City dedicates Setti D. Warren Plaza in Newtonville

The seating area and small event space between Caffè Nero and Starbucks in Newtonville has a new name: The Setti Warren Plaza.

Mayor Marc Laredo, joined by Warren’s family, state and local leaders and former Secretary of State John Kerry, hosted a dedication ceremony at the plaza on Sunday during Newtonville Village Day. Warren died suddenly last November at age 55.

“He would have loved this so much,” his wife Tassy said to the crowd that packed the space. “He would have loved the flags. He would have loved seeing all of you. And he would have loved it because he loved being mayor.”

On Sunday, people shared memories of the late former mayor, people laughed, people shed tears. It was a gathering casual enough to capture Warren’s comforting persona yet so poignant that even the rain dared not fall.

“This is a gathering place in the city that he truly loved,” Laredo said. “It literally is the neighborhood where he grew up, and it is part of a project that Mayor Warren championed because he believed in what this part of Newton could become.”

Indeed, that plaza in Warren’s childhood stomping grounds used to be a big parking lot.

Two aldermen at the time—Susan Albright and Marcia Johnson—led the effort in getting a special permit through, with Warren’s full-throttled support, that transformed that Austin Street parking lot into the bustling gathering space it is today.

“As anyone who knew Mayor Warren knew, he loved being around people,” Laredo continued. “He loved talking to people. He loved hearing their stories and, of course, he had that huge grin and that unmistakable, heartfelt Setti Warren laugh that echoed through City Hall.”

Warren was raised in Newtonville by an African-American studies professor for a father and a social worker for a mother, so listening to people’s stories came naturally to him.

He was class president at Newton North High School and student body president at Boston College, showing the world that he had a knack for politics and leadership, too. He brought that to work with him for President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s.

And in 2004, Warren began working for a man who would become family: John Kerry. The U.S. senator was running for president, and Warren helped run his campaign. After Kerry lost that election, Warren went to work in Kerry’s Senate office before running for mayor of Newton in 2009.

Warren and Kerry grew so close that Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, are godparents to Warren’s daughter, Abigail.

“Knowing what a great Drake Maye fan Setti was, if he were advising me here today, I know the first thing out of his mouth would be, ‘Hey, you’re all that stands between them and the kickoff, so make it short,’” Kerry joked as he began his remarks.

Kerry also joked that Warren helped cost him the presidential election because he was so busy with a woman he was dating, his future wife, Tassie, before emphasizing to Tassie and the kids how much a city plaza means to Setti Warren’s legacy.

“You could honor him with a scholarship, with a plaque, or a street. And I know all these things were considered,” Kerry said. “But a plaza, a plaza in the heart of Newton, which is a place where—as the mayor said—people come together and talk and pass time, this is the perfect way to honor Setti.”

Rick Lipof, former city councilor who helped run Warren’s mayoral campaign, reflected on meeting Warren almost two decades ago. At the time, Warren was getting ready to serve, Lipof and his sister both served on the Board of Alderman, their father served on the Board of Aldermen, and their mother was a rabbi and a big name in the Jewish community. So the family was well-known and well-connected with residents and community leaders across the villages.

It was a strange time for Warren. He was enlisted in the Naval Reserve and was serving a tour in Iraq when Mayor David Cohen announced that he wouldn’t seek re-election. Warren decided to run, but he’d have a late start.

“He walked into my office unannounced, and he said, ‘I’m Setti Warren and I want to run for mayor,'” Lipof recalled. “We talked, and he said that he was going to serve our country at war and would be back in a year to speak with me again. And a year later, he walked back into my office.”

It was also a difficult time for the city and the nation, in the midst of the Great Recession with city budgets hemorrhaging and unemployment bringing havoc to families and businesses across Newton. Lipof said after an hour-long conversation with Warren, he knew he wanted Warren leading the city.

“I miss him and think of him often, and this plaza dedication in his name is fitting because his example and love for our community should be memorialized and known to generations to come,” he said.

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