-Open space funding is important for our future

WHY I BELEVE THAT OPEN SPACE FUNDING IS IMPORTANT FOR OUR FUTURE 

I congratulate the authors of Brookline’s Open Space Plan, our Comprehensive Plan, and our Parks Master Plan for making the finding that we in Brookline place a high priority on  parks, recreation land and other open spaces.  The Town’s purchase at below market value of one of the former Fisher Hill reservoirs admirably reaffirms that conclusion.  I personally give immense value to open space and other means of returning our environment to as close as we can come to how human beings found the world in its pristine state.  Nothing can be more important to our future health and happiness.  

As a Brookline Selectman I will be vigilant both to find new open space and safeguard the relatively little we now enjoy. For example, we should zealously protect the Town’s right to keep our part of Allandale Farm — the rest is in Boston — as open space under a complex set of legal trusts. Since I have taught the law of trusts for over a decade at Boston University School of Law and have litigated numerous cases involving trusts, I believe that I have the expertise to do so. That expertise also has equipped me to implement cutting edge legal mechanisms in our search for sites for more open space. 

     

MY SUGGESTIONS FOR OBTAINING FUNDING FOR OPEN SPACE ACQUISITIONS

    

I  have expressed above my full agreement with the conclusion that open space should be a high priority  for our community. All of us are indebted to the Selectmen, and  so many public spirited volunteers who have written the Plans referred to above.  Likewise, we are very grateful to our neighbors and friends who continue to fight the good environmental fight in such venues as the Brookline GreenSpace Alliance, the Coolidge Corner Planning Committee and the Committee charting the future uses of the second former reservoir on Fisher Hill.  For years I have closely followed their unstinting work.  I have attended some of their meetings and consulted with their leaders. 

If elected Selectman, I am ready to support them in any way I can and to advocate before Town Meeting for approval of their recommendations for open space improvement, funding, and acquisition.  I pledge that in this effort I will use the powers of persuasion I have honed as a criminal and civil trial lawyer and as a Boston University Law School Professor.  I shall welcome the opportunity to apply on behalf of open space the range of skills I possess after writing a book, “Winning Trial Advocacy,” and teaching for decades persuasive public speaking to practicing trial lawyers and law students.   

On the other hand, I am sure that as a community we also recognize the importance  of other needs of Brookline, such as  health, police and fire protection, affordable housing, human services,  services for senior citizens and veterans, preservation of historic sites and buildings, protection of property and neighborhood  values, growth of the  economy and of jobs, better roads, sidewalks,  improved parking and traffic regulations,  and  safeguarding our acclaimed schools. 

If elected Selectman, I shall have to wrestle with the allocation of finite resources among all of these worthy objectives.  The challenge will be particularly wrenching inasmuch as over the next three years we shall face capital investment imperatives at the same time that the budget, especially that of our schools, is in deficit.  I cannot promise to add to the Board of Selectmen a magic wand which will fully fund all our needs.   

What I can promise is that I shall bend every effort to employ symbiotic and geographical relationships to harmonize  the competing values we cherish. Active and passive recreation. may compete with each other for the same open space. They do so in some of our parks where some residents want to walk their dogs and others want to  sit or lie in peace and quiet. As a Selectman I would try to reconcile the active and passive whenever possible.  I hope that a family anecdote will illustrate that Brookline has done it at Amory Park that they can be reconciled.                 

When I settled in Brookline I was an avid amateur tennis player.  I strongly preferred clay courts, probably because I had learned to play on them. I was happy to find them  in both the Dean Road and Amory Parks.  Clay is much more expensive to maintain than hard surfaces.  After a nearby accident flooded the clay courts at Dean Road, the Town decided to economize by rebuilding the courts with hard surfaces.  Thenceforward I played most of my tennis at Amory.                                                                               

One glorious summer day  when all of  my children  happened to be together in Brookline – and when my legs still had normal strength –  we spent a delightful hour  or more on those courts.  As the midday sun began to get to us a bit, we gathered  our rackets and balls.  We were just about  to leave when I suggested that we pause  for a few minutes in the lush greenery of the adjacent Hall’s Pond. We did, and I shall always cherish that moment.  That serene oasis alongside the tennis courts where I had played such carefree tennis before developing my partial leg disability is etched indelibly in my memory.  So is that family outing.  They are among the reasons that   I am thankful to have been able to live and raise  my children in Brookline.            

I hope that this illustration helps you understand why I  am passionate to protect and promote open space, and, more generally, to do public service for all of Brookline.