Category — Newton Corner

Detail from a 1917 atlas of Newton showing the YMCA building at bottom left. Click to enlarge.

Happy Birthday, West Suburban YMCA! [Read more →]

Clint Schuckel, associate City Engineer, will present proposed signage improvement plans around the Newton Corner Rotary (Exit 17) and West Newton Square (Exit 16) at 6:30pm on Wednesday, November 17, in Room 202 at City Hall.

Residents and merchants — and anyone who utilizes these rotary-style interchanges — are invited to comment. If you have questions ahead of the meeting, please contact David Koses, (617) 796-1133, dkoses@newtonma.gov.
[Read more →]

A futurist view?

File this under “wishful thinking,” but… [Read more →]

With help of the Newton Highlands Neighborhood Area Council, the Waban Improvement Society and Alderman John Rice, we are proud to announce the publication of our Guide to Planning a Village Day. (Also, we want to say a big thanks to volunteers Sean Pears for writing the booklet and Betsy Blazar for designing it!)

The Guide outlines all of the moving pieces that have to come together to make a street fair work in Newton.  Although many of our villages have a Village Day or the equivalent, some still do not.  We’re talking to you: Newtonville, West Newton, Auburndale…. What are you waiting for? And as you ponder the possibilities in your own village, don’t forget to check out Upper Falls’ Heritage Day this Sunday.

The city zoning ordinances that require businesses to provide off-street parking have not been revised since 1963, the same year the Massachusetts Turnpike was being constructed through Newton, when cars ran on leaded gasoline that cost around 30 cents per gallon.

A lot has changed since then. These parking requirements have not. Today, they serve to repel new business and hamper existing businesses that wish to expand. [Read more →]

For all of the concerns voiced this year about parking meter rates and parking enforcement, the city has far more important parking issues to address. For starters, as a city, we need to make it easier for businesses, especially restaurants, to open in our village centers.

Today, almost every village center has vacant storefronts. Granted, these are difficult economic times, and the cost of a commercial lease in Newton presents no small challenge. While the city has no control over these market factors, our zoning ordinances do present an effective barrier to entry: outmoded parking laws that require businesses to provide off-street parking.

Don Levy (left), with his lawyer Michael Field, offers a slice of coconut pie at the Deluxe Town Diner in Watertown.

Of all village businesses, restaurants really take it on the chin. [Read more →]