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Snow restrictions, just no snow

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Snow restrictions, just no snow

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow last week, suggesting that we’re in for six more weeks of winter. 
 
But don’t tell that to Malden Mayor Gary Christenson who declared this week that "winter is over" as he lifted his city's winter parking restrictions.
 
Winter parking bans ostensibly seem to exist these days so snowplows can clear streets of snow that ostensibly doesn't exist. At least lately.
 
And if a blizzard or Nor’Easter were to come along, Malden would enact a snow emergency which would bring back the parking ban, explains the Herald’s Lance Reynolds.
 
Why can't more communities function that way?
 
Malden does something else our municipalities should consider too.
 
Rather than imposing winter parking bans on a start date in November or December, Malden’s restrictions don't begin until the first plowable winter storm is forecast.
 
All of which seems more logical than depending on a groundhog.
 
Outdoor dining needs your support
 
Without any appreciable snow -- and temps expected to be in the 50s today and perhaps 65 next Thursday -- did our communities really have to end their outdoor dining seasons last December too?
 
Regardless, many municipalities across the state are scrambling to put in place new rules needed for outdoor dining to resume this spring, once the state's emergency allowances expire on March 31.
 
There's an effort underway on Beacon Hill to get lawmakers to extend outdoor dining and cocktails-to-go before they expire statewide. Go here for a super easy way to let your legislators know you support both.
 
Meanwhile, on Monday (Feb 13), the Newton City Council will hold a public hearing to discuss making seasonal outdoor dining permanent.
 
This is exactly the zoning change our restaurants have been waiting for as they gear up for the spring outdoor dining season. Help us get that effort over the finish line by sending a short email to the council. Ask to make seasonal outdoor dining permanent.
 
 
Push begins for $20 minimum wage
 
On Jan.1, the minimum wage in Massachusetts rose to $15 an hour.
 
Now there's a push for Massachusetts to become the first state with a $20 hourly minimum wage, reports Chris Lisinski at State House News.
 
Raise Up Coalition also wants to nearly double the minimum wage for tipped workers to $12 per hour (it's currently $6.75), with automatic increases for both rates to increase annually based on the consumer price index.
 
Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, points out that Massachusetts already has the third-highest minimum wage in the U.S., trailing only California and Oregon.
 
“No state in our region is remotely close to us," Hurst said. "It's time that Beacon Hill starts looking at how can they alleviate costs for small businesses, not add to their pain and misery and push them over the edge toward closing their doors.”
 
 
More need to knows
 
  • Wellesley is developing a hazard mitigation plan to better prepare for natural hazards and climate change impacts. There's a public meeting on Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. Details.
 
  • Watertown’s Pleasant Street Shuttle is launching a fleet of electric vehicles Monday (Feb. 13). Details and a revised schedule are on the Watertown Connector website.
 
 
 
  • Mass Hire hosts a virtual multi-industry job fair on Weds, Feb 22, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Open to employers with multiple, immediate openings. Employers register here by Feb. 21.
 
Is your office half empty? Or half full?
 
The latest data shows that 50 percent of workers nationwide are now back at their desks -- the most since the pandemic hit in March 2020.
 
That also means corporate offices are also half-empty.
 
And "many experts think this could be as good as it gets," writes Taylor Telford at the Washington Post.
 
More than half of U.S. jobs that can be done remotely were hybrid as of November, up from 32 percent in January 2019, according to data from Gallup.
 
A decline in office building values is "likely to become a growing problem for the budgets of cities, schools, and other jurisdictions that depend heavily on property taxes from these building owners," the Wall Street Journal warned recently.
 
Also declining: Public school enrollment
 
Here’s a topic that came up Tuesday when we hosted our town meeting with Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and interim school superintendent Kathleen Smith: Declining school enrollment.
?
The Globe reported late last year that headcount in Newton is down about 900 students, a roughly 7% drop from before the pandemic struck in March 2020 -- a trend in other suburban communities too.
 
That may partly reflect parents placing kids in private schools or home-schooling. But a decline in birth rate, the high cost of housing, and the fact that many larger homes are occupied by empty nesters were all projected by Fuller to result in fewer students back in 2019.
 
Sure enough, Newton's kindergarten enrollment has been decreasing annually since 2013. This year's kindergarten class is 712 students, the smallest since the early 1980s.
 
Still, Fuller’s $15 million override proposal calls for a $4.5 million annual increase in the school budget plus $5.8 million in the form of debt exclusion overrides to help rebuild two elementary schools.
 
Here’s a link to the part of Tuesday's conversation where I asked Fuller and Smith why our schools need more money as enrollment declines.
 
And here’s a good synopsis of our full event from the community news site Fig City News. 
 
Cabot’s, the early years
 
It was a privilege yesterday morning to share with you the news that Cabot’s Ice Cream proprietor Joe Prestejohn is passing along his ice cream scoop to Kay and Kevin Masterson, proprietors of Johnny's Luncheonette.
 
As I noted yesterday, Joe’s parents, Joseph and Catherine Prestejohn, purchased Cabot’s in 1969. Joe, then 11, along with his sister Susan Lipsky, have been working there ever since.
 
Later in the day, I learned a little more about Cabot’s history.
 
The original Cabot’s opened in 1965. It was designed and operated by the Katsenes family, who had several other businesses over the years, including the old Newton Corner Market which opened in 1933 and closed in the 1950s, due to a taking by eminent domain during the construction of the Mass. Pike.  
 
The family later owned a diner in Wilmington called Sunnyhurst. One of their kids, Charlie, helped run Sunnyhurst with his parents but also designed and opened Cabot’s, driving back and forth from Newton to Wilmington daily and hand-mixing ice cream for both shops.
 
My thanks to Charlie’s daughter Andrea for the history lesson.
 
 
A reminder: Love Local for the big game and on Valentine's Day
 
Finally today, with so many great restaurants out there, why spend tomorrow assembling a seven-layer dip?
 
Our restaurant directory is full of options for Super Bowl take-out and Valentine’s Day dinners as well.
 
There's also our Easy Eats directory if you’re looking to order meals for your office staff or planning a private party or special event.
 
And don't forget that 30 restaurants across our four communities are collecting new sweatshirts, sweatpants, t-shirts, and other items to be distributed by Circle of Hope to homeless children, women, and men at 25 local shelters and health clinics. Here's a map of drop-off locations:.
 
 
That’s your Need to Knows for today, unless you need to know about the guy who found a solution to finding the edge on a roll of tape.
 
Now get out there and Love Local!
 
Greg Reibman (he, him)
President
617.244.1688
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