WE HAVE EXPERTS. NOW WE NEED HEROES!

 

Howard T. Barnes, Alfred Wegener, and Vilhjalmur Stefansson had three things in common. They were all alive and well in 1912 and they were all experts on icebergs. I will get to the third thing later.

If you are wondering what this could possibly have to do with the still somewhat townish City of Watertown, I would ask you to bear with me for the next two minutes, which just happens to be the same amount of time allowed for a member of the public to address the Watertown City Council at the public forum segment of each council meeting.

It was Sunday, April 14, at 11:40 PM, ship’s time, that the Titanic struck the iceberg, sending 1500 people to their deaths.

At the time, the sinking of the Titanic was considered the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history. While later disasters would surpass its death toll, the sinking of the Titanic remains one of the most significant avoidable tragedies due to glaring failures in safety and judgment.

Captain Edward Smith did not see the iceberg before the collision. At the time it was spotted, he was not on the bridge but was likely in his cabin or the nearby navigation room.

First Officer William Murdoch, who was the officer in charge of the bridge at the time, was the first officer to see the iceberg. He immediately ordered the helm "hard-a-starboard" and signaled the engine room to stop or reverse.

It was a useless panic maneuver. 30 to 40 seconds later the ship struck the iceberg.

Captain Smith rushed onto the bridge moments after the impact. Witness accounts state he arrived and asked Murdoch, "What have we struck?" to which Murdoch replied, "An iceberg, sir."

The Captain and his officers had been warned of ice throughout the day and expected to encounter it around 11:00 PM. However, several factors made the iceberg nearly impossible to see until it was too late.

One was calm seas. There were no waves breaking against the base of the iceberg, which would normally create a visible "white fringe" of foam.

The other was the moonless night. The lack of moonlight meant there was no light for the ice to reflect.

Captain Smith and his crew received at least six ice warnings via wireless telegraph on the day of the disaster. While some reached the bridge and influenced the Captain's decisions, several critical messages sent by ships that had already encountered ice never left the Titanic’s wireless room.

The SS Californian, at 8:45 PM radioed to say they were "stopped and surrounded by ice". Because the message was so loud in his headset and lacked a formal priority prefix, wireless operator Jack Phillips famously told the operator to "Shut up! I am busy" while he continued sending passenger messages to Cape Race, the nearest wireless station.

The most critical warning, which came from the SS Mesaba at 9:40 PM reported a massive ice field containing "heavy pack ice and a great number of large icebergs" directly ahead. Phillips still overwhelmed with a backlog of passenger telegrams and never delivered this critical message to the bridge.

Despite the warnings that he did receive, Captain Smith maintained a speed of 22 knots while entering a known ice field.

So, imagine how different it would have been had Howard T. Barnes, Alfred Wegener, or Vilhjalmur Stefansson been in direct communication with Captain Smith and his officers. The fact that none of them were was the third thing those three experts had in common.

 But, what if one or all of them were directly or indirectly in communication with the captain or his officers ? I think it is very likely that any of those experts would have advised Captain Smith to:

 Not  be misled by the calm waters,

To regard the moonless night as an extreme hazard,

To limit wireless communications to vital information only.

And, undoubtably, any of those experts on icebergs would have advised Captain Smith to either drastically reduce speed or to bring the ship to a full stop and wait for the sun to come up before proceeding.

But that may not have worked because Captain Smith was known to be stubbornly confident in his navigational abilities and he believed that the Titanic was absolutely unsinkable.

 

 

Now allow me to introduce you to four experts of a different kind − Joe DeLaura, Patrick De Haan, Mark Wolfe, and Tracy Gordon − which I will do as soon as I set the stage…

While you can’t help but notice the alarming price of gas whenever you pull up to the pump, most of you probably ignore the price of diesel fuel.

Out of necessity, you might be changing your driving habits and/or your fill up habits to use less gas, but you might have the notion that diesel fuel is someone else’s problem.

You couldn’t be more wrong.

It is about to become OUR problem.

DeLaura, De Haan, and Wolfe are  three experts who make clear how  the growing shortage of diesel fuel is on course to collide with the world’s economy. Gordon explains how communities like ours pay the price for energy shock – something we are now experiencing but that so far has been (excuse the expression) the tip of the iceberg.

The closing of the Strait of Hormuz has caused diesel prices to surge more than 50% since the start of the war, with retail prices nearing $6.00 per gallon. Because New England lacks its own major refineries and pipelines, this region is uniquely vulnerable.

Because nearly all of our grocery items are trucked into the Boston area daily, grocery delivery surcharges, ranging from $60 to hundreds of dollars per load, are being passed directly to consumers.

In fact every type of product that arrives by truck, whether we eat it, wear it, or use it, will be taking a bigger chunk out of our budgets and out of our government’s budget.

While gasoline prices command our attention, it’s diesel that runs the city.

Municipal exposure to diesel includes school buses, fire apparatus and ambulances, public works trucks (plows, sanitation, road crews), construction equipment (for capital projects like the middle school / fire station / senior center), and delivery costs embedded in everything the city buys.

And here is the real danger: it happens quietly.

Gasoline prices trigger headlines. Diesel prices trigger budget overruns.

By the time the impact shows up, it is too late to adjust. Contracts are signed. Projects are underway. Taxpayers are on the hook − and that includes renters who pay those taxes indirectly.

And that brings us to the questions our city council has yet to address:

Why, in the face of this kind of systemic risk, are we proceeding with major discretionary projects − like the misadventurous Demonstration Project behind CVS − as if nothing in the world has changed?

Has the council quietly prioritized the Demonstration Project over the replacement or renovation of the Middle School, or the building of a new Senior Center, or a new East End Fire Station?

If so, we have a right to know. And we have a right to know why.

There was a time when our councilors would have questioned our city manager. Kounelis, Woodland, Donato, and Airasian stood out for demonstrating that they were in touch with ordinary people who live outside the current political bubbles and who feel the financial vise that continues to get tighter and tighter.

And of course, when the manager known as “Fiscal” Driscoll, famous for his tight-fisted grip on taxpayer dollars was at the helm, councilors’ budget oversight was often more about punctuation than substance.

Most of today’s councilors seem to be going along for the ride, as though they believe that everything is under control and that we can move forward at full speed as though the world outside Watertown will somehow not reach us.

But the world always reaches us. Covid reached us and altered our daily lives. Inflation and tariffs continue to reach us. The life science / biotech swan dive has reached us. AI-driven job loss has reached us and will only accelerate.

And when the diesel crisis really reaches city hall, it won’t arrive as a headline. It will arrive as higher bids, shrinking margins, stalled projects, and either rising property taxes or deep cuts in municipal services.

This city council needs to stop and heed the warnings of the experts before they continue allowing Watertown to be driven through deceptively calm waters on a moonless night when they should be preparing for impact.

But, they should not take my word for it. They should find their own experts (yes, there are others) or they should listen to mine:

Joe DeLaura: A global energy strategist at Rabobank, tracks how geopolitical conflicts (like U.S. - Israel war with Iran cause diesel prices to surge faster than gasoline due to tight supplies and high energy density.

Patrick De Haan: Head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, is known for explaining the “inelastic” nature of diesel demand, meaning that the amount of  diesel people buy doesn't change much, even when the price goes way up or down. Price spikes hit municipalities especially hard because heavy equipment cannot be switched to gasoline or electric overnight.

 Mark Wolfe: Energy economist,  explains the “filtering effect,” − the process by which rising fuel costs (specifically gasoline and diesel) "filter" into the price of food and other consumer goods, creating a secondary layer of inflation for households.

Tracy Gordon: Co-director and Robert C. Pozen Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, focuses on the fiscal challenges facing state and local governments, including how cities operate with rigid budgets, limited revenue flexibility, and long-term obligations that do not adjust when costs suddenly rise. In other words, when external shocks hit − whether from fuel, labor, or materials – local governments are often forced to absorb the impact in real time, with very few tools to respond.

We are a long way from 1912. In this day and age, we all have easy access to the best economic expertise on the planet. Now we need a few councilors brave enough and serious enough to face the harsh economic realities and begin asking hard questions about budget tradeoffs and long-term sustainability. It’s about making tough choices right now! If they do, they will be heroes. If they don’t, they will be something else, because Watertown’s fiscal health is not unsinkable.

 

Bruce Coltin, The Battle For Watertown

   

MISSING: A WARTIME CITY COUNCIL

News flash #1: The world is in a state of economic chaos and everyone whose head is not buried in the sand, is on edge.

News flash #2: Watertown is not immune.

Who knew that an Iranian controlled choke point, called the Strait of Hormuz, located 6,000 miles away, could be turned into a weapon able to leap over the Atlantic and land on the doorsteps of Watertown residents?

Economist and energy expert Fatih Birol, who heads the International Energy Agency, calls this “the greatest global energy security threat in history — much worse than the 1970s oil crisis, the Covid pandemic or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022” – when regular gas hit $5.00 per gallon right here in Watertown.

According to Mr. Birol, “This conflict has disrupted a bigger share of the global oil and gas trade, and there is no way to quickly fill the gap.”

I asked in a recent blog post: Has The City Taken Your Temperature Lately?

The simple answer is that the city has not taken your temperature because no one in our local government has ever reached out and asked you how you are doing.

Do any of our elected and appointed officials understand that we are in the midst of an economic crisis that has the real potential of getting a lot worse? Most of you reading this blog post did not attend the meeting of April 6 at the Watertown library, where City Manager George Proakis provided an update of the Watertown Square Area Plan.

Sorry for this outdated reference, which will undoubtedly be lost on many of you, but all I could think of when I left that meeting was a classic TV show, where the host, Rod Serling…

…would describe a bizarre episode we were about to see and end that description with: “You have just stepped into The Twilight Zone.” At least a few of those bizarre episodes told a story of people living in a parallel universe.

On April 6, City Manager Proakis proceeded to tell a story straight out of his very own parallel universe, where the world we are living in is just hunky dory.

The story began with his one of his favorite hits – “The Watertown Square Area Plan was based on significant outreach and public process.”

Since a parallel universe can be as bizarre as its creator wants it to be, I should not have been shocked to hear him say that his outreach included “120,000 ‘engagement touch points’ between surveys, public comments, questions, online engagement tools, and more.”

120,000 engagement touch points!

Mr. Manager, please stop! Anyone paying close attention, including many who most support you, knows that your community outreach has been a lot of sizzle and very little steak.

The vast majority of Watertown residents have never been reached by your outreach because that was never your goal. If you really want to find some good “engagement touch points,” you should send staff members to our gas stations and supermarkets to ask folks how they are doing.

And while they are at it, they can tell those folks about your Demonstration Project, where the parking lot behind CVS, along with land currently occupied by adjacent businesses will be replaced by a multi-story parking garage with attached retail space and market-rate residential units.

The Manager’s Demonstration Project is aggressive, ambitious, and looks snazzy on paper. In a different world (or universe) this just might be the crown jewel of his future legacy.

But there’s a problem. Or should I say, three problems?

Our elected and appointed representatives are trying to juggle several large, multi-year capital projects that they’ve correctly identified as community priorities.

They are:

A new or renovated middle school. Who doesn’t want our city to complete its quest for 100 percent school modernization – adding the final gem to its education necklace.

A new senior center. Who doesn’t want this long-overdue quality of life upgrade for our seniors and their families?

A new fire station for the east end to replace the sub-par station that currently serves the neighborhood. Who doesn’t want superior public safety  to be mandatory throughout Watertown?

These are all part of the city’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)—roughly a $273 million 5-year plan as of recent proposals.

Here is the reality: We can’t afford to do them all at once without major borrowing or overrides. And now we have to consider that every single near-future project will come with a higher wartime price tag.

So, who exactly does want the Demonstration Project?

 Who does think it’s a good idea to be shelling out tax dollars to buy up buildings – some through eminent domain – from Church Street to Spring Street to Summer Street for what looks like an ill-timed vanity project?

Putting aside the legal and ethical problems associated with taking property by eminent domain…

Putting aside the retail apocalypse which began between 2008 and 2010 and intensified in the last few years…

Putting aside all the unknown factors, including environmental and utilities issues that could prolong this project and leave a massive hole in the ground for years and make cost estimates seem like nothing more than wishful thinking…

Putting all that aside, the Manager’s community outreachers should try to explain the rationale for beginning the Demonstration Project adventure during an unprecedented energy crisis to the woman at the gas pump trying to figure out how high she should let the price climb until she has just enough gas to get her kids to and from soccer practice and still have enough gas left in the tank to get out of her driveway the next morning.

In reality, I do not blame the Manager for being ambitious, and for wanting to leave his mark on Watertown. In fact, we should thank him. No, I am not kidding.

There is a hole in our government that has now been exposed and his ambition has helped expose It.

We now know that, when faced with an economic crisis, there is no built-in mechanism for swiftly shifting our legislative branch from business as usual into survival mode.

 This change can only happen now if councilors decide, on their own, to take the initiative, to say politely but firmly, George, thank you for being a visionary. Thank you for showing us what our future might be, but get a grip!

What our government needs to do now is to face the economic chaos and the challenges resulting from that chaos that have landed on our doorstep and they need to game this out.

They need to do the what-ifs. What if gas goes to $5, $6, or even $7 per gallon? They need to stress-test their budgets and reaffirm their priorities because what Watertown needs from their leaders, at this moment, in this climate, are practical, realistic goals and strategies.

They should make it clear to the taxpayers and to every on-edge resident, burdened by the endlessly rising costs of living, that adventure projects are officially on hold until further notice.

This is an emergency.

 

Bruce Coltin, The Battle For Watertown

  

HAS THE CITY TAKEN YOUR TEMPERATURE LATELY?

Has the government of the still-somewhat townish City of Watertown asked you how you’re feeling?

Have they knocked on your door or sent you a questionnaire asking if you are feeling an unusual amount of stress? Or, if you have flu symptoms but you don’t actually have the flu? Or, if you’ve been unusually on-edge and irritable? Or, how about (this is a good one): Are you having trouble making ends meet?

This blog post is about alarm bells. Do your elected and appointed representatives hear and feel the same alarm bells that you do?

As of this writing, the price of regular gas at some gas stations in Massachusetts has hit $4.00 – which, as far as I know, has not been reported in Watertown, yet. Already, it’s about a buck more than it was before all of us became painfully aware of the existence of the Strait of Hormuz and what effect its blockage can have on our daily lives.

One big effect: uncertainty about the economy and the resulting anxiety about where it will go − as if the economy weren’t already uncertain and anxiety-provoking enough.

Scott Rick, a professor at the University of Michigan who specializes in the psychology of spending, explains that gas prices cause a specific type of visceral pain that other products don't for several reasons:

 Unlike almost any other consumer goods, gas prices are displayed on massive, neon signs that bombard you in a way that’s impossible to ignore.

Rick calls it The "Slow Bleed" Effect, when you fill up your tank, and have to stand  at the pump, watching the numbers "climb and climb" in front of you, while you may be imagining  your hard-earned dollars flying out of your wallet. Your brain processes this feeling similarly to physical discomfort or, in some cases, pain.

 

Psychologists like Aja Evans and researchers at the Brookings Institution have noted that gasoline buyers can feel trapped and powerless − I don’t want to buy gas at this price, but I have no choice. I have to get to work!

Research from the University of Minnesota confirms what you already know. We fixate on round number milestones like $4.00 or $5.00. Crossing these thresholds sets off mental alarm bells that trigger anxiety.

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely often discusses the concept of "anchoring," where your brain gets stuck on what (for you) a "normal" price used to be, making any current price feel like a shock by comparison.

If your anchor gas price, when you felt the price was normal, was $2.50, you’ve been feeling pump shock for the past five years and you probably felt it in spades when regular gas hit $3.00.

Are you now bracing for $4.00? And when it hits will you be double-bracing for the possibility of $4.50 or $5.00?

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, regular gas topped $5.00 per gallon and stayed there for several months. It was the highest ever recorded price in most of the U.S., including greater Boston.

Now, the war with Iran places us in uncharted territory. Uncertainty is an understatement. (Apparently it’s easier to begin a war than to end one. Who knew?!)

Will gas prices hit $5.00, or even a record-breaking $5.50 or $6.00, triggering pump shock on top of pump shock? No one knows but lots of us can’t help but wonder. And worry.

Do members of our city council wonder and worry?

Diesel fuel is currently rising faster than gasoline − climbing a staggering 38% since the start of the war with Iran. This is due to a pre-existing low supply exacerbated by the war and increased demand for diesel as a substitute for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Surging diesel fuel prices act as a primary driver for "cost-push" inflation, directly increasing the price of almost every consumer good. On March 19, 2026, the national average for diesel jumped to $5.07 per gallon – the highest level since 2022.

High diesel costs force shipping companies to implement fuel surcharges, which are passed directly to retailers and then to consumers. Economists warn that if these prices persist, they will lead to a "trickle-down" effect on everyday expenses, especially grocery bills.

Fresh produce prices are projected to rise by 10% to 15% because trucks ship 92% of all dairy, fruit, vegetables, and nuts in the U.S.

You might be thinking: let’s not carried get away with gloom and doom. After all, we went through this in 2022 and then gas prices slowly became more normal.

But there’s a huge difference this time. In 2022, gas prices spiked sharply, but many other household costs had not yet fully caught up. Today, the pressure is coming from multiple directions at once. Grocery bills, along with utilities and insurance have risen dramatically.

 Everyday services cost more. So now, when gas prices spike, it doesn’t land in isolation − it lands on top of an already stretched cost of living.

We have just survived our coldest winter in a decade. Residents have been hit with frightening heating bills, sometimes double what they expected. I know this because they were panic-posting on Facebook and Nextdoor.

The obvious consequence is that some (who knows how many?) of our friends and neighbors have found themselves struggling to pay their bills. The less obvious consequence is the mounting stress factor placed on the community as a whole.

Researchers like Robert Sapolsky and Sheldon Cohen have shown that chronic, uncontrollable stress can actually make you sick by raising your blood pressure, disrupting your sleep, and weakening your immune system.

It’s not the single alarm bell that does the damage. It’s the constant ringing of alarm bells.

And this isn’t just about people who are struggling to make ends meet. Even those who can easily absorb higher prices are not immune. As Aja Evans points out, money stress is not purely about dollars. It’s about control, expectations, and uncertainty.

When prices move unpredictably and keep moving upward, the brain registers a threat to even those with exceptionally fat wallets. That sense that “something isn’t right” can trigger an unhealthy stress response, regardless of income.

 According to the experts, many people won’t connect the dots. They’ll just feel more tense, more irritable, and more worn down. They will have trouble sleeping. They will feel on edge at the checkout aisle. They will feel constant anxiety without realizing that a steady stream of financial shocks is what’s driving it.

But you know who should be looking out for us to the best of their ability?

Our city councilors − those Watertown residents in charge of spending our tax dollars.

Indications are that the city manager has some very ambitious and expensive plans for the near and not-so-distant future. Is it time for councilors to acknowledge that business as usual is an unacceptable tone-deaf approach during these uniquely worrisome times?

To be clear, I am not suggesting that the city council offer a resolution calling for the end of the war with Iran and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. If they did, I’m sure it would get at least four flakey votes to pass it.

What I’m suggesting is that they go out on the street and hear the alarm bells that are ringing louder by the day.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

 

Bruce Coltin, The Battle For Watertown 

DO YOU REALLY KNOW YOUR CITY COUNCIL? IT’S TIME FOR THE BIG REVEAL

 

So, during these trying times, what issue or issues continue to weigh most heavily on your mind?

If it's a survival issue like the rising cost of living that consumes you with how to pay your rent, mortgage, or property taxes, or your climbing utility and insurance bills, or the cost of groceries and other necessities, then you probably have less brain space for any number of global issues that bring constant anxiety to the daily lives of many of us. I think I made it clear in my most recent blog post that I am deeply disturbed by seeing the daily lives of the people of Minneapolis severely disrupted by the current federal paramilitary operation.

Feedback from that post tells me that it disturbs some of you as much as it disturbs me. No surprise. But these days there are many disturbing issues furiously competing for the pinnacle position on our personal anxiety pyramid.

For some of you it’s Israel’s occupation of Gaza.

For others, it’s Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

And for many, it’s DOJ’s shady handling of the Epstein files.

The list could go on and on.

The question here is what remedies do any of us have at our disposal to help turn the tide on global events and conditions that haunt us and refuse to let go?

Public protests, lobbying congressional representatives, organizing, donating, voting, and supporting watch dog journalism all come to mind. I’m sure there are others. We can all do something.

Which brings me to a recent op-ed in Watertown News. Here’s the opening paragraph:

On Tuesday, February 10, the city council will be requested to support a Back From the Brink resolution asking our U.S. government to work toward world nuclear disarmament.

Well, I am all for world nuclear disarmament and I doubt that I know anyone who isn’t. What I am not for is the type of political theater that turns the Watertown City Council into a political soap box.

Once a city council becomes a venue for symbolic declarations on national or global issues, it invites every cause — worthy or not — to demand equal airtime. I’m sure we have neighbors who are nervous about China invading Taiwan. Are they entitled to a city council resolution urging the federal government to protect Taiwan from aggression by mainland China?

When every injustice or potential threat becomes the city council’s business, the council’s actual business risks becoming secondary. That is not moral leadership; it is mission drift.

City councils exist to legislate, fund, and oversee matters they can actually affect: public safety, housing, infrastructure, schools, and fiscal stewardship. Need I say that this is a full time job?

Do those residents who are struggling to pay the rent and buy groceries want their elected representatives focusing on them or on Taiwan, Minneapolis, or Gaza?

This is not an argument about ideology or values. It is an argument about boundaries.

To my knowledge, no councilor expressed this principle more eloquently than Councilor Piccirilli, when he explained his objection to adopting a council resolution on a matter pertaining to support of a labor union. You can find his statement here AT THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING ON JULY 12, THE BRAT PACK WON AND THE INSTITUTION LOST

What Councilor Piccirilli understood and what the majority of the councilors, on that particular evening, either did not understand or did not care about is that when a city council takes positions on matters far outside its jurisdiction, it doesn’t expand its moral standing — it dilutes its institutional credibility.

On Tuesday, February 10, the council will likely be facing substantial pressure from well meaning, highly energized citizens, armed with hundreds of signatures on a petition, advocating for passage of the nuclear disarmament resolution. Each councilor will have a golden opportunity to put aside their political ideology and acknowledge the boundaries of the institution in which they serve by following the Piccirilli Precedent.

A city council’s credibility and legitimacy come from governing locally, not by sending symbolic messages on global affairs it cannot influence.

And given the challenges – expected and unexpected – that lie ahead and the tough decisions that will have to be made, the council’s credibility should be guarded, not squandered.

On Tuesday, they can do the easy, feel-good thing or they can do the hard, right thing.

You should make it a point to tune in, or show up in person, and watch it play out.

You may find it gratifying or disappointing but either way enlightening and entertaining.

I will be rooting for gratifying.

 

Bruce Coltin, The Battle For Watertown

BECAUSE IT CAN HAPPEN HERE

Just to be clear, The Battle For Watertown supports Law and Order as the most fundamental  component of maintaining community.

So, I’m with this guy…

              Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara

A police chief, calmly but urgently trying to keep his city from burning to the ground, while lacking the power to stop the arsonists.

 A police chief seeing his own off-duty officers being targeted by masked federal agents.

A police chief leading a department taught to de-escalate and to use lethal force only as a very last resort.    

A police chief, like most police chiefs, fighting the constant battle to win and keep the trust of his community. 

And then there are the  domestic terrorists lighting the matches and pouring the gasoline, beginning with her.

            Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem

This deadly diva leads a roaming, politicized enforcement machine that substitutes force for legitimacy and fear for order, that denies due process, and  that kills with impunity.

Her operation is untethered from community, unaccountable to local authority, and designed for spectacle more than safety.

Her primary role is trying her best to convince us not to believe our lying eyes but instead believe that this is stability, that this is normal, that this is law and order.

It isn’t.

History will judge this as an abomination.

An abomination that CAN happen HERE.

 

Bruce Coltin, The Battle For Watertown

 

WATERTOWN’S ROUGH SEAS ELECTION OF 2025 NEEDS ALL HANDS ON DECK

 

We are in the midst of an anniversary that no one is celebrating.

It was the Halloween season of 1991.  

On October 28, a cold front moving off the U.S. East Coast begins interacting with a low-pressure system over the Atlantic. At the same time, the remnants of Hurricane Grace are moving northward.

On October 29, the three systems meet off the coast of Nova Scotia, forming a massive “bomb cyclone.” Winds reach hurricane force, and waves exceed 30–40 feet along the New England coast. The still-warm ocean water of the Halloween season provides the storm with high-octane fuel.

October 30 – 31, the storm remains nearly stationary in the North Atlantic, pounding the U.S. East Coast with coastal flooding, erosion, and powerful surf. This is when most of the $200 million of destruction occurs.

November 1 – 2, the storm system moves eastward into the North Atlantic and briefly redevelops into a tropical storm before dissipating, and after taking 13 lives. 

The National Weather Service had predicted a severe nor’easter. They did not predict its intensity.

Later, Bob Case, a senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Boston, dubbed the catastrophic event The Perfect Storm. Author Sebastian Junger made it the title of his best-selling book, and the 2000 movie, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, guaranteed that The Perfect Storm would become a metaphor for events that occur when conditions merge to become “perfectly” disastrous.

The picture above comes from the movie where a commercial fishing boat, out of Gloucester, the Andrea Gale, is believed to have come apart when it encountered waves that may have been 100 feet high, taking the lives of its six crew members.

 

Watertown’s most recent local election in 2023 was a real snoozer. Of the nine elected officials who most affect our everyday lives, only one member of the City Council, the Council President, had a challenger, and the Vegas odds-makers had made him an overwhelming favorite. Voters could afford to sit that one out. And lots of you did.

 Those were the good old days of the Halloween season of 2023. And they seem so very long ago.

WARNING!!!: Sitting out the election of 2025 could prove to be a costly mistake for you, your family, your friends and neighbors, and for the still somewhat townish City of Watertown.  

From the federal government and state government down to our city manager, we have heard that the economy in 2026 and beyond might be facing “economic headwinds.”

If you’ve been alarmed (or totally freaked out) about the steady rise in your grocery, utilities, and insurance bills, you are already getting smacked in the face by biting, drenching headwinds, and some of you are scared to death that it will get increasingly worse. You have a right to be.

Snoozing through this election is not a sensible option.

Your elected representatives on the City Council can’t lower your bills, but they can make damn sure that your tax dollars – paid directly by homeowners and indirectly by renters − are not squandered on pet projects and policies that do not benefit the greater community.

Of course, it takes a five-to-four vote on the Council to stop those pet projects and policies that do not benefit the greater community.

If a member of your family recently graduated from college or grad school, you probably already know that the job market is crashing and that the jobs they were pursuing may have suddenly vanished.

The job market crash can be chalked up to employers’ uncertainty about the tariffs, combined with the explosiveness of AI. Combined, they are the “perfect” double whammy.

Artificial intelligence is making traditional entry-level corporate jobs expendable. As I write this blog post, Amazon has just announced the elimination of 14,000 corporate jobs. The tech sector as a whole has begun shedding hundreds of thousands of corporate jobs, as those companies shift from expansion to cost-saving restructuring.

The tech sector is not alone. AI is already becoming a career-killer for many young adults who will have to pivot in the midst of an ever-reshaping economic landscape.

To complete this gloomy forecast, we need to add one more system of economic weather that threatens us locally.

The turbo-charged biotech industry that turned Watertown into a modern-day boom town, with a fat corporate tax base, has slowed to a crawl.

So, the property tax dollars that homeowners pay directly and renters pay indirectly have rarely been in more need of protection than they will be in the future, should we find our small community battered by 100-foot economic waves.

And that brings me back to the urgency of having at least a five-vote majority on the Council to increase the odds that projects and policies that benefit the greater community are advanced, while the more utopian projects and policies that do not put the greater community first are not advanced.

The utopians on the Council and in the community are a minority, but they are extremely vocal and extremely well organized, and they continue to win their seats on the Council. In recent years, they have had their share of five-vote wins, but they have been one vote away from running the table, only because you showed up in four consecutive elections.

You showed up and voted for practical, commonsense, community-centered candidates who took time away from their businesses and their families to serve the town in which they grew up.

You did it in 2017 and 2019 when you put Anthony Donato, a complete newcomer to local politics, on the Council with the highest vote total in both elections.

You did it in 2021 when you put John Airasian, a newcomer to elected office, on the Council in a dead heat for second place. And, in 2023, when all at-large incumbents ran unopposed and the community honored him by giving him the highest vote total.

As politicians and Councilors, they were both novices, but they both had deep roots in the community and both possessed a deep understanding of their community and its values.

So, if you voted for Anthony Donato twice and John Airasian twice, feel free to give yourself a round of applause. But please make it quick because Watertown’s future requires your immediate attention.

Tom Tracy is the single most qualified candidate to run for Councilor at-large in at least the last decade. If you are reading this blog, you don’t need me to recite his lengthy resume. And if you know him, you don’t need me to tell you about his commitment to this community or about his deep understanding of this community and its values.

Tom Tracy does not need this job. But this job, at this time and under these circumstances, absolutely needs him. And to make it happen, all we need is for every Anthony Donato voter, every John Airasian voter, every Emily Izzo voter, every Angie Kounelis voter, every Ken Woodland voter, and every other voter who puts the whole community first to show up and cast one single vote in the Councilor at-large category for Tom Tracy.

In other words, All Hands on Deck!

And please wear your life jacket.

 

Bruce Coltin, The Battle For Watertown

JOE GANNO IS ON A CRUSADE

 

After talking to School Committee candidate Joe Ganno, it’s obvious to me that he is on a crusade. Not a medieval kind of crusade. Rather, a crusade to enlighten.

And Joe is not as menacing as the guy in the picture. In fact, he is not menacing at all. He is a modern-day crusader with a big heart, a warm smile, and infectious energy who is busy sounding the alarm on what he calls “the biggest educational challenge of our generation” — the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.

Joe is busy telling anyone who will listen (including me) that the AI revolution is not a future problem that can be dealt with like any other item on a school district’s agenda. AI is already reshaping education, jobs, careers, and society faster than schools can adapt, putting both students and teachers at risk of being left behind.

Here are my takeaways from our conversation:

As a new member of the Watertown School Committee, he will fight for policies that will close the AI literacy gap — ensuring that every child, teacher, and parent understands how AI works, its potential, and its pitfalls.

As voters consider the future of education, he hopes they’ll see that this isn’t simply a tech issue — it’s a children’s issue, a teacher’s issue, and a community issue.

Watertown’s economic future depends on using our taxpayers’ dollars to graduate tech-savvy students who go on to become Watertown’s next generation of community leaders.

 And, he says, “it’s an equity issue. Along with teaching reading and math skills, AI literacy is an irreplaceable skill that prepares every student, regardless of their circumstances, to compete and succeed outside of the classroom.”

It all makes perfect sense to me, but what about a game plan? I asked. Since there is no time to waste, what might the school district do to get the fastest start possible?

“I’m glad you asked,” he said, with a smile. And then, he listed these initial steps.

First, establish clear, community-informed policies on responsible AI use and data privacy. AI will gather huge amounts of personal data on students and teachers that have to be safeguarded.

Second, partner with local universities and tech organizations to bring AI  learning labs and after-school programs to students.

Third, create an AI Ethics and Literacy Curriculum, teaching students to question bias, understand automation, navigate misinformation, and become first-class critical thinkers.

Our kids will inherit a world where algorithms decide what information they will and will not see. Educators need to use every tool at their disposal to make sure our kids understand how those systems work. Their future and Watertown's future will depend on it.

“Okay,” I said.” You’ve got my vote.”

“Wait,” he said, I’m not a one-issue candidate. “Let me tell you about the rest of my platform.”

Some people just won’t take yes for an answer.

 

Bruce Coltin, The Battle For Watertown