The Last Week in Brookline: Sept. 13 to 19

There's nothing like the anticipation of election-night poll results to get a reporter's blood pumping.

Brookline Patch kicked off the week by teaming up with nearby Patches to cover primary campaigns that spilled over in to Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Newton and Wellesley. While Brookline Patch was busy pestering election workers for results at Town Hall on Tuesday night, four other editors hit campaign parties across the districts.

In case you missed it, state Senator Cynthia Creem had an easy time keeping her seat from challenger Charles Rudnick, who conceded to the incumbent early in the night. In the 10th Suffolk District, which includes West Roxbury and parts of South Brookline, Ed Coppinger managed to beat back five other candidates for a seat in the State House, even though Brookline voters heavily favored candidates Pamela Julian and Kelly Tynan. And in the 15th Suffolk, which includes a single Brookline precinct nestle up against Jamaica Pond, Rep. Jeffery Sanchez had little trouble fending off challenger Jeffery Herman.

And amid all the excitement of primary night, the Board of Selectmen decided to test the flexibility of the town's community journalists by holding a meeting just as the polls were closing. While returns started to trickle into the Town Clerk's Office on the ground floor of Town Hall, selectmen on the sixth floor were inking a final contract with incoming town administrator Mel Kleckner, who started work at 8 a.m. the following day.

But outside of Town Hall and the small world of local politics, life carried on as usual in Brookline this week. Coolidge Corner saw a small but enthusiastic response to its first annual—organizers hope—fruit-pie contest on Monday, while urban planning advocates prepared to build a pair of one-day curbside parks on Harvard Street on Friday. We also learned this week about a bountiful community garden at veteran's housing on High Street, and early plans for a town-wide program that could help more seniors live out their lives in their own homes.

Brookline police were also kept unnaturally busy this week. Officers found the body of a young woman in a North Brookline apartment, tracked down an alleged burglar living in Florida and responded to an armed bank robbery in Coolidge Corner. And the department was also forced to deal with problems in its own ranks, following up on the case of an officer missing for more than a month, and forcing another one to resign over harassment charges.

With the busy week over, Brookline Patch is sleeping in and getting ready to check out Brookline's fall harvest at the Edible Gardens Tour. Maybe we'll see you there.