Please don't reach the wrong conclusions from last fall
Please don't reach the wrong conclusions from last fall
Looking for take-out suggestions for your Super Bowl watch party?
A place for a night out with your Valentine? Or gift suggestions that don't involve an Amazon truck?
You’ll discover lots of ideas here. And even more here.
500 meals weekly: A win for those in need and restaurants
500 meals weekly: A win for those in need and restaurants
Our chamber -- with a big assist from volunteers from Newton Rotary and our local restaurants -- resumed delivering hundreds of meals this week to the Centre Street Food Pantry, Welcome Home, Arabic Baptist Church, Newton Food Pantry, West Suburban YMCA and the Newton Senior Center.
It’s all part of our Nourishing Newton, our program that over the past three years has provided over 11,000 meals to residents facing food insecurity while supporting close to 40 independent Newton restaurants
Sen. Cindy Creem once again secured the funding to continue the program for a fourth year. We’re grateful for her commitment to helping both our restaurants during their slowest times of the year and those in need.
Our 2024 restaurant partners who will prepare 500 meals weekly.
Participants include DePasquales at Night Caps Corner, Shiva’s Kitchen, Sandwich Works, Baramor, House of Tandoor, Johnny's Luncheonette, Anna's Taqueria, Tartufo Restaurant, Cabot’s Ice Cream and Restaurant, Blue Ribbon BBQ, Bills Pizzeria, Moldova Restaurant, Thistle & Leek, Inna's Kitchen and Jake's Falafel Corner.
Labor, housing, spending all took its toll at year’s end
Labor, housing, spending all took its toll at year’s end
The Massachusetts economy was “noticeably weaker" than the national economy in final quarter of 2023, according to report released this week.
Analysts tied slower economic growth to challenges that shouldn't surprise anyone: labor force limits, higher interest rates, and housing supply constraints that are exacerbating affordability challenges and likely causing some people to leave the state, writes Michael P. Norton for State House News.
The MassBenchmarks journal report found that wage and salary income in Massachusetts in the fourth quarter declined at an annual rate of 9.6 percent from the third quarter, while nationally wage and salary income grew at a 4.6 percent annual rate.
Beacon Hill is feeling it too. Tax receipts seven months into fiscal 2024 are down 1 percent compared to the same period of fiscal 2023.
Massachusetts is more sensitive to higher interest rates in technology and related services that rely on venture capital funding and business spending, Norton added.
Jones shares workforce development plan
|  |
 |  |
Our thanks to Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Lauren Jones for joining us in Watertown this week for a wide-ranging discussion about the Healey-Driscoll administration’s efforts to attract, retain and develop a future workforce.
If you haven't seen it yet, here's the administration’s draft workforce plan for the next four years. (The public comment period for the plan closes Monday, Feb. 12.)
Among the topics Jones addressed were efforts to help match up recent migrants with job openings. Employers who may be willing to hire candidates who have recently immigrated to the state can express interest here.
You can also learn more about the state's new job skills training program which can help aid your workforce challenges by complementing your existing workforce with new arrivals gaining on-the-job experience.
Needham Street-Highland Ave bridge detour next week
If you haven't seen it yet, here's the administration’s draft workforce plan for the next four years. (The public comment period for the plan closes Monday, Feb. 12.)
Among the topics Jones addressed were efforts to help match up recent migrants with job openings. Employers who may be willing to hire candidates who have recently immigrated to the state can express interest here.
You can also learn more about the state's new job skills training program which can help aid your workforce challenges by complementing your existing workforce with new arrivals gaining on-the-job experience.
Needham Street-Highland Ave bridge detour next week
The bridge that connects Newton with Needham along Needham Street-Highland Ave will be closed from 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15 to 4 a.m. the following morning as part of the ongoing reconstruction project.
For more information on the project and to sign up for advisories visit the project website.
Friday grab bag
Friday grab bag
- Douglass Williams, owner of MIDA and one of the chamber's 50 most influential business leaders of color in 2023, is host of a new cooking show miniseries "Tomorrow's Menu" produced by the Museum of Science. The six-minute episodes explore ways to make our food systems more sustainable. Watch free on the museum’s YouTube channel. (Boston.com)
- The first-ever Wellesley Wonderland Ice Sculpture Stroll is tomorrow (Feb. 9) from 4-6 p.m. Look for nine artistically carved creations and other events, located throughout Linden, Church and Wellesley squares.
- The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization hosts a meeting Tuesday, (Feb. 13) at 7:15 p.m. with Needham Sen. Becca Rausch and Rep. Denise Garlick focused housing and earmarked assistance for returning citizens. Sean Ellis, who attended Needham schools and whose story was told in the extraordinary Netflix documentary "Trial 4" will speak about housing challenges faced by returning citizens.
- A new Vietnamese restaurant, Banh Mi Cafe is now open in Watertown at 102 Main Street. (Watertown News)
- Six Asian food purveyors are coming to Gateway Brookline, next to H Mart near the St. Mary’s T stop on the C-Line in Brookline. (BBJ)
- Just in time for Valentine’s Day, ChocAllure is now open in Wellesley Square.
- Wellesley Cigars is looking to secure a tobacco license and open for business at the former CrepeBerry location at 352 Washington Street in Wellesley. (Swellesley Report)
- Needham is looking for a poet laureate. A $500 stipend for the position is one of 29 grants awarded by the Needham Council for Arts and Culture to support artistic and cultural programming. (Needham Observer)
- Last reminder about the “Champions of Equity” Awards event, honoring two special chamber members Darryl Settles and Colette Phillips, Tuesday (Feb. 12). The awards celebrate Black leaders who have and are driving equitable economic wealth creation across the Commonwealth. Register
Wellesley alum and art museum triumphantly return
|  |
 |  |
Last night was a big night at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College.
After closing at the end of 2022 for an HVAC upgrade, the art museum reopened with a retrospective of the work of conceptual artist and cultural critic Lorraine O’Grady.
“The retrospective coming to Wellesley is a special moment,” reports Arielle Gray at WBUR. "O’Grady graduated from the college in 1955 with degrees in economics and Spanish literature. In 2010, she donated her papers to Wellesley."
To commemorate the opening, the college is hosting free performances and O'Grady's works will be studied across multiple departments.
“My students see themselves in Lorraine,” said art history professor Nikki A. Greene. “To graduate from here is one thing … and then she’s off into the art world. I think it opens up a world of possibilities for them.”
The exbibit is on view through June 2. Admission to the Davis is free.
Please don't reach the wrong conclusions from last fall
After closing at the end of 2022 for an HVAC upgrade, the art museum reopened with a retrospective of the work of conceptual artist and cultural critic Lorraine O’Grady.
“The retrospective coming to Wellesley is a special moment,” reports Arielle Gray at WBUR. "O’Grady graduated from the college in 1955 with degrees in economics and Spanish literature. In 2010, she donated her papers to Wellesley."
To commemorate the opening, the college is hosting free performances and O'Grady's works will be studied across multiple departments.
“My students see themselves in Lorraine,” said art history professor Nikki A. Greene. “To graduate from here is one thing … and then she’s off into the art world. I think it opens up a world of possibilities for them.”
The exbibit is on view through June 2. Admission to the Davis is free.
Please don't reach the wrong conclusions from last fall
|  |
 |  |
Newton is still recovering from a polarizing and reputation-damaging teachers’ strike that ended one week ago today.
And somehow the Globe decided this was a good week to look back at last fall’s polarizing and reputation-damaging MBTA Communities Law housing battle.
You know the one where Newton City Councilor Deb Crossley (in photo) and some of her colleagues were unseated for trying to make Newton more welcoming and vibrant.
Housing reporter Andrew Brinker's deep dive into the successful and unethical efforts to oust Crossley and her growth-supportive colleagues (while also undermining a thoughtful zoning plan that would have benefited all of the city's villages) will likely be seen as a cautionary tale in other communities.
And somehow the Globe decided this was a good week to look back at last fall’s polarizing and reputation-damaging MBTA Communities Law housing battle.
You know the one where Newton City Councilor Deb Crossley (in photo) and some of her colleagues were unseated for trying to make Newton more welcoming and vibrant.
Housing reporter Andrew Brinker's deep dive into the successful and unethical efforts to oust Crossley and her growth-supportive colleagues (while also undermining a thoughtful zoning plan that would have benefited all of the city's villages) will likely be seen as a cautionary tale in other communities.
That is to say, Newton's experience will probably -- in fact, already has -- discourage other leaders from being bold and doing their part to address our region's crippling housing crisis.
Please don't.
Crossley’s willingness to sacrifice a job she clearly loved in order to create better lives for our kids, our seniors and our employees should be seen as a profile in courage.
If you're a city councilor, select board, planning board, town meeting member or other official now in the process of drafting your municipality’s MBTA Communities Law plan your community needs you to be inspired, not fearful, to follow Crossley's lead.
And the rest of us citizens need to have your back.
That’s what you need to know for today – National Pizza Day -- unless you need to know what actual tortured poets think about the title of Taylor Swift’s next album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
RIP Seiji Ozawa.
See you next week.
Greg Reibman (he, him)
President & CEO
617.244.1688
Powered By GrowthZone