Skip to content
Newton, Needham, Watertown, Wellesley
Subscribe to our free e-newsletter
Our Region
Directory
Member Login

To go, or not to-go? Just answer the question

Back to Chamber News
Need to Knows Graphic

To go, or not to-go? Just answer the question

In a few hours we'll be celebrating the first day of spring by unveiling the list of area restaurants participating at Spring Seasonings: A Taste of Our Towns,” our all-you-can-eat celebration of our local dining scene, April 8 at the Newton Marriott Ballroom. 

It's an amazing array of the best restaurants and beverage purveyors from Newton, Needham, Watertown and Wellesley. Arguably our best lineup ever.

Watch your e-mail box. Reserve tickets here.

To-go, or not to-go? That should stop being a question

Our least productive Legislature in decades, is once again dilly-dallying on a decision it could have easily made months, or years, ago.

We’re talking about the decision to extend, or make permanent, legislation allowing restaurants to provide cocktails-to-go rules, set to expire March 31.

Drinks to-go is a pandemic era policy that's been extended three times, even though most restaurant and package store owners I’ve asked tell me it’s a marginal financial concern for them either way, while fears it would lead to vast underage drinking never manifested.

Still, the Mass. Package Stores Association is dead set against it. The Mass. Restaurant Association likes it, Jon Chesto at the Globe writes. 

Of course, Chesto wrote pretty much the same thing the year before.  Likely the year before that too, although I couldn't find a link.

If House and Senate leaders really want to help restaurants and package stores, they’ll pass housing and transportation bills, so workers can get to their jobs at restaurants and package stores. They’ll pass the economic development and child care legislation, to keep more of their customers in Massachusetts.
  
To-go cocktails? It’s been debated and redebated. It's been extended and reextended. For three years now.

Just decide already and get onto the important stuff.

Newton, Watertown, companies growing 

While many tech and biotechs have seen their workforces shrink in the past year, two local companies are among those growing, the BBJ reported this week in separate articles.

Newton-based CyberArk’s employee headcount has nearly tripled in five years to more than 3,000 people globally. Its revenue neared $600 million last year, up more than one-third from five years ago, reports Grant Welker .

The Wells Ave-headquartered company’s growth comes while several Boston-area cybersecurity firms -- including Akamai Technologies, Mimecast and Rapid7 -- cut headcount last year.

In Watertown, Kymera Therapeutics keeps expanding, moving to 100,000 SF on the Arsenal on the Charles campus, reports Hanna Green. (The company previously had 34,500 SF at 200 Arsenal Yards Blvd.. Before Watertown, Kymera occupied 10,000 SF at in Kendall Square.)

Kymera is developing oral medications that it believes can eliminate disease-causing proteins and has four programs in the clinic with a fifth set to enter the clinic.

“We realized the space that we were could only probably sustain growth up to roughly a couple of hundred employees, and given all the preclinical and clinical programs that we were getting traction on… we were looking for a space roughly almost three times as big as what we had,” CEO Nello Mainolfi said.

The one thing you won’t find in the new office is a chair for the CEO.

Mainolfi prefers to stand, Green reports.

Prices going up, up, up 

The price of a single-family home in Massachusetts shot up more than 10% in January from the same time last year, with our chamber communities and two neighboring towns leading the way.

That’s according to Stacker, which ranked the dollar changes in the Zillow Home Values Index for all homes from the 12 months ending January 2024.

Home prices shot up the highest in Weston, followed by Needham, Wellesley, Lexington and Newton. Charts for the top-50 communities here.

Today’s grab bag


  • On the heels of the state’s Supreme Judicial Court upholding Brookline's bylaw prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2000, several Newton City Councilors just docketed an item looking to do the same thing.

  • Rox Diner, which once had locations in Newtonville and Newton Highlands, is looking to take over the former Station Diner site in the Highlands. 

  • Also: Tango Mango is moving from Centre Street to 34 Langley Road (next to Eastern Bank) and the West Newton Comella’s is moving to 12 Austin Street in Newtonville.


  • Needham will no longer allow businesses or nonprofits to buy-out parking meters, a practice which allows motorists to park for free in exchange for advertising to be placed over a meter (Needham Local)


  • The Newton City Council did not hold its scheduled vote to join the state’s Ten Communities  pilot program last night. The ordinance, which would ban fossil fuels from most new construction and substantial renovations, was sent back to committee for revisions.  (Newton Beacon)

  • Needham Community Council’s Party for the Pantry spring fundraiser will be held in Powers Hall in Needham Town Hall, Saturday (March 23) 7 p.m. Live music from “Hello Newman”, dancing, food from Forklift catering, drinks and fun. Details.

About that Orange Line extension

Thanks to several alert readers of last Friday’s newsletter who were able to fill in my knowledge gaps about Transit Matters’ 2023 recommendation to convert the Needham Line commuter rail into part of the Orange Line.

Turns out, Transit Matters' recommendation would extend the Orange Line only to West Roxbury.

The three stops in Needham would be addressed by extending the Green Line from Eliot, down the Newton Greenway to the commuter right-of-way in Needham.

“This seems highly unlikely to ever happen,” writes resident and activist Michael Diener. “A less unlikely scenario, but still a longshot, would be a busway from Needham to Eliot.”

Judge fails to allow timely MBTA Communities decision 

Finally today, any municipality that had been hoping to know if Milton’s MBTA Communities Act legal challenge might absolve them of the need to approve their own compliance plans, are out of luck.

Yesterday, a Supreme Judicial Court judge ruled that oral arguments won’t be heard by the full court until October, which means a decision might not be available until after most town meeting or city councils must act.

Last week, our chamber joined other groups asking the court to hear the case in May. Here’s our letter.

Fortunately none of our chamber communities are among those considering defying the law.

  • Wellesley will take its compliance plan to Spring Town Meeting next week. 
  • Needham Town Meeting and Watertown City Council expect votes this fall.
  • Newton’s plan has already been completed.

This week’s Banker & Trademan provided an optimistic status report (free link) on where Watertown, Needham, (sort of) Wellesley and other municipalities stand.

That’s what you need to know for today -- last chance to finish your March Madness brackets -- unless you want to know what the front page of the Washington Post looked like on the day you were born.

There will be no newsletter Friday. See you next week.
 
Make it great day!
 
Greg Reibman (he, him)
President & CEO
617.244.1688
Powered By GrowthZone