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Brookline Information
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. It borders Newton (part
of Middlesex County) on the southwest and Boston (part of Suffolk County) in all
other directions, so it is not contiguous with any other part of Norfolk County.
As of the 2000 census, the population of the town was 57,107.
As close to Boston as Brookline is, it has managed to maintain its own identity.
Brookline features a unique mixture of urban and suburban living, upscale shops
and recreational parks, apartment buildings and large estates. It is the home of
many academic and scientific professionals who work at the nearby medical
centers in Boston. Brookline has staunchly refused to be absorbed by Boston,
which surrounds it like a horseshoe. Brookline has kept its town meeting form of
government since its 1705 incorporation. It also has an overnight on-street
parking ban more common in suburbs farther from a central city. Among its many
unusual resources, Brookline has its own working farm (with farm stand), the
oldest country club in the nation, a town golf course, a park on a hillside
overlooking Boston with an open air skating rink and transportation museum, as
well as numerous neighborhood parks and playgrounds scattered throughout the
town.
Its major retail centers, like Coolidge Corner, Brookline Village, Washington
Square, Cleveland Circle and the Chestnut Hill Shopping Center, there are
pedestrian-oriented shopping areas with a variety of stores, restaraunts and
malls. Along with offering both a city atmosphere and a feeling of being in the
country, there is a wide mix of people in Brookline. The student body at
Brookline High School includes students from more than 50 different countries.
Many students attend Brookline High from surrounding, lower income neighborhoods
in Boston, such as Mission Hill and Mattapan, via the Metropolitan Council for
Educational Opportunity (METCO) system. There are 8 elementary schools in the
Brookline Public School system: Baker, Devotion, Driscoll, Heath, Lawrence,
Lincoln, Pierce, and Runkle schools. As of December, 2006, there were 6,089 K-12
students enrolled in The Public Schools of Brookline. The system includes one
early learning center, eight grades K-8 schools and one comprehensive high
school. The student body is 66.1% White, 17.7% Asian, 9.9% Black, 5.9% Hispanic
and 0.4% Other. Approximately 30% of students come from homes where English is
not the first language.
Although predominantly residential, Brookline is open to new commercial
development, and has amended its zoning to encourage new growth along its major
thoroughfares.
Brookline is known in the Boston area for its large population of Russian
immigrants and numerous synagogues. Jewish culture is very strong in Brookline,
and is especially notable along the section of Harvard Street that starts at
Washington St (Brookline Village) runs through Beacon Street (Coolidge Corner)
and ends at Commonwealth Avenue, continuing into Allston-Brighton. This
neighborhood is home to at least 3 area synagogues including the first Jewish
congregation in Massachussets (Ohabei Shalom, founded in Boston in 1842 and
located in Brookline since the 1920s) and a number of Jewish-themed restaurants
and stores.
Brookline is also known for its excellent schools, which are supported in large
part by property taxes — the town has one of the highest property tax burdens in
the country.
While residents of Brookline tend toward liberal ideals, economic and cultural
factors keep this section of the Boston metropolitan area less diverse than its
neighbor across the Charles River, Cambridge. It's also worth noting that
Brookline's liberalism and diversity are relatively new developments in the
town's history. In the 19th century Brookline, which has been called "the
richest town in America", was a sanctuary for the wealthy where Boston's elites
built their summer homes. The legacy of privilege is still visible, with
Brookline existing as a deliberately engineered exclave of Norfolk County
surrounded on three sides by metropolitan Boston but never incorporated into the
city, a measure designed to keep out the Irish and other ethnic immigrants.