Dennis Fox’s Weblog

After a three-month break, this week I resume my regular opinion column for my local weekly newspaper, the Brookline TAB. I write every two or three weeks about town issues, many of them in the context of broader social and political issues. I’ve been doing this on and off for almost six years, writing about town decision making, high-stakes testing, police discretion, community planning, racism, youth values, and much more.

I used to write more frequently about broader political topics — war and peace, Israel and Palestine, etc. — but ever since the Boston Herald bought the TAB’s owner — Community News Corporation — the editors generally insist all columns must have a local focus. That gets confining, but it also pushes me to see what there is right in my neighborhood. All my columns are on my website.

Despite the paper’s conservative corporate ownership, my editors have let me write about what I want, assuming it’s local. It’s been a challenge writing for a mainstream audience, even in a place like Brookline, a liberal urban/suburban enclave surrounded on three sides by Boston. I do try to write in a style that encourages people to keep reading so they can at least think about the more significant underlying issues. I’ve pissed off a lot of town officials over the years, but I also get a lot of positive feedback; both are pretty gratifying.

Given its local focus, I’m not posting today’s column here, but you’re welcome to read it anyway if this sort of thing grabs you. Transportation Board Digs In addresses a hot local issue I’ve written about frequently: parking. The topic’s triviality crystallizes a number of more significant  concerns, including the interplay among different town decision making bodies and residents acting through a Town Meeting; the proper role of “professional expertise” in a democratic system; the role of personality and turf in town policy;  and one of my favorites, police discretion and priorities.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 14th, 2005 at 10:10 am and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.