Letters

LETTER: More Than 100 Join Tesla Takedown Protest in Watertown

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The Tesla Takedown in Watertown on March 1. (Copyright 2025 Joshua Touster)

On Saturday morning, March 1st, over 100 people showed up at the intersection of Bridge Street and Pleasant Street near the Watertown Tesla Service Center to participate in a standout targeting Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk. 

The standout was part of a national protest of Elon Musk and his unelected role in the current Trump administration. Known as the Take Down Tesla Campaign, www.teslatakedown.com, the campaign urges people to sell their Tesla  cars and stock and to join the movement to protest Musk and the Department of Energy Efficiency (DOGE). 

(Copyright 2025 Joshua Touster)

Many people who attended were from Watertown and adjacent communities: Brighton, Cambridge, Newton, and Waltham. But some came from as far away as Worcester. There was a lot of support for the protest from those who drove by as several different chants were called out, one that was particularly popular was “Hay, Hay, Ho, Ho, Elon Musk has got to go.” Protest signs referenced the parallels to the rise of Nazi Germany, the current threat to democracy, and the takeover of our federal government in the form of a soft or administrative coup. choosedemocracy.us/what-is-an-administrative-coup

A protest rally that was held later in the day at the Tesla dealership on Boylston Street in Boston drew over 300 participants. The Boston Tesla protests will continue on a weekly basis Starting on Sunday, March 9th, and continuing on Saturdays beginning on March 15th. Stay tuned for a possible future standout in Watertown. 

Tesla Takedowns were held in Watertown and Boston on March 1. (Copyright 2025 Joshua Touster)

Eileen Ryan of Watertown and Janet England of Brighton were the two organizers of the Watertown Standout on Saturday.

Letters

LETTER: Thoughts on Hiring of Federal Employees & Deal with Ukraine

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Dear Editor,

I have considered myself a Liberal; however, my Wife Mary has said “you are not as Liberal as you think you are”. Therefore, I have considered myself a Practical Liberal. To me everyone seems cowed by President Trump and his new henchman Musk. However, I have thought Elon Musk or some other Oligarch has been there all along. As a former federal official, no one, even Democrats are telling you that “No” U.S. federal departments and agencies can simply create positions on their own without oversight and authorization.

Around Town

LETTER: Take Watertown’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Survey

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Dear Editor,

I write to highlight the following on Watertown’s ADA survey. From the website:

ADA Survey

Help support Watertown and its commitment to accessibility. Watertown is working with Kessler McGuinness & Associates, LLC (KMA) to develop an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Self-Evaluation and Transition Plan to ensure residents and visitors have access to all facilities, programs, and services. An important part of this planning process is providing opportunities for the public and people with disabilities to offer input and voice concerns. This survey is intended to gather preliminary data to assist the planning team in identifying and prioritizing any barriers to access for individuals with disabilities at Watertown’s facilities or within the programs and services it currently offers.

Around Town

OP-ED: Watertown Backs Public Housing Revamp, Addition of Affordable Housing

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The Watertown Housing Authority will team with Preservation of Affordable Housing to renovate the Willow Park complex. (Courtesy of the WHA)

By Mark Pickering

Watertown is again taking the lead in addressing the Massachusetts housing crisis. The city’s goal this time is to rebuild Willow Park’s public housing and add affordable units to the project. Since Watertown OK’d the development, our neighbor to the south has taken steps to add more all-affordable housing as well. The Boston Planning and Development Agency has OK’d a 63-unit all-affordable project and a 52-unit one, both in Roxbury.

Around Town

OP-ED: Housing Group Recommends Steps to Address Housing Discrimination in Watertown

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Last week, the WestMetro HOME Consortium, a partnership of 13 regional communities of which Watertown is a member, released the results of a fair housing audit study that it conducted from March 2023 to January 2025. The Consortium worked with Suffolk Law’s Housing Discrimination Testing Program to test the prevalence of illegal race- and income-based discrimination in the housing market, pairing an applicant with a white alias with another with a “racially identifiable” Black, Hispanic, or Asian alias, or an applicant who posed as someone offering to pay market rate with one who posed as a housing voucher recipient. The study’s results are sobering, to say the least. In 65 tests of race-based discrimination (conducted across the Consortium’s 13 communities), applicants of color experienced discrimination 22 percent of the time. In 69 tests of income-based discrimination, voucher holders experienced discrimination a whopping 35 percent of the time.

Around Town

OP-ED: Stand Up for Great Public Schools for All Kids

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By Shaunna Harrington

President Trump is gunning to weaken our K-12 public schools, and that should outrage all of us in the Commonwealth. Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Education announced all education institutions must eliminate DEI programs in 14 days to maintain federal funding. 

The Trump administration wields DEI as a bogeyman to scare people into believing it is causing grave injustices. But the bogeyman is no longer frightening when we talk about what diversity, equity and inclusion actually mean in our K-12 public schools in Massachusetts. 

Our commitment to diversity means we make sure kids from non-majority groups do not feel invisible, excluded, devalued, or unsafe. It means we celebrate multiple cultural traditions and teach kids to respect people different from themselves. We express our commitment to diversity in anti-bullying policies.

Around Town

LETTER: Councilor’s Statement on Winter Parking Ban Petition

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By Tony PalombaCouncilor at Large

The Citizen Petition to Help Our Neighbors 

On Tuesday, January 21 the City Council held a public hearing about a Citizen Petition (CP) that would amend the Watertown Winter Parking Ban (Ban) so that it is put into effect only when a significant snow or ice storm is forecasted or when there is a significant accumulation of snow or ice.  The CP was initiated by Watertown Citizens for Better Parking and was submitted to the City Clerk with over 800 signatures. (Our Charter only requires 150 signatures of registered voters.) I played a role in helping to move this effort forward and below you can see the statement I read, in part, on Tuesday night when the members of the Council were allowed to address the CP.  

I want to begin by thanking the 250-300 residents who showed up in person for the hearing or attended on-line. I think it is fair to say that this is one of the largest turnouts I have seen since my 8 terms on the Council. The vast majority of those attending and of those who spoke supported the CP.  

A recent article in Watertown News clearly described the public hearing, though it emphasized the statements of the members of the administration and the councilors. I want to emphasize the many thoughtful presentations made by the residents who spoke at the hearing.  Staying within the two-minute allowed time, resident after resident shared stories about how the Ban negatively impacts their quality of life in Watertown. Council President Sideris did not limit how many folks could speak and allowed over two hours of public testimony. I urge you to visit WCATV and listen to those who move their cars off the street by 1:00 AM and retrieve them by 7:00 AM in the winter months even when there is no snow or ice forecasted. You can hear the mother with three small children, the third shift worker, and the soon to be pregnant resident question the benefit of the Ban. http://vodwcatv.org/CablecastPublicSite/show/3632?site=3

I want to repeat something I said during the meeting and expand upon it a bit. After listening to the Administration I was left feeling that the arguments against instituting the CP as presented to the City Council had very little to do with providing some relief to a significant portion of our neighbors. There may have been some reference to the difficulties facing our neighbors, but the majority of what was said focused on how complex the issue is and the potential of the CP having a negative impact on existing and ongoing City plans like the success of our Watertown Square Area Plan, the implementation of our Comprehensive Plan, and the future of affordable housing in Watertown. We heard that there may need to be a price for the use of curb space as well as reasons why nothing can be done to address the issue as presented in the CP. I believe that this is not a complex issue rather it is a simple issue.

Around Town

OP-ED: Collateral Damage of the Air Accident in Washington

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By Clyde YoungerFormer Watertown Council President

Last Wednesday, Jan. 31, around 9 p.m., video captured a horrific collision of two airplanes as they erupted into flame. My mother told me that when she was eight years old her father was lighting a kerosene stove and it exploded and set him on fire; he ran, no one could catch up with him and he burned to death. However, he was on solid ground. One cannot imagine the horror the people on the two planes experienced as their planes came hurtling down in flames from the sky leaving an unerasable scar in the heart of their loved ones.