Brian Yates

Check them out!

• 40th Massachusetts Regiment

• Blasting and other Noise Issues

• Branch Libraries

• Bring Back the Chestnut

• Charleston Principles

• Community Preservation

• Comprehensive Planning

• Emerson Community Center

• Friends of Hemlock Gorge

• Historic Preservation

• Human Differences

• Library and  Branch Libraries

• Main Street—The Way to Revitalize Neighborhood Business Districts

• Million Solar Roofs Community Partnership

• My Experience

• Needham Street and Northland Development: 2009 Update

• Neighborhood Activist

• Open Space

• Over-development

• Public Buildings Preservation Task Force

• Recycling

• Schools Newton North, and the Newton South Playing Fields

• Tax Relief

• Underground Railroad

• Visit Revolutionary Middlesex County

• 9/11 - Never Again in Newton

A Look Towards My New Term in 2012

The next term will focus on improvements to our city properties including the Braceland Playground in Upper Falls, the Historic Burying Grounds, the Civil War Memorial in the Newton Cemetery, and the Angier School in Waban, the last village school in Ward 5.

I’m a sixth generation (at least) Newtonian. I graduated from the Emerson School like my father before me.  I borrowed books from the Upper Falls Branch Library as a child unable to get to the Main Library at the opposite corner of the city, and as an adult trying to pick up books in brief stop offs on my way home from  work. I graduated from Meadowbrook Junior and Newton South High School.  My education in Newton enabled me to earn a B.A, in English from Boston College and a Master of Urban Affairs degree from Boston University. I spent many years as a neighborhood activist and political junkie

I came to the Board to support the values of our villages, including branch libraries, village schools, neighborhood parks, and village businesses. I’ve fought a fierce rearguard action to protect these values even as public financial policies and limited local powers led to their decline.  I’ve learned how to write and pass ordinances and resolutions to promote and defend village values. I know how to compromise to find a way to blend the opinions of my colleagues in a productive way. I opposed the recent Branch Library closings as well as the earlier ones, and made sure that the people of the affected neighborhoods had basic branch library book collections on which to build community libraries.

As past Chair of the Zoning and Planning Committee and a past member of the Public Facilities Committee and current member of the Community Preservation Committees, I worked to preserve the quality of life in our city, particularly the environment and history of the city. I’ve been a consistent and innovative voice for solar energy and recycling. As President of the Friends of Hemlock Gorge, I’ve led the revitalization of this beautiful park.

As a sixth generation resident of the city with ancestors buried in at least two of the Historic Burying Grounds and a resident of Historic Upper Falls, I care deeply about the historic buildings and landscapes of our city.  I sponsored, co-sponsored, or otherwise supported the Landmark Ordinance, Demolition Delay Ordinance, and all of the three Historic Districts proposed since I joined the Board.  I’ve also carefully monitored them  and proposed changes when they became onerous or burdensome.

I’ve sponsored  nationally recognized amendments to the Zoning Ordinances to control the plague of monster homes in the city.  When new and older elements of the Zoning Ordinances became unreasonable for some property owners without any public benefits, I appointed a Zoning Task Force of knowledgeable residents and professionals from relevant disciplines to find ways to update the ordinance to relieve undue burdens without sacrificing neighborhood values and carefully guided the hearing and review process to enact amendments that fixed previous problems without creating new ones.

As member and later Chair of the Public Buildings Preservation Task Force, I helped to begin the Historic Preservation of many of our historic public structures.  I hope Mayor Warren will revive the Task Force with new members and a broader mandate to preserve historic landscapes as well as buildings.

I have tried to keep our legislators and the Massachusetts Municipal Association focused on the ending the telecom tax exemption and on giving cities and towns the same power to design health care plans for their employees that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has. 

I appreciate the opportunity to have worked on these and other issues on your behalf, and I look forward to continuing to do so in the future. Please do not hesitate to contact me to express your views on any topic before the city or to seek information about city matters.
For more information on my record and plans for the future, please read my position papers that are listed to the left.  If you have direct questions email me at BYates@newtonma.gov or call me at (617) 244-2601.

My home address is 1094 Chestnut Street, Newton, Massachusetts 02464.