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MLEV Endorses John Worden - 02.27.08
When elected, I will work to continue and expand practices and such legislative initiatives as I have already encouraged and enabled at the local level. If you examine my record and those of the other candidates, I think you would find that I come out way ahead.
- To help conserve energy and keep our air quality good I have used public transportation to commute to Boston for work ever since graduating from law school. In order to avoid contributing to global warming I own plug-in electric vehicle which I use for local trips.
- My wife and I gave the Town a conservation restriction on a vacant piece of land - a small woods - adjacent to our former home. This little patch of nature now provides much-needed open space in a neighborhood that has become all too intensively developed.
- We are members of a number of “Friends” organizations established to protect and enhance Arlington’s beautiful park amenities. These include Friends of Menotomy Rocks Park and Friends of Spy Pond Park. In order to preserve open space and expand recreation facilities and limit congestion and traffic hazards in Arlington I have supported use of grant fundinfor purchase and preservation of open land such as Mount Gilboa, Cooke’s Hollow, and the Window on the Mystic Lakes. I have also been active in protective rezoning of endangered areas in Town. I am a member of the Arnold Arboretum a member of Massachusetts Audubon Society, the Conservation Law Foundation, Trustees of Reservations, the Nature Conservancy and a former member of the Mystic Valley Watershed Association.
- Soon after moving to Arlington I became president of an early environmental advocacy group - the local Arlington Conservation Association. We put through a local deposit bottle law at that time by Town Meeting action, long before the state adopted one. In addition we initiated the first study of water quality at Spy Pond setting in motion its subsequent monitoring. I was an officer of Metropolitan Ecology Workshop, an early Boston area environmental advocacy organization.
- As Moderator of Town Meeting I have encouraged presentations of initiatives for recycling.
- Together with other charter members of Arlington Residents for Reasonable Redevelopment, I opposed construction of a 13 story building on the banks of Mill Brook and brought the height down to five stories thereby preventing the structure from becoming a precedent for towering structures in inappropriate Arlington locations.
- I have over the years monitored the actions of the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Arlington Redevelopment Board and whenever possible have advocated for adequate open space which is often endangered as, for example, in the recent construction of a 40B project with less than 10% open space on Brattle Street.
- Wherever feasible I have encouraged the rehabilitation of buildings (rather than demolition and new construction) to conserve energy and materials avoiding the huge waste of demolition. Wherever new construction must occur the buildings produced should be required to conform to LEED standards for energy efficiency and should be powered at least in part by solar, wind, geothermal or other renewable energy sources. Fresh out of law school having witnessed the ravages of urban renewal in the West End and elsewhere I worked with activists in Boston to rein in this destructive process and waste of valuable building materials. Our endeavors included preservation in the Faneuil Hall area to enable development of the popular historic Quincy Market, instead of the another Government Center type bleak prospect, and an attempt to save the homes of a small neighborhood on North Harvard Street in Allston, which had been seized by the Boston Redevelopment Authority for the benefit of a friend of the then mayor. I am a former trustee of Arlington’s Old Schwamb Mill Preservation Trust.
- Our environmental awareness has passed along to our children. One - who pioneered electric car production in the late 80s - is in the solar and renewable energy business (Solectria Renewables); one is helping a Chinese windmill company get financing; one is a prominent marine biologist; those of our children who are physicians or involved in childcare are enthusiastic advocates of proper controls of environmental factors in food production.
When asked to identify the three greatest environmental problems facing Massachusetts which require legislative relief, and here’s how I responded:
1. Exploitation of scarce natural areas open space for McMansions and for 40B projects
without regard for environmental concerns, density, flooding, aesthetics etc. 40B projects are very lucrative for developers. A good (or should I say bad) example of 40B development is the current proposal to basically destroy the Belmont Uplands adjacent to the Alewife Reservation at the Belmont-Arlington border; likewise the Hamilton farm just over Arlington’s border at Winchester was almost acquired for a huge 40B project which would have destroyed most of the land together with well-preserved historic farmhouse and buildings but was rescued from that fate by the Town of Winchester which purchased the farm. Fortunately when a representative of the owner of the Mugar property in East Arlington expressed interest in constructing a 40B project there to the then-Chairman of the AHA (my wife) she said that Arlington was increasing its affordable housing inventory by other means and that she would not support a 40B project in that flood-prone area abutting the important recreational resource at Thorndike field.
2. Overuse of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles for commuting and shipping rather than public transportation and shipping by rail. The inefficient and unreliable MBTA encourages people to drive their cars which clogs the roads, making auto and bus transport even slower. Oversized trucks carrying dangerous loads (e.g. the recent catastrophic fire in Everett) make travel unsafe and wear down the highways. If we must all use cars, at least they should be fuel-efficient or employ alternative technologies.
3. Excessive packaging and use of paper – wastes resources while creating a vast disposal problem. For example, every small item that once was in a bin in a store is now encased in a large amount of cardboard and plastic. A one or two page bank statement or credit card bill is now multiple pages on larger sheets.
“You have placed your trust in me for 19 years, and I have kept that trust in all that I have done. Should you elect me as your Representative, I will do the same. I will work for you and for Arlington & West Medford, and Massachusetts to be the best that they can be.”