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Did you hear what Healey said about us? Me neither

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Did you hear what Healey said about us? Me neither

Is there any correlation between a major cosmic event and your appetite?

We'll find out on April 8.

That’s when the solar eclipse takes place in the afternoon, followed from 5:30 to 8 p.m. by the return of our annual tasting event: Spring Seasonings: A Taste of Our Towns.

Hoping for a glimpse? The Globe offers tips and precautions so you don't harm your eyes, or burn-out your smart phone (for real).

Our Spring Seasonings tips and precautions are simpler: Skip lunch that day. Bring business cards. And reserve your place soon. Tickets just went on sale to the general public and we always sell out.

You’ll be totality satisfied.

Road diet prescribed for Great Plain Ave. 

Three different design firms are all recommending reducing parts of Great Plain Ave. from two to one lane in each direction as a way to make downtown Needham more pedestrian friendly and economically vibrant, reports Cameron Morsberger at Needham Local.
 
One additional firm will share its vision with the Needham Select Board on March 12.

After that, the town plans to award a design contract to one of the four firms to explore the plans further and engage the community.

Video presentations here (start at the 27:00 mark).

Another housing champ unseated by voters 

Ann-Mara Lanza

The Wellesley Select Board’s leading hosing advocate was unseated on Tuesday.

Incumbent Ann-Mara Lanza placed third in a four-person contest for two board seats.

Voters reelected the other incumbent in the contest, Colette Aufranc (who is well-respected for her transit advocacy) and returned Marjorie Freiman (who served on the board from 2015-2021) to her former job.

We look forward to collaborating with them both.

Odessa Sanchez, who serves on the town’s Housing Authority Board, placed fourth.

Lanza had been, by far, the board’s and one of the town’s leading housing proponents. In 2019 she helped launch the affordable housing group Building a Better Wellesley. She was the select board’s liaison to the Housing Authority; served on the Town’s Housing Task Force; and was often a supportive voice for some unpopular developments.

A Wharton School MBA, Lanza was hardly a one issue candidate. She has history of advocacy on many issues including the library and social justice, and has long been active with the League of Women Voters and at Temple Beth Elohim.

It’s hard to not draw a parallel between Lanza and what happened last fall to three incumbent Newton City Councilors: Deb Crossley, Alicia Bowman and Holly Ryan.

All four women dedicated themselves to many issues but seemingly lost their jobs because they had the courage to believe their community needed to play a role in creating more housing opportunities for others.

What happens from here is up to us.

Economic dev plan includes arts & culture investments

Gov. Maura Healey’s $3.5 billion economic development bill unveiled last week
includes an investment in arts and culture and tourism, including $50 million for the Cultural Facilities Fund and the establishment of a new Live Theater State Tax Credit pilot program.

Healey also signed an executive order creating a Cultural Policy Development Advisory Council charged with exploring policies that support artists, cultural workers and arts organizations and with recommending a cultural development and jobs plan. 

Friday grab bag 

  • Watertown just ended its winter parking ban, three weeks early.

  • Now Newton (where the ban remains until April 1) should do the same thing.
 



  • Newton Schools Foundation presents Newton Inspires at Newton South High School, March 14, 6 p.m., showcasing keynote speaker and filmmaker and chamber member Anike Tourse from Mixed Operations and offering breakout sessions. Full schedule.

  • Natural Sense, which has been selling natural skin care products and cosmetics, gifts, jewelry and clothing in Newtonville for 40 years is closing. (All Over Newton)

  • Also closing: New England Comics in Coolidge Corner after 35 years in business (Universal Hub)

  • If there’s anyone you think could benefit from chamber membership, please invite them to join you at an upcoming event, or sign up for this newsletter. Better yet, fill out this form and when they join, we'll thank you with a $25 gift card to the restaurant member of your choice for each new member you've sent us.

Have a say in the future of Watertown Square

If you missed the Feb. 29, Watertown Square Area Plan community meeting (video here), there’s still time to provide input on two street reconfiguration schemes and zoning standards that will impact the city's MBTA Communities approach.

The project website is full of details and there’s a survey that closes on Monday. 

We think the Charles is the bomb, not full of bombs 

Not one, but two, military-grade explosive devices have been fished out of our favorite river in the seven days.

The first item, found last Friday, was a 12 inch by 4-inch military projectile believed to have been from World War I or II.  The second item, found Wednesday, appeared to an old and deteriorated bazooka round, possibly from the World War II era, NBC10 Boston reports

Both items were in discovered in the Charles River near the Kendrick Street bridge on the Needham-Newton line by magnet fishers. Both were safely detonated by authorities.

“In our experience the recovery of an object by someone fishing with a magnet is very uncommon,” State Police spokesman Dave Procopio told the Needham Observer.

It may have been dumped in the river (either there or upstream) by someone who found it in a house clean out and didn’t know what to do with it, he added.

Did you hear what Healey said about us? Me neither 

Finally this morning, a GBH News analysis of all of Maura Healey’s major speeches delivered during her first year in office found that the governor mentioned Boston by name 18 times, more than any other city or town.

Runner up was Salem (7 times), where Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll used to be mayor.

Healey mentioned Newton and Wellesley once each, according to the analysis of her 67 big policy speeches.
 
And she never mentioned Watertown or Needham -- an oversight we hope the governor will correct in her second year in office.

The same study found that Healey mentioned jobs and the workforce in 46 out the speeches, more than any other topic.

The governor also spoke about making Massachusetts more “affordable” in nearly half of those big policy speeches. She brought up housing almost as often.

Healey also regularly highlighted equity and diversity as top goals, according to the analysis, done in partnership with Boston University's Justice Media Co-Lab.


That’s what you need to know for today – International Women’s Day -- unless you need to know about these secret and helpful iPhone settings.

Have an academy award-winning weekend.
 
Greg Reibman (he, him)
President & CEO
617.244.1688

P.S. Thanks to the BBJ’s Don Seiffert for sharing the best video ever (scroll the bottom) in support of ending Daylight Savings Time.
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