Walking down my own block in Allston Sunday afternoon, I came upon discarded TVs, destroyed furniture, and broken beer bottles. I have seen many parts of Allston treated more as a temporary staging or dumping zone than as a neighborhood. That is why I was so happy to see this article on the newsstand at my local convenience store:

[Roughly a dozen volunteers] met with the Allston-Brighton North Neighbors’ Forum on Aug. 2 and 3 to plant trees and bushes along Everett Street between Lincoln and Adamson streets...

“This is a site that’s been pretty neglected,” said Mattison. “There are these sort of bands, these slivers and patches, of the neighborhood that have gone neglected for too long, and [it’s] too east to forget they are there.”

From Commonwealth Magazine: Homegrown campaigns often work if a lightening-rod issue is on the ballot, but when the issues are more mundane, it isn’t so easy, particularly when voters are working long hours or are newcomers to politics. An alternative, at least on one end of the ideological spectrum, is One Massachusetts, which provides free training sessions for groups organizing Proposition 2 1/2 override campaigns. The year-old, Boston–based nonprofit was spun off from the Public Policy Institute, a liberal group that promotes community activism. Colleen Corona, a member of the leadership team at One Massachusetts and chairman of the board of selectmen in Easton, remembers the “ Eureka !” moment she had in 2006, when receiving invaluable tips from a campaign manager working for an elected official. At the time, Corona was organizing a Proposition 2 1/2 override campaign in her hometown.

 

“The information got us going, and without it we could not have run our campaign,” she says. “I realized that I wanted to help other struggling campaigns in any way I could.”

 

Colleen's picture was not featured in the Commonwealth Magazine article. This photo was taken of Colleen training local advocates on municipal budgets at the ONE Massachusetts Statewide Proposition 2 1/2 Convening in Boxboro on May 31, 2008.

From the July 28 Patriot Ledger:

Holbrook... Searching for ways to ease the tax burden on aging residents, the town has inaugurated a new program allowing them to work for the town in return for credit against their real estate taxes... The pay will be the state minimum wage – $8 an hour, and, at least in this first year, there will be a $500 cap for each participant. There is also only one $500 credit per household. Studies have also shown the program also helps towns because when elderly residents sell and move, their homes are often purchased by a families who add children to the schools.

Well at least Holbrooks most famous homeboy, former State Rep. and former Chief of Staff to President George Bush, seen here with local senior citizens, should have enough in his savings acount so he won't have to work at the local library (still open) for $8 bucks an hour to get a $500 credit on his property tax.

In the wake of a narrowly-defeated Proposition 2 ½ override campaign, Ashland town officials are now convening a General Government/School Financial Operations Ad Hoc Committee, charged with evaluating the current fiscal operations of the town government’s finance department and the school department’s business office, according to the Boston Globe.

Since being passed into law in 2001, The Community Preservation Act has helped communities across the state save public areas threatened by development, rescue historic gems from the erosions of time, and create much-needed affordable housing units. These funds are currently being threatened by the lack of state funds sustaining the CPA, while a recent bill, filed by Sen. Cynthia Creem, is designed to close these loopholes, and secure state funds for the CPA. More information on communities that are working to utilize the CPA, and how your community can realize the benefits of the Act can be found at the Community Preservation Coalition.

Can a consortium of businesses do a better job of promoting the public good than the city of Boston?

Anti-government activists in the United States often complain that their local, state and federal government should be run more like a business. “If we operated our government like a business,” the argument goes, “we could have better services and lower taxes.”

So now that a group of downtown businesses calling themselves the Greenway Conservancy have stepped forward claiming they will help develop the Rose Kennedy Greenway by pooling private donations, it’s worth questioning how much of the taxpayers’ money they will save.

Good quotes about about residents working together through their government:

In a Saturday OPED in the Herald, Rep Steve D'Amico points out that our current tax policy that providing tax incentives to the movie industry is costing us a bundle.

Worth every penny some people think!!

The movies have come to Massachusetts in a big way. It seems that every week there is another story in the news about the success of the film production tax credits enacted by the Legislature in 2007. Hundreds of good high-paying jobs! Hollywood East! There is now serious talk about building one or more movie studios here.

Some stories just make you smile, and it's good to see the Metro covering the good deeds our friends and neighbors are accomplishing in our communities! Now where did I put that paintbrush?

Dorchester Pitching in Rogelio Buckley, 5, is happy to pitch in and help clean up his favorite park.

One town looking to a local college for money!

In this case, it’s Stonehill College in Easton, which pays $20,000 a year to the town of Easton to offset what it costs the town to provide services.

As Selectwoman Colleen Carona says “We’re looking for every way we can to maximize our earning power.”

Every city and town in Massachusetts is facing a budget crunch brought on by rising costs and a stream of state aid that has been reduced by more than 40 tax cuts in the last 10 years. And, like many cities and towns in Massachusetts, Easton is taking a hard look at its relationship with Stonehill.