The upcoming year promises to be a challenging one for a hyperlocal paper like the Press, but our community-driven staff is determined to provide readers the information they need to inform their votes on the many issues they will be asked to decide in the months ahead.
This April, for example, voters at Town Meeting will decide whether to approve one or two tax overrides and whether to renovate the town’s DPW facility, expensive propositions with obvious costs as well as benefits. Town Meeting could also be asked this spring—and certainly by the fall—to decide whether to approve a bylaw for the multifamily housing zone the state requires. Whether to approve a transfer of conservation land to the town for an additional athletic field could also be on fall’s Town Meeting warrant. There’s even potential for a Super Town Meeting this year to raise the housing cap at Devens and rezone Vicksburg Square for affordable rental housing, which has implications for Harvard’s schools.
2024 will also be a year of elections. Town Election this spring will fill vacancies on key town boards, while state, congressional, and presidential elections this fall will decide who represents us at the State House and in Congress—and who occupies the White House.
While our goal at the Press is to always provide our readers with “the best obtainable version of the truth” on any issue, to quote famed Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, we welcome differing points of view and vigorous debate within these pages, including fact-based letters and opinion pieces that shed light on topics of concern to residents, especially those likely to appear on a Town Meeting warrant or election ballot.
Our letters to the editor and our Consider This and Viewpoint columns are meant to provide a forum for informed opinion whether you’re a subscriber or not. We believe thorough debate of the issues is essential to a healthy democracy like ours, and we hope to see plenty of it on these pages in 2024.
Don’t be shy. Our policies for submission are spelled out at the Press website. You’ll find them at harvardpress.com/About-the-Press/Policies.
