.@14thVillage reports of #carmageddon greatly exaggerated at #AustinStreet. 5pm weekday parking. pic.twitter.com/My6PjbZaAB
— Nathan Phillips (@nathanpboston) March 28, 2019
.@14thVillage reports of #carmageddon greatly exaggerated at #AustinStreet. 5pm weekday parking. pic.twitter.com/My6PjbZaAB
— Nathan Phillips (@nathanpboston) March 28, 2019
I’m with Nathan on this one. While opponents of the Austin Street project were convinced that the construction would make parking impossible, I’ve never had a problem parking in Newtonville throughout this process and that includes on Saturdays, weekday mornings, weekday lunch times, etc.
Good to see we’ve moved from a news site to just pushing soundbites about the pros of development.
I’m sure it’s disappointing when the facts don’t fit into your narrative. But the truth is the Austin Street and Washington Street projects are going to be great for Newtonville’s small businesses and overall economic vitality
I have had the same experience day or night. Newtonville parking has been fine, and I expected much more of a mess during construction.
It’s not about facts not fitting a narrative, if this was a report or article on a long-term trend, even if it goes against my personal views, it’s worth sharing and discussing. Something like this doesn’t add anything to positive or constructive discourse, and it’s very selective evidence. I’d say the same thing if someone tweeted a photo of a full parking lot and posted it here.
@Jim: Village 14 is not a news site and never claimed to be.
We publish and share items all the time that are intended to be conversations starters.
I am on the north side much less often in winter, but one thing I noticed was the new building’s height seemed to be in scale with the village center panorama, viewed coming across from the other side of Washington Street. I’ve also never had too many problems parking in Newtonville, but I haven’t tried in a few months.
I would agree with those who think improved public transportation to and from Newtonville will be important to the village’s long-term success.
I’ve had difficulty finding a parking spot during certain times, most notably between 3-5 pm. After circling a couple of times in the lot and street, I gave up on that Starbucks and went to the one in Newton Centre. Also, the woman who owned the Shoe Horn told me personally that it was due to the construction and loss of parking spaces that caused her to go out of business. She just couldn’t hold on.
I park in Newtonville about twice a week, usually in the later afternoon and never had difficulty finding a parking space.
As for whether this is news or not, I’d say it is. We have several developments in the pipeline and parking is always part of the discussion. Learning something from the Austin St. experience makes sense.
As a small business owner in Newton Centre, I can tell it’s not only about customers but also employee parking, which has different needs in regards to time length . Take the Starbucks as an example. I haven’t spoken to the managers, but it seems pretty clear to me that the Starbucks in Newtonville is always advertising for employees while the Starbucks in Newton center rarely does. I suspect this has to do with both the lack of longer parking spaces and the lack of the Green Line as a means to get to work. A ticket is an hours Pay at a Starbucks. I park in the Newton center, I can afford the occasional ticket because my hourly rate can take the hit. But the average retail worker cannot. I don’t know what kind of stores are going to go into these new developments but if they employ older workers who cannot hop on a train or take a bike they’re going to have to park somewhere, or the business is going to have trouble finding employees.
I saw the construction site last week after not having been to Newtonville in a while. It was smaller than I expected. Did we really fight a local civil war over what is in fact a modest project replacing a desolate parking lot?
@Newtoner: yes
That’s funny. It’s bigger than I expected, and very little setback.
That wasn’t a desolate parking lot. On Saturdays it could be full. But I agree that parking in the area has not been the problem I thought it would be, primary because the Star Market lot opened up spots. Hopefully that remains the case.
I agree with Rick above. It looks bigger than I had expected. But that could just be a matter of getting used to it.
Dan and Rick:
I agree in part. I was surprised by the lack of setback, but not the height. I think height wise I’m pleasantly surprised just how well it fits into the site. I really wish they had forced the developer into adding an additional two foot setback. At least they insisted that the power lines be buried in front of the site…
I think the insistence on the SAME NUMBER of parking spots has led to several negative results. (1) the parking spaces are smaller in size than I would have liked, and (2) the park and the setback was more limited in size than I would have liked. If I was designing in a vacuum. I would have permitted a layer cake type design up the six stories, with a bigger park, more setback, and less parking by about 25 spaces.
Having witnessed similar projects over the years from multiple perspectives, sometimes the sausage making of the zoning/permitting process does not permit the “best” project to move forward. Compromise was made to satisfy folks who were worried about the parking, and I understand that, even if I would have preferred other priorities be emphasized.
Regarding the parking, I am a VERY heavy user of the Shaw’s lot free parking spaces. I park in Newtonville daily, multiple times on the weekend, especially now that I work from home more often. I can’t say that I never have had to circle around for parking, but it is very similar to what I had to do before. And for short visits, I’ve loved the free Shaw’s parking and I’ll miss it when it is eliminated. The turnover in those spaces is very quick, and now that the frontage spaces and the spaces behind the project are available, it really isn’t hard at all to park in Newtonville in my view. I find Newton Centre and Waban to be far worse.
I suppose everyone looks for evidence to support their worldview, but in my view, the parking was a realistic fear for the village merchants, but it was used by folks opposing the development as a stalking horse and not an argument backed up by the parking studies. Once the developer paid for the use of the Shaw’s lot, most of the negative externalities of the temporary loss of parking were addressed.
Newton Runner: I can certainly see how the loss of parking (or fear of loss of parking causing customers to be wary of doing business in Newtonville) could cause a business on the edge to go under. And I truly sympathize with Shoe Horn’s owner, it is a tough thing to lose a business. But I also want to be fair. The shoe business has been torn up completely by online sales. Payless Shoe stores just went bankrupt and closed. DSW was hugely successful 10 years ago, now it is struggling due to the need to more heavily discount product to compete with online sales. The Shoe Horn seemed more focused on an older clientele, and perhaps that clientele depending more on easy and available parking. But multiple shoe stores closed in Newtonville at once, and multiple stores have closed downtown this year too. Parking isn’t the full story.
I really do think that the completed projects will be a boon for those merchants who remain in Newtonville, especially when combined with the Walnut redo in the works for 2019/2020. And I think folks not invested in either side of the debate years ago will continue to wonder what the fuss was about, as the sky doesn’t fall when all of these changes are finished. And with the additional parking in Washington Place, at the end of the day, I believe we will end up with a significant INCREASE in total parking spaces in Newtonville.
If we can manage it, I’d love to have a discussion with all parties when this is over to discuss the end result, what we could do better based on what was built. Nothing is ever perfect and perhaps with the benefit of hindsight we can all figure out how to do things a bit better.
A merchant I spoke with told me the parking situation hasn’t kept his regulars away. However, his occasionals or one timers (about 20% of his business) have been deterred by the parking situation.
Two words: no shit.
Now that the building has been topped off, it is hard to understand what the BFD was.
I agree with those saying that parking has been better than expected during construction, most people I talk to have been pleasantly surprised.
While the modulars were being trucked in and blocking spaces in front of the project, there’s some evidence that this depressed sales for the immediately surrounding businesses, particularly Craft Beer Cellar. It is important to note that there is a mitigation fund for businesses that experienced lower sales year over year because of the construction.
I also hope everyone here will make an effort to support some of these businesses through the transition period, I personally have been trying to do as much of my shopping and eating out in Newtonville as possible.
Ted H-M, why the profanity?
Does anyone know how the balcanies are working on Austin Street? Are they substantial or more decorative?
Also, what is the current timeframe for completion?
@fig: last Update I got they were aiming for end of summer / early fall.
@all: Building fit and aesthetics aside, the smooth parking and traffic operations in the new construction area serve as a model to future development. The pleasant, and to some, surprising experience wasn’t by accident or by the good will of the Developer, but by the City Council’s careful and detailed analysis of the project and then sticking to the desired results. The long debates and discussions led by the Land Use Committee of the City Council ironed out a project with strong guidelines and mandatory conditions to ease the pain of construction on the neighborhood.
These results emphasize the effectiveness of the necessary political process to large scale development. The final project never looks the same as the Developer’s initial submission and that’s a plus for the neighborhoods.