: exhibit seeks 2D art to be displayed at local cafe
There is a current call for wall art, such as…
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Firsthand perspective: What has happened to your local newspaper? You can help
The Arlington Advocate has been the town's paper of record ...." -- Town website The weekly remains…
Your Housing
Arlington is facing a housing crisis: Experts, residents explain their views
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ACMi catches 'National Night Out' at Thompson
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Koutoujian joins leadership network for behavioral health conditions
Middlesex Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian is joining a select group of local officials as the inaugural…
Animal-control officer on paid leave, chief confirms
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