The US Postal Service is considering shutting down five Newton Post Offices: West Newton, Lower Falls, Boston College, Newton Upper Falls, and Nonantum.  Nationally, 3700 offices are potentially being eliminated, with a disproportionate five here in Newton. The traditional town center used to include an assortment of places that made for civic life:  a village green, town hall, usually some kind of memorial, a few shops, and the post office.  Each of these has gradually lost its importance over the decades and now one – the village post office – appears on the brink of extinction.

This initiative is a “top down” strategy, originating in the federal office of the USPS in Washington DC.  They are taking surveys in the local post offices, and held two public meetings in order to assess how these closures will affect the local residents and customers.At the Public Meetings on Nov. 9 and 22, 2012 at War Memorial Auditorium, the turnout was large, and residents spoke about what key places their local post offices are in their neighborhood lives. Businesses testified about how they had located near some of the branches slated to be closed, and how having a nearby post office was an economic component to deciding where to locate their offices.  [Read more →]

UPDATE:  The music/art activities are centered at the Newton Senior Center, at the corner of Walnut and Highland, and also at the New Art Center, at 61 Washington Park.  No doubt we all would’ve found them anyway….

Newtonville is getting its very own village day!

Check this out, straight from the Mayor’s office:

Newtonville celebrates Autumn and Halloween with free music, art, entertainment, face painting and tasty treats for kids and adults.  Watch windows being painted as part of the annual Halloween Window Painting Contest.  Visit Newtonville stores on Walnut Street and Washington Street for treats and special discounts.  Collect 13 Spooky Stamps to be entered into free raffle for items donated by Newtonville businesses.  Some of the many items generously donated:  gift basket from Starbucks, makeup palette from Co Bella Salon, pizza from Newtonville Pizza and gift certificates from the New Art Center, Great Harvest, Newtonville Books, and many more. Come catch the Spirit of Newtonville and have a spooktacular time!

Elected officials in Winchester are considering compact development in the town’s quaint center to broaden its municipal tax base.

As an article in Sunday’s Boston Globe explains,

With roughly 95 percent of Winchester’s tax base reliant on residential property and no open space for new development, town officials have turned their attention to the underutilized town center.

New development in and around the town’s center might include a mix of new retail, office, and residential space. Winchester garnered more than $150,000 in grant money to study the idea and ways to update its restrictive zoning laws.

Newton is also built up and similarly reliant on its residential tax base. It will be interesting to see what solutions are proposed in Winchester and whether any of them might be applicable to village centers here in the Garden City.

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 following message was sent out by Louis D’Arienzo, one of the founders of the Garden City Preservation Society, an all-volunteer effort to beautify the area around the Newton Centre T Station.

Over the past year, with the help of local donors and Ward 6 Alderman-at-large Vicki Danberg, the group’s volunteers have added plantings and street furnishings to the area. [Read more →]

Lincoln Street is transformed for one afternoon each year when Newton Highlands hosts its annual Village Day. This year’s event is scheduled to take place this Sunday with food and retail vendors, rides and entertainment.

Please mark your calendar and keep your fingers crossed for good weather. (It’s been a busy week or we would have posted a note on this event earlier.) And, if you would like to create an event in your neighborhood or village, please read this earlier post.

Also take note: the Hyde Center and the Newton Highlands Neighborhood Area Council host concerts and movies throughout the summer. Download the schedule (PDF).