Happy Election Day!

Massachusetts polls are open until 8 tonight.  

Your chamber has weighed in on Question 7, Question 8 and, for Needham voters, Question 10.  And here’s our directory of chamber member restaurants for your results-watching takeout order.

Whatever tonight brings — cheers, tears or a sudden interest in Canadian real estate — let’s talk about it over coffee bright and early tomorrow (8:30 a.m.!) in Brookline at our Post-Election Coffee Connect.

All persuasions welcome. Black, cream, oat milk. We won’t judge.

Study: ICE is costing American jobs too

The White House has long framed its immigration enforcement efforts as a way to protect American jobs.

But a new study from the Brookings Institution shows that in cities with high-profile ICE crackdowns, employment fell far beyond the number arrested.

Both immigrants and U.S.-born workers lost jobs, Brookings found.

Nationally, jobs were lost at roughly four times the number of arrests, about half of them held by U.S.-born workers, they found.  And the losses haven’t bounced back. Nearly a year after enforcement surged, there’s no sign of recovery.

The research shows fear drove many workers to withdraw from the labor force even when they weren’t arrested. Sudden worker absences also disrupted businesses that depend on experienced staff and set schedules. And consumers pulled back on everyday spending.

In the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro, ICE made about 3,000 more arrests in 2025 than it did in 2024, Marcela Escobari, one of the study’s authors, writes in a Globe op-ed.  

Applying the study’s averages, she estimates the region had 12,000 fewer jobs than it otherwise would have six months after ICE’s “Operation Patriot” surge began in May 2025.

“In other words, the direct labor market removals cannot explain the job losses observed. Instead, knock-on effects from the enforcement shock appear to have caused additional job losses as workers withdrew from public life, employers struggled to replace them, and households cut spending,” the report concludes.

A new centerpiece for Watertown Square

Picture this: 285 new homes, 6,000 SF of retail space and a new riverfront park overlooking the Charles.

That's what developer RMR hopes to bring to Watertown Square.

One of the Square's largest buildings, 9 Galen Street, has become increasingly vacant as demand for office space has dried up.

Now the Newton-based developer wants to use new zoning from the city's Watertown Square Area Plan to make the property a centerpiece of the neighborhood's revitalization.

At a community meeting last week, RMR presented plans to convert the building while preserving much of its early 1900s brick facade.

The presentation received the most enthusiastic reception we've ever seen at a community meeting. Refreshing, to say the least.

The most striking feature may be outside the building. A large surface parking lot along the river would become a roughly 20,500 SF public park, with a new pedestrian connection to the river.

RMR’s proposal also includes ground-floor shops and restaurants. It keeps the existing nearly 200-space parking garage and adds on-street parking along the redesigned Watertown Square Delta.

The project now needs Planning Board approval.

Owens: Witch wrongs need righting

You think tonight’s election results will be slow?

People accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts, decades before Salem’s 1692 trials, have waited nearly 400 years to have their names cleared.

Watertown state Rep. Steve Owens has been trying to right those wrongs.

Owens’ 2025 bill hasn’t advanced. His budget amendment didn’t make the cut last month either.

It could get another shot when the Senate takes up the supplemental budget Thursday, according to State House News.

Tuesday grab bag

• Paula Jacobson has departed the Charles River YMCA after leading the Needham site for 11 years and a three-decade career at YMCAs. During her tenure, Jacobson expanded programs, increased revenue and was an active participant in the town’s civic life. Her contagious enthusiasm will be missed.
  
  
• Watertown-based Pascal, a developer of solid refrigerant technology for next-generation cooling systems, has raised an additional $8.5 million in venture funding co-led by Sazze Partners and LB Investment, with KDB Silicon Valley also participating. (Watertown News)
  
  
• Don’t forget our Fall Business Breakfast is next Friday (Nov. 13) at the Newton Marriott.  Come for the networking at 7 a.m. Stay as we honor BID Needham’s John Fogarty and for a conversation on why higher ed matters to every Massachusetts business. Register.
  
  
• Hamilton Restaurant and Bar reached a settlement with its landlord, who was seeking to evict the restaurant from the Coolidge Corner location. (Brookline.news)
  
  
• The MBTA is hosting virtual public meetings, Nov. 4 and Nov. 17, both from 6 to 7:30 p.m., to gather input on its long-term plan to transform commuter rail into a modern regional rail system.
  
  
• Parking mandates raise rents by 17%, or about $204 a month, according to a UCLA study. The study also found that 71 percent of carless households pay for a parking space they don’t use. Minimum parking requirements drive up rents not only by bundling the cost of parking but also by reducing the number of units built.
  
  
• Wellesley Square's newest art gallery, Clarendon Fine Art, celebrates its opening with a launch party Thursday (Nov. 5) from 6 to 8 p.m.
  
  
• MassBay Community College hosts its Fall Open House, Saturday (Nov. 7) at its Wellesley Hills campus.
  
  
• 2Life Communities’ CEO Lizbeth Heyer tells Banker & Tradesman that the wait list for Opus Newton is “thousands of people.”
  
  
• Looking for a way to support the chamber’s advocacy and programming but you don’t work locally — or perhaps you’re retired —  but want to stay connected with the business community in your own backyard? Become a Chamber Citizen Member.We appreciate the support.

Newton Centre hangout to be demolished

The controversial — but also popular — Newton Centre Parklet will be dismantled this month, city officials confirmed at a meeting last week.

That will restore 24 often-needed parking spaces eliminated as part of then-Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s 2024 pilot.

Fuller’s plaza was divisive from the start. Some lamented the lost parking. Others came to appreciate the gathering space, performances and the foot traffic it brought to local businesses.

Mayor Marc Laredo wrote in his Oct. 15 newsletter that his administration was “exploring options for transitioning from a temporary pilot to a permanent gathering space” and invited residents to a community meeting “to hear from all of you.”

“We’re approaching this next phase with an open mind. We know people have different perspectives, experiences, priorities, and ideas, and we want to hear them,” he added.

What Laredo didn't mention was that the plaza’s fate had already been decided and a working group was only soliciting suggestions at other locations. That came as news to at least some residents who showed up expecting a chance to save it.

Senior housing proposal hits dead end

Seniors hoping to one day downsize in the western burbs may have lost another opportunity.

The Weston Select Board declined to put HYM’s proposed 215-unit senior living complex on Regis College property before this month’s special town meeting.

HYM hasn’t said whether it will try again. But its agreement with Regis, which hinges on zoning approval, expires in December, according to the Weston Observer.

A Regis official previously told the Select Board that the land would be "placed back on the market and most likely be sold for an institutional purpose that would maximize the value to Regis."

Newton South prevails over Newton North(land)

Saturday’s WNBA Finals Game 7 was a Newton vs. Newton affair.

On one side was the Atlanta Dream, owned by a group led by Newton-based Northland Investment Corp’s chair Larry Gottesdiener.

On the other were the Golden State Valkyries and Newton South grad Veronica Burton.

Burton won. The Valkyries beat the Dream 68-63 for their first title.

The WNBA’s Most Improved Player in 2025 (after being waived by Dallas in 2024) finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. She sealed the game by grabbing a loose jump ball and sinking both free throws with 5.1 seconds left.

Be sure and enjoy what Burton had to say after the game.

That’s what you need to know for today, unless you need an hour-by-hour plan for watching election results tonight.

Go vote!

Greg Reibman (he, him)

President & CEO

Charles River Regional Chamber

617.244.1688

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Max Woolf contributed to today’s newsletter.