I love Brookline and have for years. I went on my first date to the Bagel Nosh with a Brookline girl in high school. I moved here in 1992. My daughter Ema, now a writer for this publication, saw her first movie (Peter Pan) at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. We used to enjoy the Coolidge Corner Triple Play – movie at the Theatre, dinner at Zaftigs, followed by ice cream at JP Licks, then Ema and I would usually play at the Devotion school and talk about the movie until almost dusk.
I lived on Columbia Road; still the best neighborhood I’ve ever lived in. I started my first business in Bob and Greg Stoller’s building on 1312 Beacon Street in 1998. I’ve been the President of the Coolidge Corner Merchants Association since 2006. I’ve worked out at the Coolidge Corner Gym for almost 20 years, and was even a part-owner of the place for a couple of those years.
Like many people who have spent any part of their lives in Coolidge Corner, I’ll never give the place the up. Doesn’t matter if you’ve lived your whole life here or just a part of it, a little piece of it remains in your blood.
The Coolidge Corner Hub started as a hobby in 2005. It served a dual purpose, as a search engine optimization experiment to bring traffic to our gym site and to fulfill a fantasy I’ve had of owning my own newspaper. Soon people started asking us to build websites for them. Before we knew it, we had a company called Advanced Digital Websites, Inc.
We’ve spent the last few months giving the Coolidge Corner Hub a major facelift. We’ve added cool technology and writing power. Most of all, we’ve given more of what we feel the Brookline Community has gone without, a real voice.
Some members of our community were born here; some weren’t even born in this country. Many are college educated; many are living here while they go to college right now. Single people and family people live side by side in Coolidge Corner. Some own businesses and non-profits. Some own homes, condos and office buildings here; some rent. Some people here speak with a Boston accent; some speak with accents that span the globe. There are a lot of very wealthy people here and a lot of people who struggle to get by.
The people of Brookline view what happens in Coolidge Corner from many different perspectives. This publication is dedicated to give all of you a forum to share your perspective with the rest of us who care about Brookline.
We’ll run articles and events designed to interest you, and we’ll make a solid attempt to better our community. We promise to be passionate about what we do in this publication. We invite you to share your passion with us.
Thank you,
R. Harvey Bravman
