Newton’s path forward
This is meant to be read after other article + Lawn Sign Liberalism.
We chose to write a critique of Newton because we know Newton can do better. Newton is full of progressives. Thus, we should not find it difficult to make progress. However, we do. Our zoning laws are old. Our public transport is old. And our ideologies are stuck in the past. We assume that most people reading this are also progressives. The central argument of this project is that as liberals in an unaffordable and unaccepting town, not advocating for affordable housing, better wages for teachers, and a more liberal mindset, is hypocritical. Most people don’t care because they do not understand the scope of the problem. When we grow up, if housing in Newton does not become more affordable or if neither of us win the lottery, we will not be able to raise our families in Newton. The median house price is 1.2 million dollars. We are not arguing that Newton’s problems are unique. I, personally, know many of Newton’s residents and elected officials to be good people. People who reject NIMBYism and Lawn Sign liberalism. We hope that when confronted with a few of Newton’s problem’s, compiled on this website, these Newtoners will recognize them and resolve to fight to solve them. We also want to recognize that we picked a few a local stories and phenomena; there are hundreds of others. If any reader has an idea that they feel is important feel free to email it to me (using the email at the bottom).
We chose to connect many of our articles to federal issues to prove a point: it’s easier to criticize Washington then it is to criticize your home town. We bet that most of the comparisons we drew were agreeable. I.e. we assume readers will hear about housing issues nationwide and agree that it is a huge problem. What they might not realize is that many housing issues are local. NIMBYism and Zoning laws combine to make Newton a very difficult town to build in. Calling this out on a local level has much more of an impact. Next time you are watching the news and hear about housing, slow transport, or other national problems, first think “what can I do about this in my home town.” As Tip O’Neil used to say, all politics truly is local. We wanted to show why liberals who relegate themselves to anti-Trump tweets are not being productive. We can get out and reform Newton into a more equitable city. It just takes time, conversations, and continuous pressure on elected officials. We believe that Newton can build towards a more progressive future and that one day our lawn-sign values will be an accurate reflection of our city’s values.
