Virginia Smith

I have lived in Brookline Village since 1997, and am very grateful to have been able to raise my three children in this wonderful neighborhood and for them to have attended Brookline's amazing public schools. Thank you to the great teachers at BEEP, Pierce School, and BHS!

Prior to moving to Brookline, I lived for 15 years on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, working in book publishing. My last, best job was as an Acquiring Editor for HarperCollins, a top 5 publisher. Prior to moving to New York, I lived in Cambridge, Mass., where I got an MBA from Harvard and during my second year was co-president of the HBS LGBQT student association. In New York, I served for 10 years as the co-president of the HBS Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association. I'm now a freelance writer and editor. When my kids were young, I wrote a parenting column for the Boston Globe Sunday magazine.

I've been a Town Meeting Member since 2009 and have concentrated in these areas: 

• Early advocate for a New Pierce. Every year from 2004-2017 when my children were students in the open classrooms in the library building, I spoke out at the fall Principal's Forum that the lack of walls in the 1960s Pierce Building is harmful to our children's learning and must be radically altered so that kids can actually hear what is being said and be able to concentrate. Later, when Pierce became the most overcrowded school in Brookline, I notified the Schools Committee about new rental space available on the top floor of the old Benefitness Building. This became the Pierce 7th grade "Loft," which alleviated some of the overcrowding and is where my youngest child finally (in 7th grade!) had a classroom with walls, doors, and a chance to learn in a quiet environment. 

• April 2021-December 2022,  I worked with several colleagues to successfully fight a developer who wanted to build a Level 2 Bio Lab in Brookline Village on the site of the northeast corner of Washington and Boylston Streets. This would have been a disaster for our neighborhood.

• 2010-2013, I was a member of a Moderator's Committee for Pay-As-You-Throw which resulted in increasing the volume of recycling and decreasing the volume of trash in Brookline. 

• June 2020-now, I am continuing a long battle to save from demolition 40 Kent, probably the most handsome as well as the most historic house in Brookline Village, and to reduce the height of the proposed building. It's not yet set in stone, but right now it looks like houses on Linden Street will have some relief from the height of this building, and the exterior structure of 40 Kent will remain with the interior used for condos.

• Since 2005, I have been Head of Friends of Linden Park and strive to maintain the park at a high level.

• 2021-2024, I co-led a successful battle to prevent the demolition of a lovely, mansard-roofed, mid-Victorian house at 370 Washington Street, the former residence of an early Pierce principal directly across from the Brookline Main Library. Instead of being demolished and a one-story bagel shop built in its place, it will be turned into 6 condos, a great outcome!

• 2021-2022, I cleared out over 60 contractor bags full of invasive vines that were suffocating the Larz Anderson Swamp, and then worked with the Brookline Scouts to clear almost 80% of the entire swamp so plants and wildlife can return to live here.

• 2000 and continuing, longtime (25 years!) community gardener at Larz Anderson Park.