Looking forward to a wonderful new year as we welcome Jill as our new Library Director! 📕📚 www.brooklinema.gov//CivicAlerts... I would be remiss if I didn’t also give a *huge* thank you to Danielle and Ryan for doing a fantastic job as our interim director & interim assistant director! ❤️

What we lose by being afraid of change: * 400,000 sq ft of senior housing (making it harder for hundreds of grandparents to move closer to their grandkids) * ~15 affordable units (from a net loss of >100 housing units) * 50,000 sq ft of retail … all while increasing the # of parking spots per sq ft

Brookline’s board of library trustees voted Thursday night to enter contract negotiations with Jill Mercurio, currently the director of the Newton Free Library, for the role of library director in Brookline. brookline.news/newton-libra...

Brookline will soon have a new library director, as the Board of Trustees interviewed two finalists for the job this week. It's been over a year since the previous director resigned following staff complaints. Read about the candidates to take over the top spot: brookline.news/library-boar...

Looking forward to meeting (today) and interviewing (tomorrow) the two finalists to serve as our new Library Director! You can learn more about our two great candidates here: brooklinema.portal.civicclerk.com/event/14563/...

Only a few weeks left! Nominate a librarian you love for the 2026 I Love My Librarian Award - they could win $5,000 and the recognition of a lifetime. Nominations close December 15! Submit yours here: https://bit.ly/3yiyT9C

Night 2 (and maybe final? 🤞) of the fall #BrooklineTownMeeting is underway. Here's my guide to all the articles in the fall Town Meeting: bit.ly/fall2025brooklineTM

#BrooklineTownMeeting has begun! Our first vote authorized having a hybrid Town Meeting. We're rearranging the schedule a bit to accommodate meeting participants' schedules - hearing WA 10, 13, and 17 first thing tomorrow.

#BrooklineTownMeeting begins tomorrow night! I've written a guide to all the items on the agenda: bit.ly/fall2025brooklineTM Always happy to see @brooklinenews.bsky.social's coverage, too -- though some of the information in the linked article is already out of date as TMMs file last-minute changes

We had a great time hearing author Mary Copp read her book “Yoshi’s Big Swim” at the grand opening! 📚🐢

Every hour at the library feels golden, but this one actually was 🌅

The fall #BrooklineTownMeeting "combined reports", which includes the most recent versions of each article and analysis from various town boards, have been posted at www.brooklinema.gov/DocumentCent...

It is also worth keeping in mind that @brooklinenews.bsky.social’s reporting likely only happened because the proposed data sharing between CHR / Flock & Brookline Police came up at a public meeting. We need our local and state laws to catch up with technology & provide better privacy protections.

Light up the night - school visibility table for kids leaving after school programs in the New England "standard time" darkness - stickers, lights, LEDs and more free safety fun for riders, rollers and walkers! #bikebus #bikesafety #saferoutes #masrts #srts

A huge thank you to all the families who joined our Pierce bike bus! It was a beautiful morning and everyone arrived at school safely. 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️ Thanks also to folks from the Safe Routes to School task force, the Transportation Board, Biking Brookline, & Brookline Police - your help was indispensable!

Beyond frustrating that we (voters) approved the funding *3 years ago*, yet work still hasn’t begun on most of the fire stations, including the one with a higher cancer rate, where treadmills are inside the garage so firefighters “inhale residue contaminants while running”.

I love the community building aspect and creativity of these grassroots efforts - we’re leading a bike bus at my kids’ school soon and I can’t wait! But in a country where we are spending $1 trillion on defense it shouldn’t be so hard to get kids safely to and from school.

I’m fascinated by the photo editorial choices here — the sign to the right of “resistance is patriotic” is cropped *just enough* to leave the first word of the sign to your imagination but also it definitely says “fuck”.

Thanks to the members of the Friends of the Brookline Library, Library Foundation, Advisory Committee, and most of all interim director Danielle Savin for our behind-the-scenes tour of the Brookline Village library this morning! I especially loved seeing the old materials in the vault and stacks.

Happy #BannedBooksWeek! Check out these adorable displays in the children’s and teen rooms at the Brookline Village library 📚

I ❤️ you, @museumofscience.bsky.social, but your new membership plans are a real downgrade for families who make the effort to take the T or another sustainable transit mode. Membership costs for a family of 4 is increasing by 33% and the only major new "benefit" is the 3 hours of **free parking**.

The Friends of the Brookline Library are hosting their annual book sale this weekend, which began today and continues tomorrow 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. in Hunneman Hall (Brookline Village). Lots of books, games, CDs & vinyl, movies, signed books, and more! Proceeds support library programs!

This is amazing and I love it and I want one but also I cannot get over the fact that this view of the red line makes no sense in real life. Would a Longfellow Bridge / Back Bay skyline really not have worked?!

A bit late to the party but here's your reminder that the articles coming up at the fall #BrooklineTownMeeting have been posted at www.brooklinema.gov/3599/Current... and you can track individual articles' public hearings at www.brookline.info thanks to AC (finance committee) chair Dennis Doughty

The MBTA is making much-needed and long overdue safety and accessibility upgrades to the C line! 👍 Unfortunately there is limited space for the expanded platforms and they’re choosing to prioritize space for cars (preserving left turn lanes and parking) rather than saving mature trees. 👎

This is an amazing before & after. Once again, any "environmentalist" who doesn't advocate for moving as quickly as practical to install protected bike lanes, dedicated bus lanes, & more housing density near transit is failing. There are plenty like this where I live and they should be embarassed.

There have been a lot of really ugly public statements and posts on social media or email groups about this housing proposal but this message in the screenshot below was so positive and so eloquently captured how I hope our community will come together to support this program.

Hey @bostonglobe.com I’d love to see a guide to transit-accessible beaches rather than this car centric list. (My favorite is Old Orchard Beach in Maine — Amtrak stops two blocks from the beach and there’s an arcade, rides, & tons of fried dough and poutine.) 🏖️🎢 www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/08/m...

Today is another heat emergency day in Brookline - but we don't have a town outdoor pool where folks can cool down, play, or take swimming lessons ☀️ 🏊 😎 Please sign the petition in support of building an outdoor pool here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I unequivocally condemn this anti-Semitic act of political violence. My heart goes out to the owners, employees, and patrons of The Butcherie and to all of our Jewish neighbors and community members. Hate has no place in our community.

Please sign this petition to support increased pedestrian safety near the Hayes School and Eliot playground: chng.it/WQ2YxsT5 This item will be on the TBoard agenda next week and you can also show support by sending an email to [email protected]

It took ~13 minutes to get a quorum for the 4th and final night of #BrooklineTownMeeting but we've started off with article 25, a resolution stating Brookline's support for state legislation establishing a Climate Change Superfund.

#BrooklineTownMeeting is in the home stretch! We've started with WA 29, a resolution that declares Brookline’s support for the rights and safety of transgender, non-binary, and gender diverse individuals in our community, including students. The article passed unanimously, 198-0-10. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍💙💗

Happy Pride month, Brookline ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤎🤍🩷🩵

Though I respect & am grateful for the coverage, @brooklinenews.bsky.social has the wrong focus. Despite massive opposition from the Select Board & finance committee, Town Meeting voted for the stronger resident-petitioned version of the zoning bylaw disability accommodations - that’s a big deal 1/3

Thanks to everyone who came out to join or support our Pierce bike bus this morning! We had about 20 students (and about that many adults) ride from the library to Pierce @ OLS with an escort from the police bike unit. The kids had a blast! One student said they want to do this every day 😍 (1/2)

Brookline’s Pierce School/Old Lincoln #bikebus this morning, via my friend Wendy; I came through about 4 minutes later, with a very little kid who couldn’t keep up with the big group but gamely pedaled, pushed, and walked her tiny bike all the way.

#BrooklineTownMeeting continues tonight! Night 2 begins by continuing the budget (Article 9), Community Preservation Act appropriations (Article 10), then taking a few articles out of order. Here's my warrant article summary and voting guide: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

#BrooklineTownMeeting has begin with Article 1, the annual wood & bark article, with lots of wood-related puns. We've also voted to change the order of articles slightly to accommodate various petitioners' schedules:

#BrooklineTownMeeting starts tonight! I've compiled a summary of the various warrant articles and my voting suggestions here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The supposed justification for rejecting this gift, which would have funded positions requested by educators and students, is the need for the SC to demonstrate fiscal responsibility as the town ponders a tax override next year. It’s roughly *1/8th of one percent* of the overall school budget 1/2

Where would you like to see more Bluebike stations in Brookline? 🚲 Please fill out this survey to help the town plan where new stations should be built: brookline.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Crowdso...

Slight corrections here -- I had mistakenly counted the 2-year TMM race in P17 as a contested race but there were 2 candidates for 2 seats. Most numbers have changed by a percent or two. I regret the error.

Some takeaways from yesterday's contested #BrooklineTownMeeting races: * All B4E & BEC incumbents were re-elected * PAX endorsees had the highest election rates regardless of incumbency * Every single non-incumbent who won was a B4E endorsee * Every incumbent who lost was a BBD and not B4E endorsee

Reminder: Drop your mail ballot in a drop-box before 8pm today! Drop boxes are located at Town Hall, Coolidge Corner Library, and Putterham Library. Thanks for being a voter! #BrooklineVoter #B4EVoter

Happy Election Day, Brookline! 🗳️ Thank you to everyone running - volunteering to lead our community at this moment in history is a huge responsibility. I’m grateful for the right to vote for folks I think will best uphold our values & protect us from the hate & chaos coming from the federal gov’t

100 percent this — see PAX, the decades-old Brookline political group that now basically just supports incumbents and the status quo. Formed as a group promoting world peace, they didn’t even support efforts last year to disqualify town bidders who design nuclear weapons.

The corrected LWV voters guide with all P6 candidates accurately included is now available here: my.lwv.org/sites/defaul...

🚨 Attention Precinct 6 voters - the PDF of the LWV voters guide (my.lwv.org/sites/defaul...) has some mistakes. It omits 4 of the 7 TMM candidates entirely and lists one candidate’s response under a different candidate’s name. The responses at www.vote411.org seem more complete and accurate.

This weekend, you can early vote in THREE locations: Putterham Library, Coolidge Corner Library and Town Hall. All are open from 10-4 for early voting today and tomorrow. The full early voting schedule is below.