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What's with those poles on Needham Street?

What's with those poles on Needham Street?

Good morning and happy Friday the 13th,


Earlier this week we hosted a program on the UMass Amherst Mount Ida campus exploring our region’s top economic challenges, including housing and workforce, as well as Massachusetts’ competitive strengths and weaknesses.


Here’s the event recording, and here’s direct links to the event’s three segments:

Here’s a link to Mass Taxpayers’ Competitiveness Report and the Newton Beacon’s coverage.  


Big thanks to our friends at NewTV for the recording and to Rockland Trust, Esin Susol Team, Loop Net and our other sponsors.


Needham Street not complete, but closer

 

Our four-year construction headache along Needham Street in Newton and parts of Highland Ave in Needham is in the home stretch.


The project was never going to “fix” traffic. But it is designed to improve walkability for pedestrians, make biking safer, optimize transit and reduce conflict points for cars.


It’s been so long now that it's hard to remember how pathetic that bridge over the Charles River was and how superior and welcoming to non-vehicular travelers it is today.


But the jury is out on other elements of the $22 million, two-mile project, which starts at the junction of Winchester Street and Route 9 in Newton and extends to Webster Street in Needham.


For example, we won’t truly know what’s improved or not (i.e. that confounding configuration under Route 9 at Winchester Street), until the traffic lights are coordinated, other elements are fully incorporated and until all those crews go away for good.


Also, some of those new turning lanes are going to require adjusting old habits.


Then there’s the mystery as to when all those old utility polls — some block the new bike lanes, others stick into traffic — will be removed.


Unfortunately, that part of the project is not controlled by MassDOT or its contractors.


"The poles in this area are a mix of poles owned by Eversource and poles owned by Verizon. They are responsible for removing these poles," a MassDOT spokesperson tells Christian MilNeil at Streetsblog MASS.


It’s a complicated task, as MilNeil explains.


It’s also a complaint heard all too often from private-sector developers and builders across the region:  A lack of urgency, coordination, or cooperation from utility companies can quickly add tens of thousands, or more, dollars, and months, even years, of delays to even small projects, with no accountability.


As for Needham Street, neither Eversource nor Verizon answered questions this week from Streetsblog about when this work would finally be finished.


Meanwhile, the businesses along that corridor have had a chaotic four years. They sure would appreciate your business.


I’m always interested in your thoughts.


Not just housing, the housing we need


Be sure to read Peter O’Neil’s latest in the Needham Observer explaining why Needham’s MBTA Communities law compliance plan won’t yield nearly the number of homes as the “NO for Needham” group is trying to scare folks into believing ahead of the Jan. 14 referendum.


Then there these quotes from Andrew Mikula, a senior housing fellow at Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, reminding us that Needham also needs different kinds of housing.


“We’re not building the type of housing that we need to meet the demographic realities of our time,” said Mikula. “We have a millennial generation that’s coming of age and starting to form their own families, but we don’t have the starter homes. The average single-family home size is getting bigger and bigger, but the average household size is getting smaller and smaller.”


He said many towns have a housing “typology” that does not match their housing needs — “especially in towns like Needham, with seniors who are living in four- or five-bedroom Colonials. They maybe have mobility issues or don’t want to have to maintain a lawn as they get older. But there aren’t really a lot of options for them to downsize in town.”


Friday grab bag

  • Two attorneys — Kenneth Largess and Michael Tauer — have pulled papers to fill a vacant seat on the Wellesley Select Board currently held by Lise Olney who is not seeking re-election. The election is March 4. Nominations are due Jan. 14 so more candidates may emerge. (Swellesley Report)

  • Watertown approved $4 million in the town’s CPA funding for the Willow Park Development this week. POAH, an affordable housing developer, plans on rebuilding 60 units and adding 78 more affordable ones to the site in conjunction with the Watertown Housing Authority.

  • Maureen Lister is leaving her role as executive director at Family ACCESS to become the new CFO at Perkins School for the Blind.

  • Chamber friend and collaborator Colette Phillips will lead a free workshop, “Civility and Kindness: Call-In Rather than Call-Out Culture’ on Tues. (Dec. 17), 7 p.m. at the Newton Free Library

  • Another chamber friend and collaborator, Authors & Innovators curator Larry Gennari has published his list of notable reads for 2024. (BBJ)

  • A correction:  In Tuesday’s newsletter we misidentified the Newton Centre property Boston College has purchased. It’s Mount Alvernia High School not Mount Alvernia Academy.

  • After the state denied its MBTA communities rezoning, Waltham is trying pass a new version before the year-end deadline. However, the mayor’s office is reportedly looking to scale back a city council passed proposal. There’s a final public hearing at City Hall on Monday (Dec. 16) at 8:30 p.m.

  • Eversource’s Main Streets program offers increased incentives to Needham businesses and non-profits who schedule a no-cost, no-obligation energy assessment through Dec. 20.

  • Small Business Microloans up to $100,000 for capital projects and purchases of furniture, fixtures, equipment and other improvements are available through Mass Growth Capital Corporation

  • We're hiring! The chamber is seeking a part-time (10–20 hours per month)

  • experienced bookkeeper/ administrative professional to join our small but dynamic team. Flexible hours with the option to work remotely with occasional on-site visits to our Needham office. Learn more, spread the word or apply.

Poll shows support for MCAS replacement

Last election day 59 percent of Massachusetts voters opted to eliminate MCAS as a high school graduation requirement.


But that doesn’t mean the public wants every school system in the state to decide what students need to know to earn a diploma, according to a new poll.


Mass Opportunity Alliance poll shows that 75 percent of surveyed Massachusetts residents support a new graduation requirement based on statewide curriculum standards.


“Voters are right to desire a new standard: Whether you supported or opposed the MCAS graduation requirement, it created a uniform state requirement that all students had to meet,” MOA writes in blog post.


And with no statewide requirement employers can no longer assume that a high school graduate has basic competencies in English, math, and science.  


Home for the holidays

Wellesley town employees will be moving back to Town Hall at Hunnewell Park next week.  The offices were temporarily relocated for the last year and a half due to construction.


The Romanesque stone building was constructed in two parts, the “Library” and the “Town Hall,” between 1881 and 1885.


The building at 525 Washington Street reopens to the public on Dec. 26.


Meet Newton’s and Needham’s three amigos

 

Finally today, when the 200 members of our state Legislature reconvene next month, there will be just 22 new faces -- representing 11 percent overall – between the House and Senate.


Three of the freshman state reps hail from our chamber towns (in photo from left): Josh Tarsky from Needham, along with Amy Sangiolo and Greg Schwartz from Newton.


The trio attended a private three-day "new legislator academy" at UMass Amherst this week, attending nearly a dozen panels, speeches and sessions covering topics such as the budgeting process, ethics, and the cadence of legislative session, according to State House News.


Among the recommendations, reports Kelly Garrity at Politico: “If a reporter calls, let it go to voicemail, or wait for them to send a text; Find out what they’re calling about before you answer. And let leadership know what’s up – their office may be fielding the same questions.


“It’s an interesting insight into how Beacon Hill leaders are thinking about the media amid increased scrutiny over their level of (or lack of) transparency— a topic that caused headaches for some incumbents on the campaign trail, and one voters were made more aware of during state Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s ballot question campaign,” Garrity adds.



That’s what you need to know for today — Taylor Swift’s birthday — unless you need to know about the guy who found out the hard way he’d never make a good Santa Claus.


Shop locally this weekend as if jobs depend on it, because they do.


Greg Reibman (he, him)

President & CEO

Charles River Regional Chamber

617.244.1688


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