VOTE Saturday, EALS Endorsement
Dear EALS supporters
The EALS Advisory Board has endorsed incumbent Selectman Kevin Greeley and we strongly encourage you to vote for him on Saturday, April 10. He is clearly the stronger of the two primary candidates and will work harder to achieve the goals of our growing organization of 140+ active email subscribers and 300+ Facebook fans.
We believe that a livable neighborhood includes walkable and safe streets, good schools, well maintained parks/playgrounds, a vibrant business district, a branch library, diverse housing stock and well-scaled development projects. Mr. Greeley’s career in civic life has helped East Arlington come close to achieving this vision. He has been a strong supporter of the Town’s five-year strategic plan that has minimized teacher layoffs and prevented the closure of the Fox Library. His long-standing ties with our Democratic State Reps, State Senators and Congressmen have helped to bring state and federal money to our community, such as the rebuild of the Hardy and soon the Thompson School and the future reconstruction of Mass Ave. His support for the Mass Ave Corridor plan, the plowing of the Minuteman Path and other issues clearly show his interest in promoting sustainable transportation and conservation.
Mr. Greeley’s primary opponent in the election, Maria Romano, is an impassioned woman who has run a good campaign. From day one however, we have been suspicious of her reasons for running for Selectman and believe that her primary motivation is to use the seat to delay or potentially kill the Mass Ave Corridor plan. While her campaign has spoken of “giving back to her community”, we wonder why she has had no political ambitions until soon after the Board of Selectmen voted to approve the Mass Ave plan? As far as we know, she has never run for Town Meeting despite many years of open seats in her precinct, she has not been involved in any Town Committees and she has not even voted in a local election for the past five years (according to the Town Clerk’s voting records).
Ms. Romano’s politics are not consistent with many of our goals for the “livable” neighborhood described above. Her interest in promoting “public-private partnerships in land protection” (according to her web site) sounds like giving too much control of our parks and other publicly-owned properties like the Crosby School over to developers. Most of all, her impassioned and sometime bitter opposition to the state/federally-funded motorist, pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements to Mass Ave runs completely counter to our vision for a more walkable neighborhood with safer streets. The exaggerated claims about traffic congestion and loss of curb side parking were bad enough, the outright fabrication of delayed emergency vehicle response times, despite counter claims by both police and fire chiefs at the 25% design review hearing, seemed designed to divide the community. She and her group even objected to the use of sidewalk bump-outs and other safety enhancements because of the potential inconvenience to snow plow drivers.
For the EALS Board, the choice is clear: stick with a solid candidate with a successful career and a proven track record supporting our schools, libraries, parks and transportation options. Vote Kevin Greeley on Saturday and let’s keep Arlington moving forward!
Thank you
-Phil Goff and Chad Gibson, co-chairs
The EALS Advisory Board has endorsed incumbent Selectman Kevin Greeley and we strongly encourage you to vote for him on Saturday, April 10. He is clearly the stronger of the two primary candidates and will work harder to achieve the goals of our growing organization of 140+ active email subscribers and 300+ Facebook fans.
We believe that a livable neighborhood includes walkable and safe streets, good schools, well maintained parks/playgrounds, a vibrant business district, a branch library, diverse housing stock and well-scaled development projects. Mr. Greeley’s career in civic life has helped East Arlington come close to achieving this vision. He has been a strong supporter of the Town’s five-year strategic plan that has minimized teacher layoffs and prevented the closure of the Fox Library. His long-standing ties with our Democratic State Reps, State Senators and Congressmen have helped to bring state and federal money to our community, such as the rebuild of the Hardy and soon the Thompson School and the future reconstruction of Mass Ave. His support for the Mass Ave Corridor plan, the plowing of the Minuteman Path and other issues clearly show his interest in promoting sustainable transportation and conservation.
Mr. Greeley’s primary opponent in the election, Maria Romano, is an impassioned woman who has run a good campaign. From day one however, we have been suspicious of her reasons for running for Selectman and believe that her primary motivation is to use the seat to delay or potentially kill the Mass Ave Corridor plan. While her campaign has spoken of “giving back to her community”, we wonder why she has had no political ambitions until soon after the Board of Selectmen voted to approve the Mass Ave plan? As far as we know, she has never run for Town Meeting despite many years of open seats in her precinct, she has not been involved in any Town Committees and she has not even voted in a local election for the past five years (according to the Town Clerk’s voting records).
Ms. Romano’s politics are not consistent with many of our goals for the “livable” neighborhood described above. Her interest in promoting “public-private partnerships in land protection” (according to her web site) sounds like giving too much control of our parks and other publicly-owned properties like the Crosby School over to developers. Most of all, her impassioned and sometime bitter opposition to the state/federally-funded motorist, pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements to Mass Ave runs completely counter to our vision for a more walkable neighborhood with safer streets. The exaggerated claims about traffic congestion and loss of curb side parking were bad enough, the outright fabrication of delayed emergency vehicle response times, despite counter claims by both police and fire chiefs at the 25% design review hearing, seemed designed to divide the community. She and her group even objected to the use of sidewalk bump-outs and other safety enhancements because of the potential inconvenience to snow plow drivers.
For the EALS Board, the choice is clear: stick with a solid candidate with a successful career and a proven track record supporting our schools, libraries, parks and transportation options. Vote Kevin Greeley on Saturday and let’s keep Arlington moving forward!
Thank you
-Phil Goff and Chad Gibson, co-chairs
PS – please note that those of you who intend to be away this weekend, you are permitted to vote via absentee ballot up until noon Friday at the Town Clerk’s office on the 2nd floor of Town Hall. Also, they are open until 7 pm on Thursday evening.
PPS – For those in the following Precincts, there are some great candidates and supporters of livable streets who are running for Town Meeting. They include:
P-4: Nawaaf Kaba (write-in, so you must include his address of 7 Thorndike St)
P-5: Jennifer Susse and Scott Smith
P-7: Tom Robertson, Angela Alton and Todd Bearson (the latter running in a head-to-head race with Maria Romano’s campaign manager)
P-4: Nawaaf Kaba (write-in, so you must include his address of 7 Thorndike St)
P-5: Jennifer Susse and Scott Smith
P-7: Tom Robertson, Angela Alton and Todd Bearson (the latter running in a head-to-head race with Maria Romano’s campaign manager)