While listening to the news this morning, I managed to forge a possible connection between two facts:
- On the one hand, the New England Casket Company, whose facility was burned down last month, is searching for a new Massachusetts city in which to build a new manufacturing plant. According to the news report, they have been looking in Chelsea, Lawrence and at the site of their original property.
- The population of Newton is aging rapidly and could use commercial and manufacturing businesses to help to carry the tax burden and to moderate residential property taxation.
It seems to me that a mutually acceptable relationship could be found, perhaps involving tax credits and casket discounting! With a long-time mattress producer nearby, maybe even another connection could be made on Needham Street!
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I’m willing to help the cause.
When the Newton Nomadic Theater’s production of Colder Than Here closes in a few weeks we’ll be happy to donate a pair of (gently) used cardboard coffins to anybody looking to do a “green” burial.
@Sallee: This is a general comment since I don’t know any specifics about this company’s business needs. However, generally speaking Newton is not a good place for most manufacturing because (a) commercial rents are too expensive for this type of use (b) few properties are zoned for manufacturing and, likely most significantly (c) the craftsmen and women that would likely work for a business like this can’t afford to live here.
Newton employers are having a hard time finding and retaining workers and new employers of every discipline will hesitate to come here if they aren’t confident that they can find workers.
And workers can’t come here if they can’t find a place to live.
Thought this was a late April Fool’s joke.
Every argument circles back on itself as in all discussions on development and tax generation. Mega-developments horrify us because of the expensive rentals and the lack of public transportation to and from them (the influx of even more cars to thoroughfares already crowded). But when we consider importing commercial and manufacturing enterprises to create income, the employees would live too far away and have endless commutes by any other means than the auto. And where might they live in Newton? Employees of a coffin factory could hardly afford to pay rent (or purchase a condo) in Avalon or Riverside or Northland, the set-asides notwithstanding. The affordable units in projects like Austin Street are far too limited.
For now Newton will continue its evolution away from income diversity and towards greater affluence.