Tell us a little about yourself. You can include your personal background, family, outside interests that are important to who you are as a person and a candidate.
I grew up in Norwood, Massachusetts. I graduated from Norwood High in 1978 and Clark University in 1982. I have have had four careers. I started out in customer service in the mutual fund industry. I have worked in marketing communications. I have also worked as a technical writer, and since I received my masters degree from Bentley University in 2004, I have worked as a UX designer.
My family moved to Lexington in 2008. My daughter Sarah attended Bowman, Clarke, and LHS, graduating in 2022. My wife, Marjorie White Baskin, grew up in Lexington (Fiske, Diamond, and LHS 1978). For almost 35 years Marjorie was co-owner of Signature Stationers, in Lexington Center.
Within Lexington I volunteer for the Lexington Retailers Association and Lexington Alarm!. I volunteer for the Retailers Association because vibrant local economy is important, equal in importance to sustainable local energy and sustainable local agriculture. I volunteer for Lexington Alarm! because of my commitment to social justice and my belief that I have to do what I can to combat the authoritarianism, racism, queer-phobia, and antisemitism that has become all too prevalent in our country in recent years.
Why are you running for Town Meeting?
Community service is important. In Judaism, the concept of tikkun olam teaches us that we have a responsibility to do what we can to repair the world. While my personal concerns reach far beyond Lexington, I think tikkun olam begins at home.
We need to increase our housing stock, including affordable and low income housing, to prevent Lexington from becoming a community for the wealthy. I will always support articles that will help achieve that goal.
I support new development in the town center. The mix of businesses is unhealthy. Aging buildings with failing infrastructure, like 1800 Mass. Ave., are leaving too many empty storefronts. New development will help create a vibrant town center attractive to the types of businesses residents want.
President Trump’s energy policy is centered on climate change denial, abandonment of past green energy initiatives, and promotion of increased use of fossil fuels–a perfect storm that will lead to climate disaster. It’s more important than ever for Town Meeting to support the town’s initiatives for fighting climate change and global warming, including our electrification strategy through the use of lithium-ion batteries.
As much as I support our strategy for reducing our carbon footprint, I will also call out the hypocrisy of some “green advocates” who refuse to publicly acknowledge that our choices have social and environmental justice consequences for Native Americans and indigenous people around the world.
What is the most important issue in this election to you personally, and what ideas do you have about how to address this issue?
At the special town meeting held last fall, Town Meeting sent a loud, clear affirmation of the Bloom design for the new Lexington High School when we approved Article 8, which appropriated construction funds. On November 2, residents sent a loud, clear message of affirmation of the Bloom design when we overwhelmingly approved the debt exclusion.
The warrant for the upcoming Annual Town Meeting includes Article 26, which, if approved, would establish an oversight committee that will monitor expenditures for the high school construction project. I am a hard “no” on Article 26, and I have been ever since it was first floated.
All this so-called oversight committee will do is add a layer of unneeded bureaucracy and an opportunity for micromanagement of the project. We already have oversight of the project–from Dr. Hackett and her team, the democratically elected School Committee and appointed School Building Committee, not to mention the Select Board and town staff. If I didn’t have confidence in their ability to manage the project in a fiscally responsible manner, I would not have supported the project to begin with. I think Town Meeting, and all elected town officials, have to respect Town Meeting’s vote on Article 8 and the residents’ vote on the debt exclusion. We have to allow the construction of the new LHS–with the Bloom design–to proceed unencumbered by the needless bureaucracy Article 26 will create.