Talk:Weston, Massachusetts

Pronounciation

A warning to people from outside of the Boston area. "Weston, Massachusetts" and "Western Massachusetts" are pronounced the same in Boston speech. When talking to a local person, you may need to say something like "the Town of Weston, Massachusetts" or "the western part of Massachusetts," if it's not clear from the context. Bostoner (talk) 20:42, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Rail Trail vote

Although a large part of Weston's recent history is the no vote to kill the rail trail this section needs a little more neutral point of view.

Actually, the Rail Trail vote is a small footnote to Weston's recent history, and an insignificant part of its history for the last 300 years. The Rail Trail blurb at the beginning of the piece sounds like -- and that's of course merely my perception -- it was written by a disgruntled biker who failed to recognize the generosity of the town in its continuous support of miles of beautiful trails through woodlands and pasture, for the enjoyment of all (including bikers), and maintained at the expense of Weston taxpayers and private foundations in town.

And this is done in spite of the fact that Weston is intersected by more transportation thoroughfares than probably any other town in the state, including: (by car) the Mass Pike (Interstate 90), route 128 (Interstate 95), US route 20, State Route 30, and State Route 117; (by train) the MBTA Fitchburg Line and the above mentioned candidate "Rail Trail"; and (by air) private, commercial, and military low-flying aircraft traffic generated by nearby MassPort's regional Hanscom Airport and the Air Force's Hanscom Air Force Base.

Finally, to suggest the the most democratic form of local government, the New England Town Meeting, is dominated by stodgy "old timers" who simply oppose change in Weston, is so far off the mark, that it is clear that the author must have never attended a Town Meeting, and only serves to cast serious issues of credibility on the rest of the article. Which is too bad.

This needs a serious re-write to provide a proper history and context for a truly vibrant town and an engaged, educated, and enthusiastic population.

WikiZZZ (talk) 03:29, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

WikiZZZ: I've been to a number of Weston Town Meetings, and I can tell you, it's not dominated by stodgy "old timers" -- in fact they are dominated by petty dictators who want to lord it over their fellow residents, misguided control freaks with too much time on their hands, and anti-development hypocrites who live in McMansion subdivisions where farms used to be but don't want to allow any _new_ developments like the ones they live in. In fact there's been a LOT of change in town recently, mostly along the lines of giving the nosy busybodies on the various committees more power to harass their neighbors about what they do on their property (i.e. the Non-Criminal Disposition bylaw that gives all of these committees the power to issue tickets for $100/day without any judicial oversight whatsoever; one of the main reasons this passed was that residents were assured that it would only be used to harass religious minorities.)

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So be bold and edit it to a neutral point of view. Currently it is skewed towards a biker's attitude who has missed out on an opportunity to bike the Rail Trail the past ten years. State money was available. It could have happened. That time has unfortunately passed. But there is more truth within the posting. Weston did single handedly kill the Rail Trail. You mentioned the that the writer obviously never enjoyed a Town Meeting. I attended the Town Meetings in Weston which decided the fate of the Rail Trail. It was a litany of stories of strangers from Boston coming to light fires in the Weston Woods and to steal the silverware and escaping upon a route that was not policed. You can't make this stuff up and it is part of Weston history.

In the 300 year history of Weston from the Tory meetings at the Golden Ball Tavern to today there is some history. But for recent history, nothing burns more brightly than the vote by the Town Meeting of Weston to negate the unanimous votes of all the other towns upon the Rail Trail and kill something that could have been such a positive addition to the western suburbs.MBCF (talk) 04:13, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

"Many many African slaves"

I removed part the history section that referenced, "many many African slaves" as original settlers in Weston and an unnecessary reference to cotton being "slave produced" in a sentence about the manufacture of parts for cotton and wool mills. Neither was referenced. The former seems to be false with a small amount of research, as it references 1679 specifically and there were fewer than 200 slaves, not all of them African, in 1676 in Massachusetts. The latter being added at the same time as the former suggests both additions are merely trying to be provocative. PantsB (talk) 21:37, 10 December 2012 (UTC)