Your Arlington, your views

By Joyce Fienman and Rebecca Weiss

On Tuesday, May 27, 2008, the Walden Woods Project sponsored a reading featuring award-winning author E. L. Doctorow. Held at the Trinitarian Church in Concord, Mass., Doctorow sampled the story “Walter John Harmon” from his collection Sweet Land Stories. “Walter John Harmon” is the story of the tragedy that befalls a Kansas cult. After the reading, Doctorow took questions from the audience and concluded with a book signing.

In his talk, Doctorow explained how a book can literally come from nothing. He finally overcame a year of writer’s block before writing Ragtime by creating the story of his New Rochelle home and the fictional family who lived after its construction in 1906. Despite some hearing difficulties due to wartime injuries, Doctorow was dynamic and engaging, infusing his talk with understated bits of humor.

Even in his late 70s, Doctorow maintained great vigor and expression throughout the hourlong reading and was incredibly charming in personal interaction.

E.L. Doctorow, famous for his political novel Ragtime, which deals with racism at the turn of the 20th century, is also the author of numerous critically acclaimed works. Among the most well-known are The March, detailing General Sherman’s march to the sea and the destruction he left in his wake during the American Civil War, and Loon Lake, the story of personal discovery during the Great Depression.

Recipient and multiple nominee of the National Book Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Doctorow is one of the greatest writers of contemporary American fiction. Though unwilling to give details on his next novel, we can be sure that it will live up the high standards of his previous works.

As Arlington High School seniors, we first became of Doctorow and his work when we studied Ragtime in our AP English class taught by English Department Head Mrs. Elise Frangos. Ragtime tells the story of three disparate but converging groups: Jewish immigrants, African-Americans, and a WASP family. Though read as part of our contemporary literature unit, this novel will be integrated into the summer reading program for next year’s AP English students.

Arlington resident Mary Trvalik answers the questions with a decided “yes” in a lovely essay reposted from the Arlington e-mail list with her permission:

Rebecca Woodward asks:

> Do I love my street? Do I love my neighborhood?

Well, I have thought about your question for a few days now. At firstI was hesitant to reply. I was worried. Will this start a thread pitting one neighborhood against another? MY STREET IS BETTER THAN YOUR STREET. It’s only a few steps from there to the “newbie vs. townie” heart breakers that spin out of control on the larger Arlington list.

But so far the replies seem so civilized. I think I’ll chime in.

I live over here on Fairview Avenue, one of several streets off of Mystic Street, near the Bishop School. Fairview almost dead-ends at the lower Mystic Lake, save for a tiny private way, Mystic Bank, that connects Fairview, Draper, and Davis Avenues, making for a convenient way in and out of the neighborhood. Still, there isn’t much traffic.

There are many children of all ages on those three Avenues and the connecting private way. On Fairview, a street with eighteen houses, there are twenty-five children under the age of 18 - with the youngest being a set of twins just reaching their three-week birthday. There are several college-age siblings, as well. Good baby-sitting material, if you can get any of their time.

I don’t know if the numbers are as high on Draper or Davis, but I imagine they are close.

The school-age children mostly go to Bishop, but there are kids at St. Agnes and other private schools as well. The kids don’t seem to throw up any walls about this, and they all cross paths at Church or Temple or Hockey or Soccer or Baseball or you get the idea.

It’s nice in the morning on a school day, because the Bishop kids walk to school, and there is a steady stream of children and Moms and Dads headed to the crosswalk. In a pinch, you can shoo yours out the door, and they can catch up with friends. Mine and my neighbor’s kids form a gang and make a great hullabaloo along the way. The crossing guard knows each and every child by name, and worries if someone is missing. She never fails to ask after the one who is at home sick for the day.

Every year in the fall, Fairview has a Block Party, and we invite a few interlopers from the other two streets. The parents all grumble about how much WORK it is, and how BUSY we all are, and then we proceed to make delicious foods to share, and have a grand old time visiting with one another for hours into the cool of the evening. The kids do Arts and Crafts and have a Bike Parade and jump themselves silly in a moonbounce and drink too much soda while no one is looking. We are a pretty social group.

Once, long ago, we thought about moving. We thought about moving to one of those towns with BETTER SCHOOLS. We thought about moving to a house with MORE THAN ONE BATHROOM. We thought about moving to a place with a BIGGER YARD. But we didn’t move, thank the Heavenly Lord.

Instead we voted for an override and volunteered in the schools and walked to the parks and, now, even as we speak, there is a giant twelve-foot-deep hole in my backyard where the addition will go that will hold TWO NEW BATHROOMS. One of them will only be for Mom and Dad. I can hardly wait.

And we will continue to live in this wondrous neighborhood, in this magical town that feels so much like a throwback to a 1950’s place that maybe never existed. We can walk or ride a bike to most anywhere. We haul a dozen books to and from the library every three weeks - a library that is jaw-dropping beautiful inside and out. We play basketball, softball, and baseball. We sled down the hills and skate at the rink and run from the mean old geese at spy pond. We have our favorite Chinese, our favorite Pizza, our favorite salon, our favorite five-and-dime, our favorite ice cream, our favorite STEEP HILL TO DRIVE UP AND DOWN IN THE CAR, our favorite view, our favorite shortcuts, our favorite spot to view the parade, and our favorite spot to view the fireworks and NO YOU CAN’T HAVE A GLOW IN THE DARK NECKLACE THIS YEAR EITHER.

We have all made friends that will last a lifetime, friends that we laugh with, cry with, even the kind of friend one can call at 4:30 a.m. when something goes awry in the middle of the night. You can’t pay money for this. It’s a gift, and I am thankful every single day that somehow I was fortunate enough to receive it.

We are certified newbies - have only lived in this place for fifteen years. But we have planted our roots, and the family tree, so far, is thriving. We are staying for the long haul.

Wish I could tell you of a house for sale nearby. But here is the really nice thing - I don’t think we have a GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD MONOPOLY. If you find a home that will work, I would bet a dollar to a doughnut (as my Dad always says) that you will find a neighborhood that will work too. My only suggestion is to invest of yourselves in your neighborhood and your town as though it were treasure, and treasure it will indeed become.

Best of luck to you!

Mary T.

The following was written by Rep. Will Brownsberger and sent to his constituets:

The House finished debating and amending its version of the state’s budget a little after midnight last Saturday morning [May 3]. The budget action now moves to the Senate.

For five long days and evenings, House members all worked to advance the various causes that they felt were underfunded in the committee draft budget. The final budget does reflect the priorities of the Commonwealth as filtered by the members.

It was a long week, but really one of the best times to get know one’s colleagues in the building — a good deal of the time is spent waiting for staff to complete documentation of agreed revisions.

I was struck by how little attention the major dailies paid to the actual work of the week. On reflection, I suppose there were two reasons. First, of course, some colorful conflicts distracted them, but second, the budget, although well and thoughtfully assembled, was devoid of really big news.

The major spending decisions had been made earlier. All of the state’s leaders remain fully committed to the new health care law. And all remain committed to the five year plan for increasing education aid to cities and towns. Previously passed laws commit specific funding amounts to school building and support of the MBTA. State pension contributions are determined by an administrative schedule.

One major decision, which was briefly debated, was to continue to use the consensus revenue estimates developed in January. This made sense — on the one hand, the national economy has worsened; on the other hand, Massachusetts seems to be outperforming the rest of the country and current revenues seem solid. And, as the budget heads through the Senate into conference committee, better information will become available.

Together, increases in health care costs, local aid and the other fixed commitments accounted for the bulk of the estimated revenue increase. So, in order to maintain basic programming in the face of rising energy, labor and other costs, there will be a need for additional funds — the cigarette tax increase, the corporate tax package, and a modest draw from reserves.

But there was no room for any major new initiatives. Last week’s efforts by House members served mostly to very marginally increase certain important larger accounts — for example, an additional $2 million on top of the $225.8 million for the special education circuit breaker. Additionally, House members fought for small dollar earmarks of importance to their district — for example, in my case, $140,000 to continue developing plans to improve the Amelia Earhart dam so as to better control flooding in Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge and other communities low-lying near the Mystic River.

So, from the perspective of a metropolitan journalist, there were many little stories, but nothing of broad interest that could compete with the personality-based stories for newsprint.

Looking beyond the immediate budget process, as I listen carefully, I hear a pretty strong consensus among the state’s leaders on three major points: First, the electorate will not take kindly to any broad-based new taxes, at least not unless we decisively curb practices perceived as abusive — unreasonable pension deals, overuse of police details, etc. Second, we need to find a way to control health care costs because their rapid growth is squeezing out other necessary spending. Third, many legitimate state needs are unmet, most notably maintenance of our infrastructure, especially roads and bridges.

So far in this session, we have nibbled at the revenue question, increasing cigarette taxes and adjusting corporate tax rules, but staying well back from any tax increase that the general public would bear. We have also nibbled at some of the reform issues, passing a mild adjustment of police detail practice and a modest change in retirement benefits for MBTA employees. Even these modest changes have generated considerable bitterness among affected employees. The Senate has initiated a package to control health care costs, but this is a famously difficult challenge. We declined to bite on the casino proposal, in my view wisely, although it might have offered some modest financial assistance.

Perhaps the boldest set of financial measures that we have undertaken is the program of infrastructure bond bills proposed by the Governor. The House will take these up shortly. These bills respond to a clear need and most of us are eager to see the particular benefits they offer for our districts. But Treasurer Cahill has raised a yellow flag about their affordability — Massachusetts is already carrying a relatively high debt burden. In turn, the administration replies that the bond bills are multi-year authorizations and if our revenue picture worsens we can slow the issuance of the debt.

In summary, I think the real story of the budget season so far is one of cautious moves in the face of economic uncertainties and hard political dilemmas. “There are bold pilots and there are old pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.”

The real progress in this legislative session is coming in the economic development and environmental areas. In the next few months, conference committees will complete work on a very far reaching energy and environmental package as well as a life sciences package. Negotiation of these major packages consumes huge amounts of time for legislative leaders and senior administration officials. That may be as far as we get, although I’m hopeful that we’ll get further.

I’m making an effort to document a lot about our work through www.willbrownsberger.com. But please don’t ever hesitate to contact me directly — my cell phone is 617-771-8274 and my e-mail is willbrownsberger@gmail.com. I truly appreciate feedback.