You’ve come to the right place

By Charles River Regional Chamber

6/30/2022

Looking for things to do for yourself, your family or guests, this holiday weekend?
You’ve come to the right place.

Our Take a Trip Up The Charles website lists nearly 300 restaurants, close to two hundred retailers and dozens of destination ideas inside our four chamber communities.

We've tried to make it easy to navigate across our region, or by community, with dedicated pages and day trip suggestions for Newton, Needham, Watertown and Wellesley.

Meanwhile, you don't have to travel far to enjoy some of state's finest (really) fireworks, not once but twice, in our communities: Sunday in Needham and Monday in Newton. (And check those links for related weekend festivities in both communities.)

Our local business and cultural destinations always appreciate it when you spend locally.

?And think of the gas money you'll save.

Need to know more? Enjoy this guided tour with the chamber's Maxime Isaac:

Keep your hands off our parking!

That was the unanimous consensus of downtown Wellesley merchants at a meeting to discuss conceptual streetscape ideas for Wellesley Square.

Generally speaking, business owners raved about the town’s desire to spruce up sidewalks and crosswalks with lighting, pavers, planters and trees. There was even robust support for making the new parklet at Central and Cross Streets long term.

Just don't reduce our curbside parking, merchants said. Over and over.

You can view the presentation here and read the Swellesley Report account.

Hopeful signs for our local news desert

The Newton TAB, Needham Times and Watertown TAB & Press aren’t alone.

Over 360 newspapers in the US have gone out of business since just before the start of the pandemic, according to a new report from Northwestern University’s journalism school.

As I’ve written earlier, I’ve been collaborating with a group of Newton residents to launch a nonprofit news site called The Newton Beacon in 2023. You can view a video of a meeting introducing the project here.

In addition, former Newton City Councilor and two-time mayoral candidate Amy Sangiolo has just transitioned her weekly email and website in to an impressive new entity called FigCityNews.com.

So far at least, Fig City is volunteer-driven (as opposed to the Beacon which will employ paid professional journalists) and is already a great resource for information about municipal meetings, events and community announcements.

That fills a really important void. And for a city once served by four papers, there's clearly room for multiple sites, plus aggressive coverage from the Globe.

Sign up for Fig City News’ free newsletters here.

Now we desperately need someone to launch a hyperlocal news site in Needham!

And if you haven’t done so already, check out the Watertown News and Swellesley Report (and make a point to support their advertisers).

Stretch code update ready for its next close-up

Last week the Baker administration updated draft language for building code changes it hopes will encourage builders to shift away from fossil fuel heating in favor of electrification, reports Colin A. Young at State House News.

The administration will present the latest draft of its stretch energy code and specialized municipal opt-in code during a webinar on July 7 at 3:30 p.m.

The codes must be finalized by the end of 2022 as required by the state climate law which requires the commonwealth to be net-zero by 2050.

Key senators want the code to authorize cities and towns to mandate builders use all-electric heating. The Senate's climate bill would allow 10 municipalities (it's expected to include Newton) to limit the use of fossil fuels in new construction.

?That bill is currently in conference committee negotiations with the House.

Other Need to Knows

Fantastic to see New Repertory Theatre active again at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, considering its prospects looked very grim. They’ll be welcoming the eight-time Grammy nominees T he GroovaLottos to Watertown (October 1-2).

Wellesley businesses and residents are likely in for some sticker shock when they receive their Q1 tax bills this week, writes Bob Brown at the Swellesley Report. The increase – 6.8% overall – is due largely to a debt exclusion override to build new Hardy and Hunnewell elementary schools . On top of that there’s a 50% increases in water bills due to dealing with the PFAS (aka, forever chemicals) discovered in the town’s drinking water.

David Elgarico has been appointed CEO of MetroWest Medical Center. He joins from Quorum Health where he served as CEO at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield, Oregon. (Framingham Source)

The Tuesday Newton Farmers Market at Cold Spring Park (1:30- 6 p.m. has reopened. So has the Saturday market at Newton North High School’s Lowell Avenue parking lot (9:30 a.m-12:30 p.m.). (Fig City News)

Promise not to tell anyone I've told you since we haven't made the big announcement yet, but the Needham Harvest Fair will return Oct. 2 at Green's Field.

Drought conditions persist across region

The rainfall we received Monday was welcome but it’s certainly wasn’t enough to move the needle on a drought that has overtaken much of eastern and southeastern Massachusetts.

Our chamber communities are all part of a larger swath of city and towns facing a Level 2-Signficant Drought status.

Moderate droughts raise the risk of wildfire, stresses trees and calls for water conservation. The state is also calling on municipalities in drought areas to implement non-essential outdoor water use restrictions, to deploy drought or seasonal water rates, and to limit or ban water-intensive activities, like filling swimming pools or washing cars.

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which provides drinking water for much of eastern Massachusetts, is not experiencing drought conditions. The Quabbin Reservoir was at 98.9 percent of its 412 billion-gallon maximum capacity at the start of the month, the MWRA said, according to State House News.

Have you participated in the HireNow program?

I have one question before you go: Did your business participate in Gov. Charlie Baker’s HireNow program?

Launched in late March, the $50 million initiative offered employers $4,000 grant for each new hire that could be used for training, hiring bonuses, or both.

But as far as I can tell there haven't been any announcements about the state actually awarding any grants.

If your company or nonprofit participated and have received, applied for, were unable to qualify for payment, or haven't heard anything about your grant, I’d be interested in hearing about it. Thanks!

That’s Need to Knows for today (the day Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes the nation's first Black female justice), unless you need to know what has ten legs, is green, invasive and is now being used to make whiskey.

Gotta be better than this -- right?

Cheers. Happy 4^th.See you next week.

Greg Reibman (he, him)
President
Charles River Regional Chamber
617.244.1688

P.S. Welcome to the world Alice Ethal Smith, the latest joint venture cooked up by wife-and-husband chef duo Kate and Trevor Smith of Thistle & Leek.

Newton, Needham, Watertown, Wellesley

You’ve come to the right place

You’ve come to the right place

CONTACT US

QUICK LINKS

MEMBER RESOURCES