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I lived close to across the street from 78 Crafts for several years last decade. Uninspiring is right, but it's a good area to add housing. The long-time Newton residents will faint if you suggest it, but it's very easy to go car-free or at worst car-light there, though I guess the Washington St...

It was done through 40B; I can't recall if they had a compromise at the end or not that made it technically not a 40B application, but it was driving the process the whole way. There was a bit less pushback than the average spot in Newton, though still some: that stretch is one of the less...

The northside neighborhoods are almost a 50/50 split on most of the local political issues in Newton; I think you might actually manage to get full unification and the rich-person version of riots with that plan. (And more practically, there are something close to a thousand TOD units either...

Parking isn't an issue: that space has an entire garage pretty much to itself, with a bridge/direct entrance on the second level in addition to crossing the street at ground level. The bigger issue is that getting in/out of the mall area for e.g. a quick stop after work to grab dinner is a...

The Newton planning department generally seems to do a good job and knows how to head in the right/modern direction, within and even stretching the constraints of what can practically get done in Newton. The issues are with the standard politics and delays around it, such that I moved to the...

Catching up on some emails, and from the Mayor's newsletter last week, we've got a 40B submission by Toll Brothers for the Sam White & Sons landscaping lot on the south side of Rt 9 (528 Boylson St), just a bit northwest of the Dudley Road site that's been under discussion. Six stories, 244...

Wait, I thought we were talking about golf courses? I understand the politics around this and I'm not going to be leading any charges or anything, but if we're talking about it anyways... I live right around the Woodland/Brae Burn cluster in the south part of Auburndale, and they're wildly...

Slipped into the Globe article on this was a comment from a former board member: "Another Catholic organization" would seem to scream BC, given that the law campus is basically across the street. I agree that this jumps to the top of the priority list for the City in any case.

Buried in the mayor's newsletter's last week, out of the initial responses, the city is moving forward with additional discussions on the NOW/Civico proposal, pending everything that was originally up in the air (discussions with the current owners, further analysis, etc). It seems generically...

About that, right on time: https://www.businessinsider.com/movie-theaters-closing-shut-down-full-list-of-regal-cineworld-2023-1

I tend to agree, but both strange and happening, unless it's one of the great bait and switches and/or there is yet another about face.

Not WF - Amazon Fresh brick & mortar. They have 20-some locations in the US and they are pretty aggressively pursuing spaces between 20k and 40k sf for strategic expansion. They've displaced the other usual suspects (TJX concepts in particular) as every big retail landlord's most desirable new...

Without knowing anything specifically about B&N but with quite a bit of knowledge about big retail, lease renewals, and private equity ownership: - At the Pru, I suspect that 2021 was still down 10%+ to 2019, Boston Properties categorically refused to go backwards on rent for the renewal, and...

Newton re-elected everyone, as in, the mayor and every incumbent City Councilor ran for re-election, and every single one won. Notable mostly in that there are always a couple of exceptions (whether via retirement or challenger), but nope, this time it'll be exactly the same when the new session...

That reverse commute is not as bad as the primary direction, but it's not great, and it got dramatically worse over the five years pre-pandemic. In-bound in the evenings was worse, but the mornings weren't great either. Probably still quicker for the express bus than a theoretical train-bus...

There's also non-zero reverse commute demand from Newton to a few of the Metro West stops, particularly Framingham and Natick to the MWRTA shuttles. Driving is generally quite a bit quicker once you add in the shuttle time, but it's not so ridiculous or so long that it wouldn't be an option. I...

I was at the public meeting last night, for the presentation and as much of the Q&A as I could stay for. TL;DR: exactly what HelloBostonHi said, and I hope you don't have any vision of increased service on the inner Worcester line in the next fifteen years, minimum. This was my first...