Media partner
Your View (site blog, not mine personally)
Your View is the place for opinion at YourArlington.com. It is the site's only blog. Please submit your opinions to be considered for publication on this site. The best opinions are those supported by facts. You cannot expect to be published if your views lack factual support or if you make personal attacks. For your views to be published, your full, real name is required.
1 minute reading time
(171 words)
In a dark time, town provides a guiding light
New streetlight at Lafayette Street, East Arlington. / Adam Auster photo
For years, just before Christmas, I have published two poems -- Eliot's "Journey of the Magi" and Yeats's "Second Coming." These searching verses express, for me, some of the confusions that this season brings.
I have decided that Covid-19 and its variants are confusion enough this season.
Let's turn our attention from darkness of questions to the light of answers. Guiding us is Adam Auster, an East Arlington resident who has kept an eagle eye on town issues affecting our roads and those who navigate them via his blog, Word on the Street.
In a segment titled "Seeing the light," Auster reports that the town has installed a streetlight near the crosswalk at the corner of Lafayette Street. He tells the story with the light of context, history and personal impact.
Read it here >>
Dec. 16, 2021: Plan for Chestnut intersection repairs in motion after email-glitch delay
This news and accompanying viewpoint was published Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021.
Location (Map)
By accepting you will be accessing a service provided by a third-party external to https://www.yourarlington.com/
YOUR VIEW: Opinions: MBTA, Roe, Alewife, racism, film, Ukraine, letters, poetry
T plan sharply cuts town's transit-route options
Adam Auster, in "Word on the Street," his long-running transportation blog, reports unsettling news for Arlington bus riders. Under the headline "Arlington largely cut off from Alewife T under MBTA proposal," he writes: "The 350 bus, running once per hour from Alewife to Burlington via Arlington Center, and the 62, would be the only connections to Alewife from Arlington if a new bus plan for the T goes into effect. "The plan, part of a system-wide revamp of bus networks, also includes some...
Alewife Brook sewage campaign: Support from Ellen Mass
Worst Offender: Somerville’s SOM01A combined sewer overflow. UPDATED May 14: Precinct 13 Town Meeting member Kristin Anderson, who is monitoring the combined sewer overflows into the Alewife Brook, provided this update. Ellen Mass of Cambridge, former president, Friends of Alewife Reservation, wrote this letter of support. Dear water protectors to Save the Alewife Brook, After 20 years, your water quality campaign for watershed conservation is a great boon to the residents of the Alewi...
No. 110: Red Letter Poems 3.0: 'Make it new'
UPDATED May 13: 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 ye...
Letters: Emailing Advocate? Copy it here. Roe v. Wade?
YourArlington's policy about letters to the editor UPDATED May 8: YourArlington.com welcomes opinions of all kinds from local residents, including those about the U.S. Supreme Court's view of Roe v Wade. 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 emailing a letter to The Advocate, consider copying YourArlington at the same time. Your opinions will be publi...
Friedman on Roe: 'We won't be silent'
Sen. Cindy Friedman has spoken out against a draft Supreme Court decision that lays out a legal case to overturn two key abortion decisions: Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. YourArlington partner Patch reported May 5 that the draft, which was published by Politico Monday night, shows that the court is on the path toward rescinding abortion access, which would lead to it being outlawed in many states. Photos of Arlington protest >> However, Massachusetts is one of...
Town, school staff learn about racism in April
Arlington town and school employees participated for a second year in sessions by YW Boston’s 2022 Stand Against Racism campaign aimed toward expanding knowledge about race and equity. Throughout April, the town’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Division was the host for four separate virtual sessions. The purpose of the Stand Against Racism campaign is to spread awareness and inspire action to eliminate racism. Sessions held empowered employees to broaden their knowledge of racism and...
Reviews: Brattle revives Lynch’s ‘Inland Empire’; Somerville’s ‘Hard Boiled’
This review by Tom Meek was originally published in Cambridge Day, a YourArlington partner. Film Ahead is a weekly column highlighting special events and repertory programming for the discerning Camberville filmgoer. It also includes capsule reviews of films that are not feature reviewed. Local focus The Independent Film Festival Boston wraps up its phenomenal 19th run at The Brattle Theatre this week. For tickets and information, see The Brattle website. It’s “May...
Support Ukraine, oppose bias: Town groups seek action; watch ACMi videos
UPDATED April 22: The Arlington Human Rights Commission, the Disability Commission, the LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Commission and the Diversity Task Group of Envision Arlington on Friday, March 18, issued the following statement on the war in Ukraine: We support Ukraine and everyone affected by the Russian invasion. As of this writing, more than 3.2 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring Poland, which has taken in 1.9 million refugees, as well as Romania, Slovakia, Hungary an...
Town of Arlington to LGBTQIA+ students: You belong
Submitting the following news summary including opinion about a community conversation were Susan Ryan-Vollmar, cochair of the LGBTQIA+ Rainbow Commission, and Christine Carney, cochair of the Human Rights Commission.Dr. Roderick MacNeal at community conversation. We’re only a quarter of the way through 2022, but the year has already been a tough one for LGBTQIA+ people, especially transgender children and adolescents and their parents. Lawmakers across the country have filed a record-break...
Your Businesses
Chamber update: SCORE gathering held; Barkery opening Thursday
The Arlington Chamber of Commerce announcements: Join us for the complimentary Small Business…
13Forest Galley to reopen on Mass. Ave. Saturday
13Forest Gallery is reopening at 167A Mass. Ave. on Saturday, May 21, from 4 to 6 p.m., after it…
Wally the Green Monster at Del's Lemonade ribbon-cutting
Wally cuts the ribbon at Del's as Comeau and Rep. Sean Garballey are among the participants.…
Apply for 2nd round of ARPA grants for small businesses by June 7
The Transformative Growth Grants Program is accepting applications from Arlington businesses and…
Latest comments
John Yurewicz
Alewife Brook sewage campaign: Support from Ellen Mass
05 March 2022
The Thorndike Place apartment and pavement construction will re-direct natural underground aquifers ...
Bob Sprague
Letters: Emailing Advocate? Copy it here. Roe v. Wade?
17 January 2022
Let the public know with a letter to the editor. For details, see https://www.yourarlington.com/easy...
Housing Authority
Tenant president, representative flex authority
Aging Menotomy Manor windows and facade due for facelift. / ABACUS photo Communication, budget,…
Housing authority tackles projects, ongoing and planned
I’m getting tired of hearing, ‘We’re looking into this. We’re looking into that.'" -- Winslow Tower…
Electrical upgrade OK'd following Chestnut Manor fire
Panels in the 57-year-old building 'dated.'-- Jack Nagle The Arlington Housing Authority (AHA) in a…
Your People
Retired Arlington police lieutenant dies at 58
Lt. Dan Kelly Lt. Dan Kelly, a retired member of the Arlington Police Department, died Tuesday, May 3, after fighting cancer for several years, Chief Julie Flaherty said in a report by YourArlington partner Patch. Kelly, 58, served 32 years as a decorated member of the Arlington Police Department.…
Younger than 5: 4th album for Arlington musician
Sulinha Boucher “We Should Be Kind." Listen to it here >> Sulinha Boucher, an Arlington musician for 30 years who is originally from Brazil, has recorded her fourth album for children, “We Should Be Kind." Perhaps you have heard her at the Robbins and Fox libraries, where she has performed for the…
Film premieres pony tale: When 2 boys went to Montreal
Tony and Jeff Whittemore head for Montreal. / 1967 family photo UPDATED April 29: In 1967 two young boys and their beloved pony took off on a monthlong adventure that brought them fame, fun and a wealth of great stories. Tony Whittemore, 11 at the time, and his brother Jeff, 9, drove a pony cart…
FACEBOOK BOX: To see all images, click the PHOTOS link just below
Support YourArlington
An informed Arlington
keeps democracy alive
YourArlington is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Your contributions are tax-deductible.
Wednesday Newsletter
Your Arts
Glimpses of artists behind Heights window effort
On May 7 a group of Arlington artists flocked to…
Arlington Heights Spring Fling Festival Saturday
Hip harpist Deborah Henson-Conant to perform from…
Dallin Museum temporarily closed for installation of new Indigenous Peoples Gallery
Preview of panels featured in the Dallin Museum’s…
Your Fund-raisers
Latest Notices
Your Schools
Your Police, Fire
Know signs of stroke -- act F.A.S.T.
May is Stroke Awareness Month According to the CDC, every year more than 795,000 people in the…
Fall River man stole car, goods, police say
A 30-year-old Fall River man faces five charges after his arrest Monday, April 11, following what…
Watch senior coffee with chief at Town Hall Auditorium
ACMi tapes Coffee with the Chief: UPDATED April 1: Police Chief Juliann Flaherty presented a senior…
Your Town
Development
Phase 2 of revitalized Whittemore Park underway
Whittemore Park: The old ...... and the renewed, with phase 2 to come. UPDATED May 11: Construction…
Arlington is facing a housing crisis: Experts, residents explain their views
Katie Mogg graphic When Annie LaCourt moved to Arlington over three decades ago, she was excited to…
Raitt leaving Arlington to lead regional planning agency
Raitt Jennifer Raitt, director of planning and community development since 2016, has accepted the…
Agendas
Site Partners
Arlington Community Media, inc.
Arlington Community Media, inc., been reporting about the town since 2005 -- and long before it…
Cambridge Day: News just up Mass. Ave.
What's going on just up Mass. Ave. in Cambridge? Find out at Cambridge Day, a site of news and…
Arlington Patch
Arlington Patch has been reporting about the town since 2010. The national site with local outlets…
Comments