Seen in Newton Centre.
What is this? Clever land-use commentary?@universalhub pic.twitter.com/F3B1cXr8iM
— Sean Roche (@seanroche) August 5, 2018
The others. pic.twitter.com/n8XtvMywJH
— Sean Roche (@seanroche) August 5, 2018
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
drivers man be like
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This sign is the talk of my neighborhood. A+ street art!
A sad note about the times we live in.
Regarding the Washington street revamp: not sure if 1 mile of restaurants & banks is actually going to be an improvement over what we have now. I cant imagine many ppl want to live above or next to a restaurant…. since no other type of retail is going to survive
Does anyone understand WHY there are so many bank branches? With more people relying on mobile baking, are the sheer number of bank branches necessary? I know there are still a fraction of people who prefer to do their banking in-person, but do they really do enough in-person visits to justify the number of storefronts? Or are the storefronts more of an advertisement than anything, so that people regularly see their logos and signage?
MMQC I believe it is your latter suggestion and there so flush with cash they can afford the exhorbitant rents for the advertising
What a great way to protest against this terrible, mindless bank overload in Newton! Bravo!!
Especially in the era of online banking – I do not even remember when I went to my bank last time.
And sounds like we are getting yet another bank instead of Peet’s Coffee….
What a travesty. The landlords are acting like they own the buidings and can lease then to whomever they please! Just because they pay city taxes doesn’t give them the right! City Council should immediately pass an ordinance to ensure better anticapitalist representation aming downtown businesses.
It is hard to believe in an environment of rapid automotive progress, increasing interest rates (fewer refinancing), and the new limits on the tax deductible of loans, that this will continue–but I have been wrong before. We need to reduce needless regulation that hits the types of establishments we like the hardest. We should try to make as easy as possible for more restaurants to open. The solution is to make it easier for the businesses we like to operate. The solution is not to throw new obstacles in front the businesses we don’t like.
Let’s stop talking and do something. If I were Mayor Fuller my number one priority would to ensure that the NPS moves to a late start time while not gutting the education. My number two priority would be to appoint Chris Steele to chair a committee of local business owners and figure out what Newton can do better. Waltham has a more vibrant restaurant scene. Do we know why? The committee should make recommendations and the council should ratify the recommendations.
I agree with Jeffrey. This city needs to make it much easier to open restaurants and other retail outlets. They have to jump so many hurdles now it’s too expensive and takes too long to open anything.
This is such a typical Newton non-issue. There are over 30 restaurants in Newton Centre alone. 30! And not even counting coffee, bagels, ice cream, cookie, smoothie stores. We’re saturated with food.
Apparently we need a sign to direct people to where to eat.
https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=restaurants&find_loc=Newton+Centre,+Newton,+MA&start=0&l=g:-71.18568931930184,42.335461923468586,-71.19916473739266,42.32753051319972
I don’t think Newton necessarily needs more restaurants. I just think it needs less bank branches. The issue is that retail is very tough nowadays, so if we’re going to buildup that section of Washington Street it will probably need to be a lot of restaurants.
>just think it needs less bank branches
why?
don’t you think that the retail stores and restaurants appreciate having neighbors like banks–they draw people with money and don’t compete with their products. there are vacancies in the Centre right now so it’s not like they are actually displacing anyone. and there is constant turnover in the Centre, so why push out stable businesses?
it’s just a crazy Newton problem: 11 banks.
Maybe it’s a rich people image problem: we’re more “quiet rich” not “we have 11 banks rich” type of people–is that it?
One issue with banks, as I understand it, is that the code allows them to have private parking lots that they cannot sublet and sit empty nights and over half of the weekend. If I have that wrong I am sure someone here on V14 will correct me.
As for “Maybe it’s a rich people image problem: we’re more “quiet rich” not “we have 11 banks rich” type of people–is that it?” I don’t have a clue what you are trying to say there.
I do know that most people who are 60 or under (and maybe older than that) don’t do into bank branches more than a couple times a year and more and more people aren’t using branches at all
@David M – bank branches mostly don’t draw people these days. They don’t add foot traffic that spills over into visiting stores and restaurants. And it’s not a “rich people” problem – despite popular perception, Newton is not yet all-rich.
I don’t know how long you’ve lived in Newton, but the village centers were very different when I moved here 20 years ago. Many fewer banks and salons. More useful (and not-outrageously-pricey) stores. The increase in bank branches hasn’t been due to resident demand – it’s been due to landlord preferences.
Agree Meredith. And the landlords prefer the bank because the banks are willing to pay outrageous rents because 1) they are flush with cash and 2) banks seem to have a very different ROI when it comes to rent. They don’t need foot traffic through the branch to have it make sense. They need cars driving by seeing their logos
Folks, there are tons of good articles as to why banks still need branches. I won’t repeat them, but a simple search of the intertubes will do the job. But this isn’t just about Newton, although we are probably a prime example of the issues.
Landlords like bank branches because they are stable, low impact users, and pay their rent on time with little chance of bankruptcy. And they pay high rent!
Banks like Newton because of commercial clients, wealth management clients (i.e. rich folks who larger deposits), home improvement lines of credit with secure real estate. AND the previously mentioned brick and mortar advertising footprint.
Also, for everyone who scoffs at banks in the era of online banking, there is a large segment of folks who have a relationship with their bank teller. My mother does for instance, even in her 70s. And she knows how to use a computer. Sometimes a face to face relationship has real value. And banks want more than just your checking account business. And branches are a way to differentiate yourself.
Finally, we WANT some banks. Especially local ones. Who sponsors village day? Who sponsors the little league team? It used to be car dealerships and banks were among the best corporate citizens. Let’s not forget that.
Finally, I do think the city has an impact on restaurant success. I still don’t understand the parking rules that restricts the number of seats in a restaurant, or requires multiple zoning/special permits to get built. Absent health or safety issues, let them build within a large range of use/seats. Red tape does matter. But rent matters more…
Is there any factual basis to this claim that banks don’t draw customers or that they situate the banks for advertising only? I recall there was a letter to the Tab suggesting such but never put much faith in that claim. Seems like people just keep repeating this myth.
fwiw, I’ve lived in the Centre for a while–long enough to remember Alden-Merrell cakes, which was NOT cheap. Nor was the kosher style cafe that replaced it.
I keep reading claims of retail demand, but demand for what exactly? Hard to believe there’s a huge demand not being met if people can’t even say what’s needed!
As of a couple hours ago, the bank direction sign is gone–no clue as to which way it went.
@fig – I hope I didn’t come across as saying that bank branches aren’t necessary. All I was saying was that they don’t generate that much foot traffic these days. I know that I walked to my bank branch a lot more often 20 years ago than now. And foot traffic is important for the non-destination stores in a village – the kind that get a certain amount of their business from people walking by and deciding on impulse to go in. (or at least used to)
@David
Is there any factual basis that banks realize a measurable and concrete benefit from a branch presence in any given locale. I look forward to reviewing that data
@Claire,
I was at the bank today in Newton Centre–a data point for you to review. I look forward to reading your analysis.
Also the Economist trumpets the importance of bank branches: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2017/07/27/the-closing-of-american-bank-branches
Is there any other place complaining about *too many* banks other than Newton?
and I can’t stress enough there are MULTIPLE empty storefronts ready for you to step up and open that store that’s in such huge demand!
Claire, there is. It is weakening over time, but the value is still there. Especially in village centers/downtowns in high net worth census tracts.
This is a hot topic on many community development/real estate/banking blogs/websites. Just do a google search. Lots of discussions of digital banking, but most conclude that the fight for customers requires a physical presence.
For the record, banks get more foot traffic than you think. Unlike a restaurant, it is constant throughout the day. The downside of banks is no hours at night/limited hours on weekends. So your point does hold in that they don’t activate a street at the times many of us see it most, our leisure time.
I will say also that we tend to have a confirmation bias about use. If we don’t use a resource, we assume it is underused. My family has multiple banking relationships (Business/personal/other). I wait in line for all of them, and I often bank in person.
Hey, I love restaurants. But this is something I actually have direct experience in, especially in smaller downtowns across New England.
Want me to explain nail salons next? ;-)
David, I know a lot of areas where people complain of too many banks. I’ve heard/read about these complaints in other MA cities including Cambridge, Austin TX, SF Bay Area. It’s not just some crazy Newton complaint.
I will add that sometimes I bank in person and in fact I did last week because I needed a cashier’s check. I like having a nearby bank branch. I just don’t understand why there’s a need for so many in one village center!
As Fignewtonville says most things are more complicated and require a more nuanced answer. Also more than one thing at a time can be true.
Banks and other large money makers who need smaller spaces can afford the high rents that many building owners in Newton are charging and can afford the required parking. The shared parking pilot would make use of these lotswhen they aren’t needed by their owners. Real estate here is expensive. Yes, some are greedy but some need the higher rent to cover their own expenses.
Bank branches are used by many for many reasons but they are generally destinations and have fewer walk-ins than other places. I rarely go into a bank but certain things require me to – bank checks, getting a new debit or credit card if my number is stolen (happens in airports most often – have sleeve protectors now,) transfers that require bank medallions and I used to get rolls of quarters for the parking meters.
I know you’ll be disappointed but I’m not finished and I’ve got to run out the door. Well, walk really. More later.
A couple of points: (1) as much as a preponderance of bank branches In our village centers are decried – and I understand the reasoning – I’m not sure what the alternative is. Any retail store would be staring at the realities of online competition, our desirable location, high rents, tight parking, etc. That gives an advantage to banks who (obviously) have money, and other deep pocketed entities. Also, I’d recommend a read of Shirley Leung’s column in today’s Globe to see why restaurants are not likely to be the savior of our village centers.
One thing is that village centers that are almost all restaurants don’t encourage walking around and browsing. People come, they eat, they leave. But what retail stores are successful nowadays? Newton is lucky to have some interesting small shops – Paper Mouse, Just Next Door, Greentail, etc – but I’m not sure how many more we could sustain. I don’t know what kinds of retail could go into the proposed Washington Street development and be successful.
MMQC:
My view is that additional first floor retail is welcome in any village. That’s one of the reasons I supported Austin Street. The more stores, the more foot traffic. Rents are a factor of many things, but if there are 5 available locations in a village, eventually the rent is reduced to get them filled. So additional supply helps.
There is also the “critical mass” view, which says that homes/apartments within a certain radius feed retail, and without that critical mass you don’t get good retail, and if you don’t get good retail you can’t get the homes/apartments.
Folks who don’t like development of significant size view this as the “if you build it they will come”/pie in the sky theory of development. And I get that, it tends to be oversold by developers who don’t focus on the community burden of more people.
I think Austin Street and Washington/Orr Block will be a good example in some small way. Will the marginal reduction of parking and marginal increase of traffic be worth the marginal increase in village vitality of the additional residents within walking distance.
I think yes, when combined with the Walnut Improvements. It may take a year or two to see full effects though.
Newton Center is harder.
I’m sorry to hear that the signpost is gone, though as a work of guerrilla art, if that’s what it was, it didn’t have a long life expectancy. Although I think of banks as inert myself in terms of promoting village street life, I do have neighbors who prefer them on the grounds that their patrons don’t generally stagger out drunk at one a.m. and vomit on your lawn. Just a little factoid to keep in mind if you live near an area targeted for development.
In the “more than one fact about the same thing can be true at the same time” category:
Retail e-Commerce is thriving and retail brick and mortar stores are closing at record numbers.
Brick and mortar stores are profitable and increasing in numbers.
According to the US Census Bureau announcement, June 2018 retail store sales were 6.4% above June, 2017.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that in 2017, of the more than $5 trillion in retail sales, e-commerce accounted for only $452 billion – 8.9% of total retail sales.
That said, the e-commerce trend is here to stay and—more importantly—is driving a decided change in consumers’ overall shopping behaviors and expectations.
From what I’m reading, there are several key reasons why certain brick and mortar stores are doing well.
Omnichannel sales – Small businesses that adopt modern point-of-sale (POS) systems are in a position to better serve shoppers’ needs on a personal level. Free POS systems are available that gamther shopper data at the register.
Create a mobile-friendly website and establish an on-line presence – Small retailers can use free POS platforms to increase their being discovered, drive foot traffic to their stores and improve product credibility. Most consumers research merchandise online before going in store to purchase it.
Have a social media presence – Social media both drives direct sales and brings shoppers through your door.
Encourage reviews – As shoppers leave ask them to post a review of their experience with you and your store.
Attract Millennials – This generation, which has overtaken baby boomers as the largest generation, is moving into their prime spending and working years. Studies show this generation buys from independent brick and mortar stores that have a strong sense of community, help them feel connected to the products and services they buy , sell value-added, handmade and quality-driven products and that provide a personal shopping experience.
Bank proliferation in not a “non-issue”.
And also, this is not about those bank only.
This is about the proliferation of the mediocre in general. Yes, you can have 30 banks, and 30 restaurants, and 30 coffee shops – and end up eating home, and buying your own coffee machine. Say, after Peet’s unexpected demise, we still have a couple of “coffee places” left but … they do not even smell coffee (go and try).
As for the banks, it seems to be the most mediocre way to imitate city development without developing anything at all.