Hello, Neighbors!

And welcome to all of you who joined the ranks of full membership this week. This is the second edition of the Hive Roundup, where I bring the highlights of the week together in a single email, created only for you paying members.

First, let me tell you that for the last month or so I’ve been working with the amazing Blue Bumble Creative on re-creating the Buzz’s logo. I’ve been really happy with what they have created for me, and I am so excited to share it with you!

You got a sneak peek of this with some of the merchandise I created for this weekend’s Winter Marketplace at Made in Burlington, but I wanted to show you the full logo before anyone else gets a chance to see it. So, without further ado [drumroll please!]:

What do you think? Comment below what impressions come to you, and next week I’ll share the full story of why we made the design choices we did.

The Week in Short

This week was a wonky one, with time changes and the election and Veteran’s Day, two school holidays, and I’m sure stuff I’m forgetting to mention.

If I had to pick one Big Story, it would be yesterday’s clarification of the restrictions on poll workers to have campaign-related lawn signs or otherwise show public support for a candidate or question. Tl;dr: The rule, while not as well-enforced in the previous few years, has been around for a while and now will be more explicit on future applications for the position. Click the link to read more.

Of course, the election happened, and while the results aren’t finalized yet, they are clear. Nearly 11,000 voters showed up, about 61.5% of eligible voters. I think I misread that earlier this week, because I was thinking we were close to the nearly 70% turnout we had in the 2018 midterms. Regardless, this is far greater turnout than at our local elections and even more than at September’s primary.

In Burlington, about 20 points separated winner Maura Healey from Republican candidate Geoff Diehl, a tighter margin than the 30 points in the state at large.

Burlington went blue down the ballot, though some races were tighter locally than statewide. In the Auditor contest, for example, fewer than 1000 votes (under 10%) separated Republican candidate Anthony Amore and Democrat (and winner) Diana DiZoglio in Burlington, while there was more than a 15% margin statewide.

For the most part, though, Burlington’s results mirror the state’s.

Our US Representative remains Seth Moulton, with a little less than twice the vote of his challenger Bob May in both Burlington and statewide. The district-level offices were uncontested (Representative: Ken Gordon; Senator: Cindy Friedman; Governor’s Council: Marilyn Pettito Devaney).

On Questions, Burlington’s votes mostly mirrored the state’s results - which were quite close on Questions 1 (Fair share - passed), 3 (liquor licenses - failed), and 4 (driver’s licenses for undocumented people - passed at the state level). Though Question 4 was close in Burlington, as well, the vote went the opposite way here by a margin of several hundred out of our more than 10,000 voters. Question 2 (dental insurance) passed easily both at the state and local level.

And then there was CPA. Sentiment toward CPA ranged from fervent supporters to vehement detractors to everything in between. The volume of the detractors seemed ratcheted up toward the end of the season, and where initially it looked like the question would pass narrowly, it ended up failing by about 20 points.

Supporters of Question 5 highlighted all the projects that could be undertaken to benefit recreation, affordable housing, and historical preservation in our town; detractors largely focused on taxes, inflation, and the perceived lack of ability to control at the local level how our funds would be spent. Notably, of the six municipalities with CPA on their ballots, Burlington is the only one that didn’t pass it.

Nothing is to say Burlington couldn’t try once more to join CPA under different economic conditions. But if I had to guess, that won’t be for a while. Campaigning is hard and expensive, and losing can make that investment of time and money feel futile. For now, at least, voters have spoken.

Quick hits from the week:

• Burlington’s own, Susan Kadilak, was named to the Executive Committee of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Massachusetts
• Registration is open for 7th Grade Project Explore at Shawsheen Valley Technical School
• The Library Board voted on their newest hopeful Trustee; the Select Board will vote on that appointment at their meeting this week.
• The DEI Committee will be submitting their quarterly report to the Select Board at the end of the month. There is also a question of whether or not the subcommittee will continue after its year-long appointment ends this month. If you have thoughts about that, I encourage you to reach out to your Select Board members.
• FIRST Robotics team at the high school is raising money. Support them here!

Alrighty, that’s it. Let me know what else you’d like to see in this weekly roundup exclusively for paying members. Thank you for your support, and I’ll see you soon!

Nicci