Two towns consider merging. Who should be next?

whether Brookline's atrocious roads would get worse or better if it were swallowed by Boston?!

Sorry to any residents for taking a potshot, but I have often marveled at the horrid condition of Brookline's streets. (Yes, I know there is work going on @Rte 9, and Goddard Ave was finally fixed, thank the Lord...)

Cool! I get to be a homer today.

I live in Brookline. I would not be living in Brookline if it had been part of Boston when I bought my place. I would move if it became part of Boston. The list of reasons why is incredibly long, and most are economic (and please don't get all self-rightous out there, if you have laid out for a condo/house in greater Boston over the last few years you know what I'm talking about and you feel the same way). Anyway, a few items on the list are: I like trees; I don't want to pay $400-500/year more in car insurance (used to live in Brighton, and upon moving less than 1.5 miles into Brookline, it decreased over $400/yr); and my condominium would be worth half of what I paid for it because the town's services, particularly in the education department, blow Boston's away. By way of example, and in my experience, police respond in a minute or less, and the fire department/EMS in less than 90 seconds. Public works/Water Dept. have resonded on the same day (once within 25 minutes!). I think the performance of the school system doesn't require discussion (it's one of the best in the state).

I would submit that a big part of the reason why Brookline has such great services is because it still has a town form of government (with a representative town meeting), which keeps it closer to the people (and also confers the extra added benefit of not haveing to deal with jokers like those who comprise the Boston City Council). There is also no shortage of people in the town who pay attention to what the town government is doing.

Also, I'm not quite sure why it matters that Brookline is not contiguous with the rest of Norfolk County (although I did love the paramecium comparison), considering that Governor Weld and the Legislature essentially eliminated county government in the late 90s. Further, if Brookline were going to go to another county, it would go to Middlesex, not Suffolk. There is no way that the people here would agree to join a county containing Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop because it would be clear which way the money and services would flow.

Finally, it was by the good grace of Brookline (almost certainly with some strong-arming from the legislature) that Allston-Brighton was not cutoff from the rest of the City when Boston annexed it in the late 19th Century. Brookline used to contain the land all the way to the Charles River, but it ceded everything north of the back of the southern sidewalk on Commonwealth Avenue to Boston when Boston annexed A-B. I believe that this was so Boston sewer and street lighting lines (which was why A-B, Hyde Park and the others agreed to annexation) would not have to run through another town (an idea which must have been abandoned at some point since when NStar cut the pipe in Brighton earlier this year the oil that was released ran under Brookline into the Muddy River).

See, this is what happens when I get some time to write. Sorry to have subjected all of you to that.

I think Brookline was once part of Boston, and it seceded. It purposely joined Norfolk County to be a heavyweight as compared to a shadow it would have been in Suffolk or Middlesex counties. That's the story as I've been told.

I could be wrong, so I'd defer to the knowledge of the Boston News-Letter history dude.

Does anyone have Gil Hoy's number? I bet he knows.