An East Milton Square building, yard signs for a statewide gun-law referendum and complaints about teens after a football game drew some of the busiest discussions in the Milton Neighbors Facebook group during the week of Oct. 1–7.
The three threads generated a combined 1,395 comments and reactions, according to a weekly recap by The Milton Scene. The group recorded 109 posts, 740 comments and 2,136 reactions that week. Those figures count interactions, not individual participants.
Parent raises concerns about teens
The week’s second most-engaged post came from a parent describing teens running through the Thacher Street neighborhood after a football game.
The post raised allegations of trespassing and property damage and drew 115 comments and 404 reactions, according to the recap.
East Milton Square building draws criticism
A resident’s criticism of a new building in East Milton Square drew 89 comments and 334 reactions, making it the week’s fourth most-engaged post. The resident called the building a “skyscraper” and said it “sticks out like a sore thumb.”
The building’s identity was not confirmed in the recap.
One major project underway in the square is the Residences at East Milton, a 92-unit development by the Falconi Companies and the Joseph J. Corcoran Company. The Board of Appeals approved it in April 2022, according to the project’s website.
Plans include 14 studios, 38 one-bedroom apartments, 30 two-bedroom apartments and 10 three-bedroom apartments, along with 104 parking spaces. Twenty-three apartments will be offered through an affordable-housing lottery.
Applications are expected to open in 2027, with first move-ins anticipated that summer, pending final approvals. The developers say Milton’s 2015 Master Plan and a subsequent Urban Land Institute study recommended greater density in East Milton Square.
Question 9 signs prompt discussion
An East Milton resident’s offer of free yard signs supporting Question 9 generated 95 comments and 358 reactions, the third-highest engagement of the week.
The Nov. 3 referendum asks voters whether to retain Massachusetts’ 2024 firearms law. A yes vote keeps the law; a no vote repeals it, according to the state’s official voter guide.
The law regulates untraceable “ghost guns,” expands who can petition for an extreme risk protection order and broadens the definition of a machine gun to include certain conversion devices.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association contributed $500,000 to the campaign supporting the law, making it that campaign’s largest financial backer as of a Sept. 16 CommonWealth Beacon report. Smith & Wesson was the repeal campaign’s largest single donor at that point, with a $50,000 contribution.
In the official voter guide’s opposition argument, Toby Leary of The Civil Rights Coalition called the law “a deeply flawed, 116-page piece of bureaucratic overreach.”
Separately, Town Meeting member caucuses for Precincts 3, 7 and 10 are scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, in the Milton High School cafeteria. Registered voters in those precincts may attend and ask to be considered for vacant Town Meeting seats, according to the town’s notice.
