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Endorsements

Marissa is proud to be endorsed by:

  • Brookline Equity Coalition, a group advocating for racial, social, environmental, and economic justice

  • Brookline for Everyone, a group that describes themselves as "a grassroots organization of Brookline residents who want Brookline to be economically thriving, racially inclusive and environmentally sustainable"

  • Climate Forward Brookline, a group of local climate activists who endorsed candidates who have "demonstrated a commitment to taking climate action"

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2023 Endorsement Questionnaires

Click below for my completed Town Meeting Member candidate endorsement questionnaires from the following organizations:

The Biking Brookline questionnaire in 2023 was the same as in 2022; please see below for a link to my answers. I did not seek an endorsement from Brookline by Design. I did not fill out an endorsement form for the Brookline Equity Coalition because I am a member.

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2022 Endorsement Questionnaires

Click below for my completed Town Meeting Member candidate endorsement questionnaires from the following organizations:

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Click here for Marissa's 2021 Brookline PAX endorsement questionnaire (PDF), which covers issues like labor/public employees, affordable housing, environmental protection, and the police budget. Click here for Marissa's 2020 Brookline PAX endorsement questionnaire (PDF).

Climate & Sustainability
Climate & Sustainability​
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Marissa supports bold, immediate action to address our climate emergency. Marissa voted in favor of all of the proposed legislation sponsored by the Zero Emissions Advisory Board at the fall 2022 Town Meeting and has been a strong advocate for town budget items that support sustainable modes of transportation like walking and bicycling. 

Transparency, Accountability, and Participation

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Marissa is a former student journalist and is dedicated to transparency. Marissa pledges to listen to constituent feedback when voting on warrant articles, post her positions on each warrant article online before each Town Meeting when possible (here or on twitter), and to solicit resident feedback. Marissa supports efforts to increase transparency in our town government and encourage civic participation by all residents.

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Marissa was the lead sponsor of a resolution in the spring 2022 Town Meeting (WA 35) to increase transparency of emails among Town Meeting Members by making the Town Meeting listserv publicly readable. WA 35 was approved by Town Meeting by a vote of 113-98-23 but, unfortunately the Town Meeting Members Association overrode that decision and has decided to keep the listserv contents hidden from the public.

 

Marissa believes that:

  • Our community is strongest when residents of all backgrounds are included in the decision making process.

  • Town meeting members should be engaged in recruiting their constituents for membership on town boards and commissions, which should reflect the diverse population of our town.

  • Town meetings and meetings of various committees should be well-advertised and support hybrid (both in person and remote/online) participation to the extent possible. 

  • Town meeting members should be term-limited.

  • Town meeting members should be eligible to receive, upon request, reimbursement for reasonable costs (such as child care or transportation) associated with participating in the town meeting, to ensure that these costs do not deter residents from standing for TMM election. 

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Marissa hopes to bring added transparency to the Town Meeting and encourage residents to engage more with their elected officials. The Town's website lists the names and contact information of the Town Meeting Members (but only as an Excel file) but it does not give any information about the TMM's interests, expertise, or any ongoing projects — meaning that if a resident has an idea or concern it can be hard to figure out who they should contact. This motivated Marissa to create the website brooklinep6.com for the spring 2022 Town Meeting election.

Transparency
Housing Affordability
Housing Affordability​
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Marissa believes housing is a basic human right and will support policies to ensure that Brookline is affordable for residents of all income levels. 

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Marissa believes that we should provide safe, quality public housing for low-income residents. We must not forget about folks who make too much to qualify for public housing but are still rent burdened. Housing affordability is a complicated issue and any policy changes should be made with consideration and fairness to tenants, landlords, and other relevant parties, though Marissa would generally support action items like:

  • Restricting or banning broker fees – these fees, when coupled with first/last/security deposit, can be prohibitive for tenants looking to move

  • Regulating (and taxing) short term rentals - Airbnb-type rentals have benefits (flexibility to both tenants and landlords) but can decrease the amount of available long-term rental housing

  • Rent control

  • Relaxing or revising zoning rules - Changes in zoning do not necessarily need to change the look/feel of a neighborhood if other restrictions are in place. For example, in Brookline’s local historic districts the town must approve any external modifications to buildings, but this still allows internal modifications that could increase the number of housing units available per building.

MBTACA
MBTACA (MBTA Communities Act)​

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Marissa supports compliance with the MBTA Communities Act. Brookline's Town Administrator and Town Counsel have outlined the possible consequences of our failure to comply with the MBTACA, which requires that Brookline increase the areas in which multi-family housing may be built according to our zoning by-laws. It is clear that non-compliance is not an option, so Marissa will almost certainly support whatever proposal to bring us into compliance that is developed by town staff and presented to Town Meeting in the fall.

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The current plan that is being developed by staff in the Town's planning department involves upzoning Harvard Street. While some community members have raised concerns about the town's inability to require ground-floor retail in the newly rezoned area, our professional town staff are developing plans to incentivize ground-floor retail and our state representative is working on revising the MBTACA guidelines to allow Brookline to require ground-floor retail. Ultimately, Marissa believes that Town Meeting must trust our expert town staff to develop a reasonable plan that addresses our community needs while allowing us to comply with the MBTACA.

Schools

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Brookline's Town government should support an excellent public school system. We are consistently ranked highly among Massachusetts public schools, but there is still work to be done to ensure that all Brookline students have equitable access to a high quality public education.

 

Marissa supports:

  • expanding BEEP to provide free, public pre-K for all residents - if Boston can do it, Brookline can too

  • free breakfast and lunch for all public school students in order to de-stigmatize the free and reduced lunch program and ensure that no children go hungry

  • taking advantage of state funds to support new school construction, and tax overrides to cover other necessary expansions as demonstrated by enrollment data or to improve learning and working conditions

  • ensuring all town/school employees' remuneration is sufficient for them to both live and work in our community

Schools
Municipal Broadband
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As the COVID-19 crisis has shown, broadband internet access is crucial to help the town update residents about public health guidelines, ensure that students have equitable access to online instruction, and ease the pain of social distancing by connecting people virtually.

 

Brookline was home to the first full-coverage municipal wifi network in the country (circa 2007). The free wifi was available, though limited, as recently as 2011, but seems to have ended around 2013 when the service provider closed. Now more than ever broadband internet should be a public utility, and Brookline should bring back free public wifi.

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Municipal Broadband
Overnight Parking Ban
Overnight Parking Ban
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The overnight parking ban is a quintessential feature of Brookline life and the third rail of Brookline politics (pardon the transit pun).​ Marissa does not own a car but does occasionally borrow or rent a vehicle, and was often frustrated by the overnight parking ban when family or friends visited her apartment on Beacon Street. Many residents are understandably frustrated by the inflexibility of the Town's current process for obtaining a guest overnight parking permit, which requires an advance application. Marissa is also concerned that the overnight parking ban most adversely affects renters and low-income residents whose voices do not always receive equal representation at Town Hall.

 

Marissa believes that the Town needs to make it significantly easier for residents and their visitors to occasionally park a vehicle overnight, perhaps by offering residents the opportunity to purchase a limited number of pre-paid permits that are "used" when a resident writes the date on the permit and places it in a vehicle that is parked on a street overnight. However, overall Marissa believes that the Town should adopt policies that prioritize environmentally-friendly transit alternatives (walking, cycling, T, bus) over car ownership, particularly in transit-rich North Brookline. For this reason, Marissa is not currently in favor of lifting the overnight parking ban but she understands the concerns with the ban and would welcome a study to analyze what effect lifting the ban would have on car ownership in Brookline and on our most low-income residents.

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