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Some in Brookline think it's time to turn New England's largest town into a middling-sized city
By adamg on Wed, 07/12/2023 - 8:31am
Brookline.News reports some Brookline residents are organizing a campaign to ask voters to approve a commission that would study how to turn the town into a city - with another vote on whatever that commission comes up with.
Brookline, with roughly 63,000 residents, was the second-largest town in New England until 2017, when voters in Framingham - decades after the idea was first proposed - voted to ditch town meeting and a select board for a mayor and city council.
When Brookline rejected annexation by Boston - why it looks like a paramecium being swallowed by a Boston amoeba, and why it's no longer connected to the rest of Norfolk County.
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Comments
Ewww - A City?
Did you know there are 14 cities in Massachusetts which still calls themselves "Town" in their governmental operations?
They are Agawam, Amherst, Barnstable, Braintree, Bridgewater, Franklin, N. Attleboro, Palmer, Randolph, Southbridge, West Springfield, Weymouth, and Winthrop.
I think Watertown is officially "The City Known as The Town of Watertown" but that may have changed.
I guess they don't want to be called cities because, you know, "crime".
Charlestown
Charlestown (where I live) was a city from 1848 (despite its name). It remained part of a city in 1874 when it was annexed by Boston.
Astroturf towns (statutory cities that call themselves towns)
As a local government nerd, that's long been one of my pet peeves. It's not enough of a hill to die on, beyond making comments here, but it does imply that there's something wrong with being a city, and more or less ignores 201 years of New England tradition (when city forms of government were first authorized in Massachusetts) by blurring the distinction between what is a city and what is a town. If was in charge, I would prohibit statutory cities from using the style "Town of..." instead of "City of..." (I'd also order Wakefield to stop calling its select board a "town council": it's not a council, it is an executive board, not a legislative body as councils generally are under state law, I mean this is New England*, not someplace in the Midwest or Mid Atlantic for chrissakes!).
*excluding Rhode Island, which more or less dropped the Selectmen/Town Meeting system a hundred or so years ago.
PS: East Longmeadow is also an Astroturf town. Amesbury and Methuen were until recently, but they got wise.
Why does it matter?
It's a superficial distinction either way. It's not as if calling a municipality with a city government a town (or vice vera) affects anything.
If someone buys a house in a city thinking it was a town -- and this fact is important to them -- they only have themselves to blame.
A Simple Plan
Step 1) Get annexed by Boston
Step 2) Now you're a city.
Lol
They’d rather be closer to downtown than most of Boston proper but have all of their property tax go to excellent schools and police. Thanks Boston suckers!
Most of the inner suburbs...
...probably ought to be part of Boston.
Will never happen
Because of BPS.
not in same county
Brookline isn't in Suffolk county, its in Norfolk. Becoming part of Boston makes a lot of sense (not that the residents will like it) but might complicate matters.
That would be the smallest of issues
Hyde Park and West Roxbury were part of Norfolk County when they were annexed (which is why Brookline is no longer connected to the rest of Norfolk County).
Dorchester and Roxbury Too
Allston / Brighton was part of Middlesex County.
Cohasset is not connected to Norfolk County because the way to get to court in Dedham was easier than going to Plymouth even though Hingham and Hull are Plymouth.
Charlestown was in Middlesex
Charlestown was in Middlesex county until it was annexed by Boston. We spent most of a day tracing the ownership history of our house shortly after we bought it, starting in Boston and ending in Cambridge.
That shouldn't matter much.
Charlestown and Brighton were in Middlesex County, and Dorchester, Hyde Park, Roxbury, and West Roxbury were part of Norfolk County at the time they were annexed to Boston. Anyhow, it hardly matters, since county government was abolished in Suffolk County (and most other counties in Massachusetts) in the 1990s, and it's hanging on with some vestigial functions in Norfolk County.
The jails and courts I think,
The jails and courts I think, keep it going.
Registries of deeds
Are also divided up by county.
Different boroughs of NYC are different counties
Cities don't have to have all their parts reside in the same county. Different boroughs of NYC are different counties (there was even a Law & Order episode with a plot twist around this fact).
This is one of the cases
This is one of the cases where New York City really is different from other places, including other large cities. And different from the rest of New York state.
Those five NYC counties are vestigial, the same way most Massachusetts counties are--as far as I could tell, living there, those county lines only mattered for the court system.
Are we storming Brookline?
Fire up the Motorscooters!!!!
That sounds like a job for..
The TLF! Turkeys, if you're listening could you please find the paperwork that proves Brookline was always a part of Boston? /s
Brookline *was* part of Boston
until 1705. The Brookline town seal even says MUDDY RIVER A PART OF BOSTON FOUNDED 1639
As a counter proposal, how
As a counter proposal, how about Boston returns the land taken from Brookline in the 1870s, giving back the frontage on the Charles River and restoring the border to the Muddy River?
Of course we may need to rename a few things, like the Brookline Red Sox and Brookline University on Comm Ave but I'm sure it'll be fine.
Anything in 128 should be
Anything in 128 should be part of Boston.
1912 Metropolitan Consolidation Proposal
It was Brookline lawyer named Daniel Kiley who submitted a bill to the Massachusetts General Court on 1 January 1912 that would have annexed every municipality with any land within 10 miles of the Massachusetts State House to create the City of Greater Boston. From Nahant to Lynn, Wakefield, Stoneham, Woburn, Lexington, Waltham, Newton, Wellesley, Needham, Dedham, Canton (barely), Milton, Quincy, Braintree, Weymouth (also barely), to Hull and all municipalities within. It would have be 1.4MM people then, and about 2MM people today.
We will get a world-class
We will get a world-class city inside 128, if not the one we hoped for.
Gotta love
any U-Hub article that draws this many Cliffy Clavins outta the woodwork.