Bill Ackerly and Ellen Mass of the Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR)  have sent the following letter sent to Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis, Vice Mayor Denise Simmons and City Councillor Minka vanBeuzekom, chair, council's environmental committee.

The Friends of Alewife Reservation (FAR) and its Board of Directors wish to inform you of our growing concerns surrounding the Alewife Reservation and its development proposals from the McKinnon Company and its many subsidiaries, and any additional real estate developers that the City is permitting in the area. 

FAR is a group that affirms the priority of smart-growth affordable housing development. Our goal is environmental open space protection in the age of climate change for Cambridge, because we are in a low-lying plain near the Atlantic ocean, and because we enjoy the great gift of inhabiting an urban wild as part of our municipal property on the Mystic River watershed, which is protected by US-EPA and by our Mystic River Watershed Association and its Mystic Steering Committee which meets regularly with state agencies about the watershed.

Two letters to the editor in the March 3 Boston Globe, one by an Arlington Town Meeting member, make basic and essential points about development along Route 2 affecting Arlington:

by Brian Rehrig of Arlington

NIMBYism is easy. It requires little thought or judgment, just a mindset of "don’t build anything near me, and don’t bother me with facts." Paul McMorrow falls prey to its counterpart: the assumption that any opposition to a development proposal is based on nothing more than selfish, unthinking NIMBYism.

In his Feb. 28 op-ed "The NIMBY playbook," McMorrow dismisses the fight against development of the Belmont Uplands site adjoining the Alewife Reservation as snobbish opposition to affordable housing, ignoring that the opposition is led by the Belmont Conservation Commission. This is a debate about the land, not about any specific project.

As publisher of YourArlington.com, I apologize for providing to the public private information about Arlington regular- and special-education students.

The information, on a draft map showing proposed lines for the town's seven elementary-school boundaries, was public from 8:20 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 18, as reported in a news story.

A preliminary corrected map was posted on my site early that afternoon, and a link to the final, corrected map was published later that afternoon.

I apologize to all who felt this intrusion.

The following opinion was submitted by Rep. Sean Garballey, a Democrat representing Arlington and West Medford in the 23rd Middlesex District.

On Nov. 5, the MBTA started a maintenance project to address one of the most safety-critical areas: the floating concrete slabs in the Red Line tunnel between Alewife and Harvard stations. While this project is vital to prevent train derailments and reduce breakdowns, it unfortunately will have a major impact on everyone that relies on weekend Red Line service during the winter. The Red Line service between Alewife and Harvard will be shut down each weekend, except for the weekends of Christmas and New Years, from now until March 4, 2012.

With the appearance of four people before the School Committee on Oct. 13 seeking to reinstate the athletics advisory committee, the public saw the polite, determined face of those who seek what's best for Arlington sports and finances. This watchdog effort also has an anonymous personna who says the distratict is "awash in funds."

A website whose manager declines to use a real name has reported, amid snarky commentary, some positive news about Arlington public-school finances. True Persons included a lengthy post about controversy over fees for athletics in November 2010, after the issue became public. 

Most recently, "Menotomy Observer," the True Persons' writer, reported Sept. 28 that the Arlington public schools had received since July more than $500,000 in so-called circuit-breaker funds and that the administration had failed to inform the public.

Under an item headlined "Arlington Public Schools – Awash in Money," the site also called on the administration to update its budget website links to reflect money from the $6.49 million tax override, which voters supported June 7.

Vance Gilbert, a nationally known musician from Arlington, presented a rare "unplugged" concert at Town Hall on Friday, Oct. 14, sponsored by Harvard Square's Club Passim. Called "An Evening of Unamplified Vance," it celebrated the release of his CD "Old White Men."

Read the review by Matthew Lambert, Boston Music Scene Examiner >>

Plimpton, a member of the Unitarian-Universalist congregation who has written about Arlington history before, offers a 54-page compilation gleaned from a variety of local sources. The author's commentary is brief and set off in italics.

Is this too narrow a subject? It's not if you are drawn to Arlington history, particularly the persistent theme of traditional vs. modern.

The photos, the accounts from local newspapers, the opinions expressed in interviewed -- all are worth reading.

Consider the photos. They range from the contrasting images on the cover -- the "New England-style" steeple of the 1856 meetinghouse hard against the horizontal geometry of the building completed in 1981. Similar photos are shown below.

The comment posted to YourArlington was from "Kay." No last name.

The subject line was "Yuck." The comment, not yet published but sent to me for approval, was: "Worst haddock I've ever tasted."

It was not published at the story to which it was linked. Why? No full name provided.