Lynne Smith wrote yesterday: "We will *all *meet on December 2nd to make the best choice we know how to make for Lincoln's future".(emphasis added). This is not accurate. Only those residents privileged enough to be able to take the better part of their day off from work, family responsibilities and other personal priorities will be in attendance on December 2nd. Based on historical counts of Town Meeting (TM) attendance (which are published in the Annual Town Reports), on average less than 400 residents attend the regularly scheduled TM in March - or about 8% of the voting-age population in town. A special TM like the one on December 2nd may draw more residents due to its hotly-debated topics (for reference, the special TM in June 2018 on the school options drew around 900 people, following a long and well-advertised campaign to get residents to attend), but may also exclude more residents since its timing and agenda were not known far enough in advance that all residents could plan it around their other commitments. Either way, it only takes half of those in attendance to approve most warrant articles, so it is likely that less than 5% of voting-age residents will determine the path forward on the Community Center, Common's expansion, and the HCA zoning this Saturday.
I'm not offering an opinion on Town Meeting as good or bad, legitimate or rigged - it is our form of governance in Lincoln, and whether you love it or hate it, it is how Lincoln decides most of the important issues in town. I'm only asking that we be honest when we talk about what a Town Meeting is - a chance for an unrepresentative* minority of the population to come together and debate topics of importance for the town, then make a decision based on their preferences and perceptions of what is best for the rest of us. No vote on Saturday will tell us anything about 'the will of the town', so let's please stop perpetuating this false narrative. (full disclosure - I am a member of the HCAWG and the Lincoln Housing Commission, though my comments above are made as an individual resident of Lincoln and do not reflect the views of either group. I will also be out of town on a long-planned trip on December 2nd). *For more information on the demographics of Massachusetts TM attendance relative to general populations, please see this article, which includes Lincoln as one of its case studies: https://www.townofsharon.net/sites/g/files/vyhlif3801/f/pages/survey_of_engaged_tm_04_01_2020.pdf Rachel Drew
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