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It’s been a few weeks so this one is a longer update. Here is a bit of a table of contents so you know what’s in here this week:
Hemlock Gorge Fall Cleanup
Quinobequin Rd Public Comment
Needham St State Project Update
Report on Youth Rally at City Hall
Bike Lanes Update
Newton Community Farm
The Library is Open Again (But Please Stay Vigilant for the Virus)
Restaurants and Other Reopening (or not) Discussions
Ambulance services
Riverside project approved [see separate blog post]
Also a quick reminder if you aren’t a regular Green Line rider and already aware that work had resumed: Bus shuttles will replace train service on most weeknights and weekends through December to support the Green Line D Track and Signal Project, the Fenway Portal Project and the Brookline High School Expansion Project. Diversion info is listed here.
Extra city-sponsored seasonal flu shot clinics have been added. More info at: newtonma.gov/flu
Hemlock Gorge Fall Cleanup
This Saturday Oct 24 in the morning, there will be a socially-distanced volunteer park cleanup event held by the Friends of Hemlock Gorge. Volunteers should bring work gloves and wear masks. I would suggest arriving at 9:30 AM. I wasn’t quite sure where they were planning to meet this year to distribute trash bags, but I would check the Hamilton Place parking lot – or by the stone building next to Route 9 if they’re not there. People will be working along the various trails and meadows of the Gorge park on both sides of the river, so you should be able to find someone who can point you to the right place.
Quinobequin Rd Public Comment
Tomorrow, Friday, Oct 23 is the deadline to submit comment (see final page) to Mass DCR on which (if any) proposed options you like for the state's reimagined Quinobequin Rd parkway & path from this Oct 8 slideshow: https://www.mass.gov/doc/quinobequin-road-and-trail-improvements-meeting-presentation-2020-10-8/download
The 3 proposed options basically boil down to:
1. Quinobequin becomes one-way (they suggest northbound) and there would be a full bike path between the road and an upgraded walking path
2. Quinobequin stays two-way, but a shared-used bike/pedestrian path replaces current path
3. No bike path, just an upgraded foot path
I believe that under all 3 scenarios a full sidewalk would be added the whole length of Quinobequin (or at least in the target area where sidewalk doesn't already exist) on the inland side (where the houses are). That by itself would be a big safety improvement over the status quo.
DCR wants to hear from as many residents as possible about what they think should happen, and they will try to gauge the level of support for various elements.
However, it’s worth noting that any work is dependent on the state having money available, which might not be for a while due to the covid-19 fiscal crisis. My guess is that they will opt for the 3rd choice as the least expensive and least invasive and also because it probably does not preclude pursuing more ambitious options in the future.
I have so far not taken a position on any of these options, as I did not have strong feelings about which I preferred and I want to hear from residents about what they think should happen or would be helpful. (Please feel free to email me a copy of your public comment!)
Needham St State Project Update
On Sept 30, MassDOT held a community update meeting online about the Highland Ave / Needham St upgrade project. You can see the slides (including contact info) here: https://www.mass.gov/doc/needham-newton-pim-presentation-09302020/download
Construction work for this DOT project should begin on the Needham side in November 2020. The work north of Oak St should be starting in summer 2021, partially in coordination with the private Northland project. Work around the river/bridge should happen in the 2nd half of 2021.
The winter 2021/2022 work would be toward the Winchester St end on Needham St in Newton. You can see the various types of work in various sections toward the end of the slides. On page 16 you can see the times of day work will be done.
- Typical Work Shift
• Mondays through Fridays
• 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM each day
• No lane closures during peak traffic hours (6:00 AM to 9:00 AM and 3:00
PM to 7:00 PM)
- Driveway, pedestrian and bicycle access will be maintained
- Night work for milling & paving operations to minimize traffic impacts – 2 weeks advance notice will be provided. Work shift 9 PM to 5 AM, Sunday through Thursday.
(It was explained it was infeasible to do milling & paving during the day.)
Report on Youth Rally at City Hall
On Oct 17, there was a youth climate justice/racial justice rally outside City Hall with informational tables and speakers. Thanks to the young adults for asking me to speak as part of their lineup, on the topic of how young activists can maximize the impact of contacting government officials to push for environmental action. Much of that advice applies to concerned adults as well on any issue. You can identify at any level of government who is the person that has the most ability to influence the situation and is most likely to be influenced by your activism. You start sending emails and letters to that person, and they are going to start getting noticed. Find your point of maximal leverage and apply pressure there first.
Bike Lanes Update
The Planning Department is continuing to host a series of community input meetings on proposed “minor” (paint striping and/or signage) bike lane projects around the city, and I have been attending many of those, whether or not they are in Ward 5.
The most significant one is the proposal to create two-way bike travel on the Commonwealth Ave Carriageway from one side of Newton to the other. No parking would be removed, signage/light paint would be added for safety, there would be two lines of bike travel, and one direction of vehicle travel (already fairly limited) in the carriageway. Lanes won't be painted the entire way of the carriageway, mostly just marked at intersection points and trickier sections. The carriageway is already a shared street with low prioritization of vehicle traffic and this proposal would simply make that more clear-cut and locked in. No bike lanes on Comm Ave itself (not the carriageway) will be removed. Commuter bikers will be encouraged to continue using those, rather than the new carriageway bike lanes where lower-speed, shared use will be the emphasis.
Public input on specific blocks/intersections is being welcomed on an ongoing basis. (Contact Nicole Freedman, Director of Transportation Planning.) This proposal is a relatively minimal project to reflect/strengthen existing conditions, not significant changes to intersections and in fact no changes to curbs along any of it. But it's intended as a stepping stone before any larger overhaul projects in the future. As Councilor Andreae Downs notes, “If this passes Traffic Council, future changes to intersections with signals would include bike signals to make it [even] easier and safer for two-way cycling traffic.”
Newton Community Farm
Earlier this week, I attended the Newton Community Farm virtual event "Crisis Farming: The Essential Work of Feeding a Community." It is a non-profit operating the publicly-owned Angino farm on Nahanton St under city oversight on a 20-year lease. The Newton Community Farm provides fresh produce for the Newton Food Pantry, a women's shelter, seniors in the Newton Housing Authority, and other local needs. This has been especially important this year with the hunger crisis resulting from the shutdown. But they were not able to hold many of their usual events and there was a drought all summer. So, if you are willing and able to help support their mission, please do so!
The Library is Open Again (But Please Stay Vigilant for the Virus)
The Newton Free Library reopened for browsing of materials (as opposed to previously already available online reservations of materials) starting on Tuesday 10/13. Only 50 patrons will be allowed inside the entire building at a time, with a time limit of 30 minutes or less. Masks will still be required inside of course to browse library materials. (So far there has been 100% compliance on masks for reservation pickups.) Returned checked-out materials will be quarantined for a few days still. For browsing there will be hand sanitizer nearby.
However, please remain very cautious about public interaction right now, especially indoors as we enter winter again. Newton, the state, and the country appear to be entering a significant new spike of covid-19 cases. It is tempting at this point to start slacking off on taking covid-19 seriously since everyone is tired of being cooped up and masked up all the time – and because our government authorities have incoherently responded and continued to reopen many unsafe and crowded activities despite rising cases (which sends very mixed messages to residents) – but this is still an extremely serious disease that we don’t know a whole lot about even now.
Even if you survive contracting covid-19 and even if you are largely asymptomatic outwardly, there seems to be a great deal of evidence that the disease can leave people with significant long-term damage to body and mind. And since we have only had it around for less than a year, we have no idea how long some of these effects might persist.
Restaurants and Other Reopening (or not) Discussions
Your 24 city councilors have also continued to meet as a full Council every couple weeks to discuss school facilities and programming during covid-19 with the School Committee, city staff, and the Mayor’s Administration, as well as to discuss what we can do to safely help our local restaurants remain viable during this very difficult economic period.
On October 1, the Council heard from restaurant owners and from Greg Reibman of the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce. He noted that statewide a fifth of restaurants closed permanently this year and more than half of Newton businesses accepted federal assistance earlier this year. The Chamber expects a wave of further closures by the spring of 2021. If restaurants close, we will lose many beloved local venues & have long-term vacancies and we will lose lots of local revenue. For reasons that are not seemingly related to pandemic safety, the City of Newton has been slow & reluctant to come to the aid of restaurants relative to other municipalities (especially Needham) on measures such as fee relief and outdoor dining.
Waltham is another great example of what cities could be doing and the Newton City Council heard a presentation from Molyna Richards of the Waltham Chamber of Commerce about what they did to set up Moody Street for vibrant outdoor dining. Their Traffic Council was key to setting up Waltham for the restaurants program and Mayoral leadership on the issue was also key. Their program would not have worked without making long-term commitments, not just saying a streetscape program could be open for a couple weeks potentially and then might change again. The Waltham Fire Department agreed to a certain dedicated temporary fire lane clear of tables/chairs. The restaurants had to work cooperatively, not competitively, with each other to make this work. And the result was that the public started strolling down the street and discovering new (to them) restaurants to try, rather than making it a destination trip to a specific restaurant.
The upshot is that Waltham restaurants (at least on Moody Street) actually had a better year this year than in 2019 and have begun to take business away from nearby Newton restaurants without those vibrant, pedestrian-oriented outdoor dining options.
I actually walked from Waban to Moody Street a week ago to see firsthand what was going on over there, and it was quite impressive. It was easy to imagine what could have been in Newton Centre and some of our other village centers.
But it remains to be seen what happens next as winter sets in, if it proves to be a cold one that does not work well with outdoor dining.
Ambulance services
As you might know, one of my 2019 campaign platform points was to support returning ambulance services back to an in-house municipal program, run through the Fire Department, rather than keeping it outsourced. This is a position supported by our Fire Chief and NFD has done an internal study on it.
Earlier this month, the City Council approved authorization for the city to enter a contract for Emergency Ambulance Services, although we don’t yet know which outside company will be awarded the contract.
I asked the City CFO & Fire Chief questions at the Finance Committee about whether the city had given serious consideration to insourcing instead of new outside contracts. (We had not.) To be fair, this year wouldn't really work anyway to try to make a switch like this (because of the pandemic situation & fiscal crunch), and it would likely take several years to get up and rolling anyway. But there was a broad sentiment on the Finance Committee that we should not be leaving this question unresolved for another entire contract cycle. I will continue to keep an eye on this and keep pushing for a formal review of the possibility.
Riverside project approved
On Monday Oct 19, the full City Council met to hear the administration’s financial forecast and proposed Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) – I will save that for a different newsletter since this one is running very long already – and then afterward we debated the final proposal for the Riverside Station redevelopment. You can read my separate post on that here.