Massachusetts State Senator
Sen. Mike Barrett here. An annual meeting of Democrats in my Senate district is set for next Saturday morning, May 3. People are deeply shaken by what’s happening in the country. So, this year, working with event chair Robert Logan, I’d like to try something new, a Town Hall open to all Democrats and Independents in the area interested in discussing what went wrong in 2024 — and what needs to go right in 2026.
In Lexington, 826 Boston supporter Sonali Shah hosted NYT best-selling author Vaishnavi Patel for a fascinating conversation on the experiences of women in India and in Indian fiction. Good turnout. 826 Boston exists to nurture and highlight the writing talents of young writers in urban neighborhoods. Great organization. Shoutout to Read My Lips Boston for inviting my wife and me to the session.
In entertaining a proposal to build new hangars for super-polluting private jets at Hanscom Airfield, Massport is on the verge of a terrible two-fer: aiding and abetting the warming of the planet and pandering to the concentration of private wealth. I joined advocates at the State House in thanking the Governor and asking her to prevail upon Massport to do the right thing. Nothing is guaranteed, and the odds remain very difficult, but they aren’t as long as they were two years ago! We have a real opportunity to stop this.
Waltham Inclusive Neighborhoods, founded by Tom Benavides, has been pushing to expand access to housing. I was pleased to present Tom with one of this year’s Hero Awards, organized by the Waltham Democratic City Committee, in recognition of the group’s impressive work.
At the Common Good Coffee and Coworking House on Moody Street, Rep. Tom Stanley and I met with Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll to discuss the upcoming state budget and Waltham’s priorities.
And now for something different: Kudos to my amazing daughters, whose entrepreneurial embrace of happy endings makes me smile on my most challenging days.
What a turnout! The Chelmsford Climate Action Team packed the room to talk state and local climate policy. The big question: How can towns make a difference? We covered everything from putting solar panels on condo roofs to making it easier to install heat pumps.
State Sen. Mike Barrett posited to Davey that “there is a sense in which you’re rolling out SAFs, I think, as a shield and in order to disarm us,” a point that Davey heatedly denied, referencing an SAF startup in Charlestown in his defense. To this, Barrett replied: “We have lots of startups in Massachusetts that hope someday to cure cancer, and we certainly want to encourage them to try. But none of us go out and encourage our kids to smoke cigarettes because the cure is going to come in their lifetimes.”
Cary Library Director Koren Stembridge and a Special Guest collaborated this week to honor the irrepressible Suzie Barry (center) upon her retirement from the Lexington Select Board.
More than 135,000 people in Massachusetts are living with Alzheimer’s — and that number is expected to keep growing. Members of the Alzheimer’s Association dropped by for a State House lobby day. Their advocacy led to a recent landmark law in 2018 to fight the disease. One new priority: a bill to require insurers to cover testing that can help diagnose Alzheimer’s early.
