Category — Lower Falls

As reported this week by NECN, the U.S. Postal Service is considering closing four post offices in Newton’s villages, including:

• Newton Lower Falls,
• Newton Upper Falls,
• Nonantum, and
• West Newton.

These four post offices are among 43 Massachusetts ones being considered. As many as 124 post offices in New England are being evaluated.

“Our customer’s habits have made it clear they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business,” says the USPS announcement. Instead, it envisions a new model:

Village Post Offices would be operated by local businesses, such as pharmacies, grocery stores and other appropriate retailers, and would offer popular postal products and services such as stamps and flat-rate packaging.

With the rise of so many forms of electronic communication which provide alternatives to paper, coupled with current economic situation in the U.S., the erosion of this public institution is perhaps inevitable.

Nonetheless, it is a sad thing to envision these villages losing four traditional meeting places. The urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the term “third places” to describe these informal gathering places and their importance to community vitality – and even to local democracy.

Unlike home and work, places that Oldenburg called first and second in people’s lives, third places – coffee shops, sidewalk cafes, parks, retail stores, post offices, and pubs – provide a level playing field for community interaction.

Tony Moreira, who teaches technology courses at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, has posted an article about a series of items he’s hidden around Newton as part of a “geocaching” project, a scavenger hunt that require the use of GPS technology.

He’s hidden caches in 13 different village locations — even in Thompsonville. (Given today’s forecast, I’m hoping some are located near ice cream vendors.)

Moreira writes:

Childhood memories were the inspiration for the hides, and while looking for each cache, be sure to take in the local sights, shops, and check the cache’s listing at the geocaching.com website for interesting historic information about each location.

Restaurant Week Boston starts today, and Chef Michael Leviton’s restaurant Lumiere in West Newton is offering diners special special menus March 6-11 and March 13-18 (subject to change).

Lumiere is the only village center restaurant participating. Other Newton restaurants offering Restaurant Week specials include the Riverbend Bar and Grill in Auburndale; Aquitaine, The Capital Grille, and the Metropolitan Club, all in Chestnut Hill; and Bokx 109 American Prime in Lower Falls.

Join Historic Newton volunteers for walking tours of two of the city’s historic villages, both of which sprang to life around the mill industry on the Charles River.

Lower Falls circa 1905, from the collection of Historic Newton. Click for more historic images.

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You may have thought once or twice before, “Why do developers do our planning for us?  They tell us what they want, and we react.  Why don’t we have our own vision?”

Mayor Warren has convened a committee to create that vision–the Comprehensive Plan Mixed Use Task Force (MUTF). The group is led by the rightly esteemed Phil Herr, who led the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee that gave us our 2007 Plan.

[NOTE:  Two Newton Villagers (Andrea Kelley and John Pears) are serving on the MUTF.  As updates on the MUTF work are available, we will post them here.]

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