Comments for Blogging Belmont

Comment on Town Meeting Live Blog – Extended Dance Mix – May 16 by Sara

Sara — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:11:35 +0000

Yes, thank you Paul!

Comment on Town Meeting Live Blog – Extended Dance Mix – May 16 by Jocelyn

Jocelyn — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:56:04 +0000

Thank you for writing these summaries, Paul. It is really helpful to be able to read them.

Comment on Town Meeting Live Blog – Extended Dance Mix – May 16 by bloggingbelmont

bloggingbelmont — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:46:58 +0000

Yes – I think the take-away last night was that, once again, the town’s elected and appointed leadership showed themselves to be rather clubby and out of touch. With the Butler issue, the leadership at SC, SD and BOS was deaf to what seemed (to them) like a small issue (money wise) but one with a practical impact (hurricane fencing around the playground) and symbolic importance. School Dept. should have jumped on this and found the money they needed to put that park back online ASAP, rather than punting it to the Butler PTA and sticking it on a back burner. They probably get that now.

It strikes me that, often, the folks in power in Belmont – SC, WC, BOS – are talking to one another so much that they forget to ask their constituents and figure out what matters to them.

As for the electronic voting – we definitely need it. Too bad that it had to become a symbol of the political leadership’s “out of touch-ness.”

Comment on Town Meeting Live Blog – Extended Dance Mix – May 16 by Yury Kats

Yury Kats — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:00:40 +0000

Hats off for speaking FOR the electronic voting, Paul! Accountability!

I wonder how it got into the capital budget in the 1st place though, since TM just voted to even consider such system.

Comment on Town Meeting Live Blog – Extended Dance Mix – May 16 by dr2chase

dr2chase — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:49:09 +0000

Ahoy. Note that it sounds like enough money has been raised, that with the additional 19.5k, there will indeed by a “phase one” of the Butler playground, which apparently means play structures, but perhaps less than final landscaping etc. No idea what that means in practice, but it sounded promising.

Comment on Proposition 2 1/2 Overrides: 1999 to 2011- How Does Belmont Compare? by bloggingbelmont

bloggingbelmont — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:51:56 +0000

Hey – these are good points. I think the truth is that there are any number of ways to look at what your “cohort” is. I think one surefire way is to get a room full of Belmont homeowners who are planning to stay and invest in the town – raise their kids here, etc. and ask them: “If you couldn’t live in Belmont, which towns would you look to live in?” Their answers are our peers and our cohort. Some might preface location and choose Arlington, Lexington, Cambridge, Winchester, Watertown – maybe Bedford. Others might focus on the school district and look further out to Concord/Carlisle, Acton, Lincoln/Sudbury. My feeling is: those are our peers. They’re demographically different, but they’re who we compete against to draw new families into town and keep our community what it is.

Comment on Proposition 2 1/2 Overrides: 1999 to 2011- How Does Belmont Compare? by Tim

Tim — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:04:48 +0000

To explain myself better, I looked up the median household incomes of the peer group you selected. Of those communities, only three are within 15% +/- of Belmont. Newton and Acton have median household incomes that are 7% and 14% higher than that of Belmont, respectively, and Lincoln’s is 98% of Belmont’s. Weston, Dover and Carlisle’s median household incomes are 92,77 and 62% higher than Belmont’s. In and of itself this is meaningless. However, these are towns where people pay a premium for the education but also have more means of paying for it. A next step would be to apply commute time as that is also a reason many people live in Belmont/Newton/Brookline and there is the possibility that some of these people are in town more for the location than the school system.

I am on your side of this issue, but like to look at data to help find answers.

FYI, Arlington’s median is 80% of Belmont’s.

Comment on Proposition 2 1/2 Overrides: 1999 to 2011- How Does Belmont Compare? by Tim

Tim — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:35:13 +0000

Paul,

I don’t mean to suggest that people move to Belmont because of median income. My point is that when comparing Belmont to peers and analyzing which of those peers pass Prop 2.5′s, median income will be a strong factor. As you suggest, Belmont is a different beast than Concord due to the socio-economic factors, and those factors play a role in override votes. Newton, though a city, is similar to Belmont in that people pay a premium to live there for the schools and its proximity to Boston, and it has a good amount of 2 family homes. I lived there when they were trying to pass the override for Newton North, and that took a lot of work. Brookline is also similar to Belmont with the same distance/economic mix.

Comment on Proposition 2 1/2 Overrides: 1999 to 2011- How Does Belmont Compare? by bloggingbelmont

bloggingbelmont — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:57:12 +0000

Tim – really good suggestion. The question of what are Belmont’s “peer” districts is an important one. I like the idea of doing median incomes – though I can see problems with that. For one: Belmont is a town with a significant population of multi families and renters, who may be younger workers/families with lower incomes, but also extremely wealthy families (i.e. Mitt and Anne Romney). Looking at median vs. mean income should account for that, but not sure how those extremes could throw off the number that ends up coming out.

An important question, though: do people pay a premium to buy in Belmont based on the median income of the residents or based 1) location and 2) reputation of the public schools? I’d say that – if the question is: how do we keep Belmont great, you need to start with “what makes Belmont good” to begin with – why do people want to choose to live here. That’s probably going to mean looking at a slightly different cohort of peer towns than merely looking at median household income + location. You know??

Comment on Proposition 2 1/2 Overrides: 1999 to 2011- How Does Belmont Compare? by Tim

Tim — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:35:58 +0000

Out of curiosity, how would your sample selection change if you did selected it more objectively. For example, median incomes within +/-X% of Belmont’s median income + within X miles from Boston. Other factors you could add in are average age of residents.

Just a thought.