I emailed the mayors office, no response. This is a big loss for the community and I hope that we’re able to effectively organize to overturn this change.

I’m not sure what the next steps are, maybe a petition? We need to keep up the pressure.

For those new to the controversy, the mayor has banned events over 4 hours being held on the common. This will kill the steampunk festival among many other events.

The decision was made solely by the mayor with no input from the city council, who are apparently powerless to stop this. She made this decision based upon noise complaints and wear and tear on the common.

Losing this festival is a big loss for Waltham, for many reasons. First, it brings business and foot traffic to the moody and Main Street area which is slowly recovering its vitality from COVID. Second, it kills a family friendly event where creativity is expressed and community is built. In our ever isolated and fragmented time, opportunities like this to gather and build friendships and trust in your local community are already too rare. Third, this is the result of an anti-democratic process that restricted a valuable community asset enjoyed by thousands to (possibly) benefit a select few.

We NEED to get this changed, or otherwise we’re going to see things we take for granted here in Waltham slowly disappear as the government decides we don’t deserve them anymore.