Belmont Citizens Forum

Belmont’s Student Bikers Cut School Traffic

Oct 282024

Belmont’s Student Bikers Cut School Traffic

Test and photos by David Chase This fall, we solved a school crowding problem by moving two grades from the middle school to the new combined middle and high school. However, with almost 50% more students arriving every morning, this move aggravated an already-bad traffic problem on Concord Avenue. The new combined school has 2,128 students. If each one of them traveled in a car through the single-lane Goden Street entrance, the line would take over an hour to clear. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen; many students carpool, many walk, many get dropped off a short distance from the high school [READ MORE]

Profiles in Belmont: Peter Struzziero

November/December 2024 Comments Off

Oct 282024

By Elissa Ely Eight hundred people a day used to visit the Belmont Public Library on Concord Avenue when the building existed, and few of them ran into Peter Struzziero, the library director. Even fewer run into him now. You would need to hang a right off Grant Street onto tiny C Street, past Department of Public Works trucks and equipment, into a cavernous but immaculate town garage the size of a warehouse, and through a door that appears out of nowhere. It’s a little like spelunking, except there are windows. The library’s reconstruction project is well underway, hopefully to [READ MORE]

Waltham Rail Trail Makes Slow Progress

Newsletter, November/December 2024 Comments Off

Oct 282024

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. The Massachusetts Central Rail Trail (MCRT), when complete, will extend 104 miles along the former right of way of the Massachusetts Central Railroad (MCRR), connecting Northampton on the Connecticut River to North Station in Boston. Design of Belmont’s 2.1 mile segment of the MCRT is proceeding in two phases. Phase I (Brighton Street to Clark Street Bridge) will be 75% complete by the end of October, with 100% design expected in early 2025 and construction scheduled to start in 2026. When Phase 1 is completed, cyclists and pedestrians will be able to travel east from Belmont [READ MORE]

Town Meeting to Decide MBTA Zoning

Construction and Housing, Newsletter, November/December 2024 Comments Off

Oct 282024

Below are three articles on the MBTA Community zoning (3A rezoning) proposals that will come before Town Meeting this November. An Overview of 3A By Taylor Yates This fall, Belmont Town Meeting will consider a plan to comply with the MBTA Communities Act, a law passed by the state to increase the supply of housing across 177 towns. Each town, including Belmont, is required to zone for a specified amount of multifamily homes across a specified number of acres. Belmont must zone for at least 1,632 homes across a minimum of 27 acres. After two years of work by both [READ MORE]

November/December 2024 Newsletter

Newsletter, November/December 2024 Comments Off

Oct 242024

Read the November/ December 2024 Newsletter PDF In this issue: Town Meeting to Decide MBTA Zoning This fall, Belmont Town Meeting will consider a plan to comply with the MBTA Communities Act, a law passed by the state to increase the supply of housing across 177 towns. Belmont must zone for at least 1,632 homes across a minimum of 27 acres. Read more. Waltham Rail Trail Makes Slow Progress Repair of the rusting nineteenth century truss bridge and installation of a new deck for path users was included in the Waltham path design package, and was also part of the [READ MORE]

Autumn Avians Brighten Belmont

Newsletter Comments Off

Aug 232024

By Fred Bouchard This is a selective survey of Belmont birds that you might observe in Belmont from October through December, or even into winter as our climate warms. Four arbitrarily selected environments highlight our tour: two of the town’s “birdier” (and, coincidentally, more visited) locales, Rock Meadow and Clay Pit Pond, Belmont Backyards, and Little Pond. Rock Meadow: American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal These familiar endearing species share the common trait of sexual dimorphism: gals and guys don’t dress alike! Male goldfinches’ plumage shouts “yellow and black!” in the breeding season, when their conical seed-searching bills turn gray to pink, [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Victory Gardens Remain Vibrant

Environment, History, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, Open Space, September/October 2024 Comments Off

Aug 232024

Belmont’s Victory Gardens Remain Vibrant

By Jeffrey North Victory gardening in Belmont has never been more popular (local food production activity during World War II notwithstanding). One of the largest and oldest continuously active community gardens in the Boston area, Belmont’s Rock Meadow Victory Gardens consists of 132 garden plots of varying sizes, typically ranging from 12 by 12 feet to 50 by 50 feet. The gardens cover about three acres of land at the Rock Meadow Conservation Area along Mill Street, between Trapelo Road on the south and Winter Street on the north. After glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago, Native Americans burned the land [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Trees Enrich Town Streetscape

Newsletter, September/October 2024 Comments Off

Aug 232024

By Vicki Amalfitano, Lucia Gates, Eva Hoffman, and Adam Howe What makes you feel at ease when you drive down a town street? Would it be as comfortable on a hot summer’s day without shade trees? Tall, beautiful oak, maple, and birch trees; magnificent beech trees, flowering dogwood, magnolia, and cherry trees enrich our streets and yards. They fill our senses with their beauty, and they cool our homes. They take in the carbon dioxide we breathe out, and they release the oxygen we breathe in. We are grateful for the trees’ benefits and their positive impact on the value [READ MORE]

Profile in Belmont: Wendy Murphy

Historic Preservation, History, September/October 2024 Comments Off

Aug 232024

By Elissa Ely “What is that house?” Wendy Murphy thought the first time she saw the mansion at 661 Pleasant Street: elevated, magisterial, remote, uninhabited, yet somehow alive. “Is it haunted?” The William Flagg Homer House is neither inhabited nor haunted, though it is alive with architecture and art. As president of the Belmont Woman’s Club, Wendy became one of its protectors. Her decade-long tenure exceeds term limits, though not for lack of a successor search. “I’m like a general contractor,” she says ruefully, “and the problem with being productive is that no one wants to be that busy.” The [READ MORE]

Vision for a Better Belmont: Paul Joy

Newsletter, September/October 2024 Comments Off

Aug 232024

This article is the sixth installment in a series of interviews with Belmont leaders about their vision for Belmont’s future. Jeffrey North conducted this interview. It has been edited for length and clarity. – Ed. Belmont’s Economic Development Committee (EDC) was formed in 2020 by the Select Board following the completion of the Belmont Business Strategy. Its role is to develop, implement, and update the recommendations in the Belmont Business Strategy, in conjunction with town staff and departments. BCF Let’s start with how you see the Economic Development Committee’s (EDC’s) vision and strategic role in fostering Belmont’s growth and development. [READ MORE]

Town Works to Make Streets Safer for All

September/October 2024, Traffic Comments Off

Aug 232024

Town Works to Make Streets Safer for All

By Sue Bass If you’ve noticed more speed bumps on Belmont’s streets, it’s not your imagination. They are a small clue to a new direction the town hopes to take: to slow traffic and make our roads safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Two major projects are on the horizon, if construction money can be found: signalization and pedestrian amenities at Huron Avenue and Grove Street, and two roundabouts at Concord Avenue and Mill and Winter Streets. The Winter Street roundabout will need some political magic in addition to money. Meanwhile, two quicker projects are about to get underway. A $432,000 [READ MORE]

Group Plants Cambridge Front-Yard Forest

July/August 2024, Plants Comments Off

Jun 252024

Group Plants Cambridge Front-Yard Forest

An abridged version of the article appeared in the July/August 2024 BCF Newsletter. Group Plants Front-Yard Forest in Cambridge By Susan Filene, Tori Antonino, Judy Perlman, and Ali Kruger The first Miyawaki forest in the northeast was planted on public land in Cambridge in September 2021. (Miyawaki Forest Boosts Biodiversity, Resilience, BCF Newsletter, May 2022). Similar little forests have been planted or are planned for nearby communities, including Somerville, Brookline, Watertown, Natick, and Worcester. It occurred to me that people could do something similar, on a smaller scale, in their urban/suburban yards. We could replace lawns with native species of [READ MORE]

New Connections Coming to Mystic Greenways

Environment, July/August 2024, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Jun 252024

New Connections Coming to Mystic Greenways

By Isaiah Johnson It’s a great time to enjoy Greater Boston’s parks and paths as we head into the middle of summer. Whether you walk, bike, or run, the Mystic Greenways are great places to get outside and enjoy fresh air. At the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), we are excited to see the path network along the Mystic River grow more connected every year, linking parks and greenways from the Mystic Lakes to Boston Harbor. The vision behind the Mystic Greenways is to connect 25 miles of paths, improve hundreds of acres of parklands, and engage thousands of community [READ MORE]

Belmont Boasts Bounteous Birds

Environment, July/August 2024, Newsletter Comments Off

Jun 252024

By Fred Bouchard Most of us try to cozy up to Mother Nature now that we’re increasingly climate-conscious, especially during longer days and presumably carefree hours of summer. Whether you’re in the garden, open spaces, or on woodsy walks, our home town offers a variety of eco-friendly locales to commune with Ma Nature’s little winged ambassadors. I offer four likely places, each hosting two not-obvious, strictly seasonal denizens that you might readily identify with your attentive ear and sharpened eye. We go from high altitude to low, and throw in an easily overlooked hotspot in nearby Cambridge. A good guide [READ MORE]

Rodenticides Are Killing Massachusetts Wildlife

Environment, July/August 2024 Comments Off

Jun 252024

Rodenticides Are Killing Massachusetts Wildlife

Will Authorities Step Up? Courtesy of the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic A coalition of Massachusetts residents petitioned the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) in May to suspend the registrations of anticoagulant rodenticide products that are killing eagles, owls, and other wild animals throughout the Commonwealth. The petition—prepared by the Harvard Law School Animal Law & Policy Clinic—was submitted on behalf of bird rehabilitators Erin Hutchings, Jodi Swenson, and Linda Amato of Cape Ann Wildlife in Essex; mammal rehabilitator Jane Newhouse of Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford; Marci Cemenska of Save Lexington Wildlife; James Joyce II and Patricia [READ MORE]

Belmont Mosquito Control Services Explained

Environment, July/August 2024 Comments Off

Jun 252024

The Role of the East Middlesex Mosquito Control Project By Jeffrey North Mosquitoes can be more than just a summer nuisance; they can carry diseases like West Nile virus (WNV) and Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). The East Middlesex Mosquito Control Project (EMMCP) works to protect Belmont residents from these diseases. Established in 1945, the EMMCP is a regional public health agency dedicated to controlling mosquito populations and minimizing the risk of mosquito-borne diseases. Serving 27 cities and towns across the greater Boston area, the EMMCP employs a team of entomologists, biologists, and environmental specialists to keep mosquito activity in check. [READ MORE]

Profiles in Belmont: Robert McLaughlin, Sr.

July/August 2024 Comments Off

Jun 252024

Profiles in Belmont: Robert McLaughlin, Sr.

By Elissa Ely There is a temperament best suited for success in law, especially in the area of litigation. There is a temperament best suited for success in life, especially in the areas of personability and contentment. It seems unlikely that the two temperaments could coexist serenely in one character. Please meet Bob McLaughlin: indispensable town exemplar, and proof of the possible. He is chair, co-chair, or member of vital Belmont committees almost too numerous to count; senior and managing Boston law firm partner; white-haired scuba diver, water-and-downhill skier; sailor and seven-continent traveler (with no wish to see a penguin [READ MORE]

Concord Bike Lane May be Increasing Cycling

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, July/August 2024, Traffic, Transit Comments Off

Jun 252024

Concord Bike Lane May be Increasing Cycling

By Dan Eldridge This August will mark two years since the restriping of Concord Avenue, a project that repainted the lines on the road to switch the positions of the biking and parking lanes. Separated (sometimes called protected) bike lanes are against the curb and are usually separated from traffic by bollards, islands, or raised platforms: there are no plans to install bollards on Concord Avenue. In each case, a barrier is created so cyclists will encounter fewer vehicles and feel more secure. In the case of Concord Avenue, separation is indicated by painted lines and parked cars only. Separated [READ MORE]

Vision for a Better Belmont: Jeff Birenbaum

July/August 2024, Newsletter, Town Committee Meetings Comments Off

Jun 252024

Vision for a Better Belmont: Jeff Birenbaum

The stated goal of the Planning Board is to protect and preserve the character and the quality of life that defines Belmont (www.belmont-ma.gov/planning-board). Jeff Birenbaum is chair of the Belmont Planning Board. BCF How would you define Belmont’s character and quality of life, in a few sentences? Birenbaum Belmont, Massachusetts, is known for its great neighborhoods, excellent schools, vibrant community life, and keen sense of history. Its character and quality of life are shaped by its close-knit community feel. Residents value Belmont’s suburban charm, cultural diversity, recreational amenities access, and commitment to environmental sustainability. Preserving these aspects while responsibly managing [READ MORE]

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