Marissa Vogt

@[email protected]
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64 Posts
Brookline Town Meeting Member in Precinct 6 focusing on equity and transparency & Library Trustee. Mother, wife, planetary space physicist at BU. MIT '06, UCLA PhD. She/her.
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/vogt4brookline
Marissa VogtMay 29, 2025

#BrooklineTownMeeting night 2 is underway with lots of questions for town department heads about the budget.

Here's a preview from @brookline_news: https://brookline.news/town-meeting-preview-a-trash-fight-broker-fees-democracy-and-foie-gras/
and my own warrant article summary and voting guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F7V_3jGrOXRm4s8QLM87GhJB3n-0XJvUCDY3D0oRuyc/edit?tab=t.0

Town Meeting preview: A trash fight, broker fees, democracy and foie gras - Brookline.News

Brookline’s Annual Town Meeting starts on Tuesday, with the town’s fiscal challenges front and center. As with every spring session of Town Meeting, the budget is the biggest item on the agenda. This year, Town Meeting members will vote on whether to approve a $456.6 million budget that maintains town services, but includes millions of… Read More »Town Meeting preview: A trash fight, broker fees, democracy and foie gras …

Brookline.News
Marissa VogtMay 6, 2025

Happy Election Day, Brookline! 🗳️

Thank you to everyone running - volunteering to lead our community at this moment in history is a huge responsibility. I’m grateful for the right to vote for folks I think will best uphold our values & protect us from the hate & chaos coming from the federal government

Marissa VogtJan 30, 2025
Brookline residents - it's time to think about running for Town Meeting! You have until March 18 to obtain nomination papers from the Town Clerk and get 10 signatures from registered voters in your precinct. Our schools are facing an $8 million budget gap and last year Town Meeting somewhat narrowly defeated a modest upzoning proposal. We need education and housing advocates to run -- individuals & groups like Brookline for Everyone will be here to help guide you!
Marissa VogtNov 26, 2024

Here's the final table showing the results of all warrant articles from the fall
#BrooklineTownMeeting. Voting records are here: https://www.brooklinema.gov/DocumentCenter/View/53579/November-2024-Nights-1-3-Votes

Thanks to Moderator Neil Wishinsky for making these sorts of tables that are helpful for TMMs and the public!

Show threadMarissa VogtNov 22, 2024

WA 15, which makes changes to the ADU zoning bylaws so that we will be in compliance with the Affordable Homes Act, passed overwhelmingly, 237-1-5.

WA 19, a resolution asking the town to observe Jewish-American heritage month, passed unanimously.

WA 20, the ceasefire resolution, was tabled by a vote of 176-48-10. As I did in the spring, I voted "no" to table because I believe that petitioners should be given the opportunity to present their article to Town Meeting.

Show threadMarissa VogtNov 22, 2024
It's also frustrating to hear that enforcing this bylaw is expected to cost the town ~$275k/year to protect trees on private property -- that money could be much better spent on street trees or on the town's program of planting trees on private property near the public way.
Show threadMarissa VogtNov 22, 2024
It's frustrating that Town Meeting is more concerned with protecting trees than for building housing & sustainable transit infrastructure. Even mature trees only absorb the equivalent carbon produced of ~60 miles of driving for a typical car, so from a climate perspective it would be far more impactful for the town to significantly increase housing density and affordability in our walkable, transit-rich neighborhoods.
Show threadMarissa VogtNov 22, 2024
WA 16 passed, 184-41-18. This article will significantly expand our current tree preservation bylaw (which I voted to support!) to apply to basically all trees on private residential property. While I love trees, this feels like a significant overreach, and I voted no. I support strongly protecting trees on/near public property because there's a more clear public benefit of those trees.
Show threadMarissa VogtNov 22, 2024

WA 17 failed, 93-131-20. I voted yes because I think it would have been a relatively easy but meaningful way to support nuclear disarmament & I'm disappointed that Town Meeting chose not to support even this modest effort to stop our progress toward nuclear midnight.

WA 18 passed overwhelmingly -- a home rule petition asking for permission to prohibit second generation anticoagulant rodenticides on private property because SGARs pose a risk to hawks, owls, foxes, and other rodent predators.

Marissa VogtNov 22, 2024

Night 3 (the final night? 🤞) of
#BrooklineTownMeeting
is underway!

We're starting with Warrant Article 17, a home rule petition asking the state legislature to allow the town to disqualify bidders or vendors who design or manufacture nuclear weapons.