City Councilor Emily Norton’s been hearing lots of concerns over the last two years from her constituents about development projects in Newtonville. First there was Austin Street and now there’s the proposed redevelopment of the Orr Block on the table.
At this week’s City Council meeting Norton filed a bill to formally change the name of Newtonville to “Newtropolis”.
Says Norton “I’ve been working as hard as I can to scale back, reduce, or stop all this new development in Newtonville. I’ve had enough. I’m throwing in the towel. Let’s just change the name to Newtropolis, let the bulldozers and cranes go wild, and get on to the other stuff.”
The name is showing up as “Ewtropol” on the V14 front page (when I view it in Firefox at least).
I think I like Ewtropol better. Newtropolis sounds too much like it was named after a former House Speaker.
Did you also hear that a new 40B petition for zoning relief was filed yesterday by Attorney Steve Buchbinder on behalf of developers in China who have purchased air rights over the Turnpike in Newtonville? They wish to build a casino/affordable housing project rising 105 stories above the Turnpike from Walnut Street west to Chestnut Street. To build this project, they will use all products made in China and will employ aerial workers from Shanghai to install the steel beams on this skyscraper. There will be 24 hour casino operations, fourteen penthouses set aside as Community Centers for each of Newton’s villages, (including this blog), 800 units of subsidized housing, 50 units of ridiculously expensive housing and a park with water features. Since this building will rise to the top of the height list in the U.S., seemingly invading outer space, the development company has chosen to call the building “Ether.” There is little overlap with Mark Developments withdrawn Special Permit plan, but City Councilors are already lining up to argue that Newton should stand behind Ether-Orr. Bi-dum-boom!
Whew!
@Sallee: You sure those aren’t “steal” beams?
This late breaking news, just announced – The city of Newton is under agreement to Donald Trump Jr.. In a special interview with Fox News, Trump allowed “After hearing that 75% of Newton voted for Hillary Clinton the only thing he could do is flatten the town and put it to better use”. Trump hopes to rent it to his father’s US Defense Department as they will need a place to store equipment purchased with the $54 billion increase in the defense budget. Asked what he planned for the current residents, he said he had heard that there would soon be large mixed use development in Needham and that, “Needham seems to know how to deal with development – I’m sure they will figure out how to resettle them.” Governor Baker, when asked for comment said ” Newton was a decent city but moving its residents would help, maybe to New Hampshire so Newton’s current Mayor would, unfortunately, not be able to run for Mayor in Massachusetts.” Newton City Councilor Norton is looking into becoming ward selectman in Needham – but first trying to figure out how to change the name of Board to “Board of Councilors”. More details to follow soon.
Correction: Governor Baker said– their Mayor was running for Governor – sorry for the misquote.
So interesting Councilor Albright considering that our last big Donald Trump/Newton controversy took place exactly one year ago today.