Category — Nonantum

Daddy’s Junky Music officially closed its doors this past Wednesday, shutting the door on one of the last truly local chains of guitar and musical instrument stores in the region. In talking about why this small regional chain failed, Fred Bramante (the chain’s founder) noted competition from online retailers as the prime reason. By buying online, customers saved paying sales tax (ironic perhaps as Daddy’s first store was just over the line in NH in a specific bid to draw Massachusetts customers for tax savings). While Daddy’s is more of a Boston institution, local Newton merchants like the Boston Running Company, Big Sky Bakery & Café, and New England Mobile Book Fair have either closed or are seeking to transfer to new ownership.

Yes, the economy is certainly somewhat to blame, but not entirely. And, since the UPS truck still drops off boxes from Amazon and Zappos throughout our city, what does it say about the commitment to our communities if we lose the merchants and stores that we love? How do we justify allowing the businesses that we wax nostalgic about to disappear?

Local merchants provide goods and services that we need and that are specifically tailored to the local market. In many cases they provide the essential foundation upon which the community itself builds. How many of us recall and treasure the bookstore, coffee house, diner, hobby shop, or even a record store that featured prominently in our lives?

Local merchants are active participants in the community themselves. They are as tied to the community as we are to them. It is much harder for them to pull up stakes and move to a different town than it is for a chain store. Since their success or failure is so tightly wound with that of the community, they are often exactly the ones most willing to invest in that community, through sponsoring local events and helping to fund things like local streetscape improvements.

Yes, the internet is convenient and cheap, but the community loses if that is the only place we shop.

So there are a few things we can do about this. Some of them involve changing regulations to try to either make things easier for merchants or to make it harder for chain stores to come into our village centers. However, this also seems to ignore the basic market reality of the situation.

Local merchants are only successful if people buy their food, services, and goods. Local stores are worth a second (or even a first) look. When you need a lightbulb, try stopping by Swartz or Waban Hardware. Need a book? Try browsing Newtonville Bookstore. The coffee and baked goods at l’Aroma are at least as good as Starbucks, and they have better teas.

Or better yet, try spending a weekend afternoon walking through Newtonville, Newton Highlands, Nonantum, West Newton, or Newton Centre and sampling the stores along the way. In between an excellent lunch and a few fine cups of coffee, I think it very likely you’ll find some new favorite haunts, and maybe even make some new friends along the way. And, you’ll enjoy yourself and help to maintain the village life that makes our city great.

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.

The St. Mary of Carmen Society is holding its 76th annual festival with food, carnival rides, and musical performances  July 13 – 17 in Nonantum. The festival runs 6-10pm Wednesday through Friday, 5-11pm Saturday, and 4-11pm Sunday.

Since 1935, the Society has provided financial and other support to families and organizations in Newton. More information is available on its website.

Residents and business owners in Nonantum, Newton’s historically Italian neighborhood known as “The Lake,” are invited to meet with Mayor Setti Warren Thursday night for a “village coffee” discussion. The gathering will be held a 7pm at Pellegrini Field House, 11 Hawthorn Street.

Thursday’s event is part of a series of meetings held by the mayor. Earlier his year, he’s met with residents and business owners in Auburndale, West Newton, Newtonville and Newton Corner. Read an earlier post.

Nudo Gelateria opened at 308 Watertown Street in Nonantum earlier this month, and the restaurant received a nice writeup today on Newton Patch.

I can, from personal experience, recommend the melon gelato. When the mercury rises (on Sunday?), I’ll be back to try the frozen Italian lemonade (two scoops of sorbet blended with Aranciata or Limonata).

Hats off to chef and owner Andrew Tedeschi for his daring selection of flavors and for bringing some of the tastes of the North End to the Garden City.

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.