For the past three years I fretted over Newton’s brand. In my opinion, an area’s brand is what can attract business, as much as its efforts around zoning and regulation. The problem is, Newton, from an economic perspective, has no real brand. When companies locate here they often hide it, choosing to post on their website that their office is in “Boston.” Boston, in that sense, is the region, not the city.
I think most of us have a vision for what Newton’s brand is about, and not all of it is positive. Today the New York Times and the Boston Globe both offered their own take on Newton’s brand in very interesting ways.
In a front page article, the Sunday New York Times looks at Newton as it examines the case of Judge Shelley Joseph. I’m not going to get into the Joseph case (the article offers little new to anyone who follows it locally) but it does offer up this little gem:
Newton District Court is a sleepy, two-room courthouse in a wealthy, liberal suburb. On a recent afternoon, a judge hearing a woman’s shoplifting case admiringly noted her degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
“This is Newton,” joked its clerk magistrate, Henry Shultz, “where you’re considered a dropout if you only have a master’s degree.”
As if that’s not enough, today’s Boston Globe has a front page story about how Newton (standing in for just about any wealthy suburb) fails its less-fortunate students when it comes to college readiness. Overall, 39 percent of low-income graduates make it through a 4-year college in a timely manner compared with 70 percent for their wealthier classmates.
The end of the article gets to the program at Newton North called Transitioning Together. In the piece, 2012 graduate Swardiq Mayanja, whose family immigrated from South Africa and had, what the article calls a “positive academic experience” struggled when it came to transitioning from high school to college. “Mayanja said he received little guidance from teachers or counselors at Newton North about paying for college.” And it’s not just that he didn’t receive guidance, it’s that the system is tilted entirely toward the needs of the wealthier students who dominate the school:
Still, Mayanja wishes the college advising in Newton hadn’t been so focused on the needs and priorities of white, middle- and upper-income students. “We did not talk about money enough, and the second you graduate from high school, money rules your life,” he said.
So my questions are this: what do you consider Newton’s brand? If you feel that the brand portrayed here doesn’t accurately reflect the Newton you know, can you expand on why? And finally, how do we change this brand position? Do we want to? Is this important?
As a teenager in Jamaica Plain 50 years ago, Newton’s image then was pretty much the same as today – i.e. “liberal wealthy suburb on the Green Line”.
Like most images or ‘brands’ its a gross simplification, but acccurate. That said I don’t foresee any significant change in Newton’s image on the horizon.
Meanwhile, Jamaica Plain’s ‘brand’ has totally changed over that time but that’s because the place itself has changed, rather than the result of a re-branding exercise.
I agree with Jerry’s comment about Newton’s current ‘brand’.
On the disparity of college graduation rates due to economic and cultural differences among students, where degree requirements have a disproportionate effect and bear no obvious relation to job duties or performance, SIMPLY STOP USING COLLEGE DEGREE AS A DEFAULT HIRING DEVICE. For too many Americans, post-secondary education is principally a toll: an ever-more-expensive, increasingly mandatory, two-, four-, or six-year pit stop on the way to remuneration.
The burdens of degree inflation fall most heavily on low-income and working-class individuals who are less likely to attend college or to complete a degree. Degree requirements summarily disqualify non-credentialed workers with relevant skills and experience from desirable jobs. They force students and families to spend substantial time and money on collecting degrees, regardless of whether students wish to attend college and whether the degree in question actually conveys relevant skills or knowledge.
Unfortunately, however, the college industrial complex along with the aid of public school systems such as Newton’s, support the privileged status of the college degree, becoming a de facto gatekeeper to “good” jobs and an employer sanctioned cartel.
Having grown up in Newton and attended Cabot, FA Day and Newton High , class of 1973, Newton has a brand that has not changed. Schools and convenient proximity to Boston and 128. And Jerry is correct, this will not be changing soon.
While I agree with Jim about the problem with degree-inflation, that isn’t the main issue pointed out in the Globe story and it’s something an friend in the Acton-Boxborough district and I also saw during the recession. Guidance counselors in the highly-ranked, high pressure schools are focused on getting kids into high prestige universities with no consideration of financial implications, and they are judged by their success in doing this. During the recession, kids at these and similar high schools were still not being counseled to look at the various UMass campuses and certainly not at community college.
Our h.s. kids should be required to take at least a semester of financial literacy before it’s time to apply for college applications, and that course should include information on college costs and the ramifications of high student loan debt. Guidance counselors should ask all students about cost as a factor in college choice (ask all both to avoid stigma and also insulting wrong assumptions or missing kids who need it for reasons unknown to the school). They should then provide information on how to afford college ranging from community college to living at home to understanding how financial aid is determined (for example, schools expect 100% of students’ savings to go towards college but only a portion of parents’ savings) and being aware of schools that offer great finaid to frosh and then greatly decrease it after that (basically, bait and switch).
Newton is like the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite a “Four-Diamond hotel. Known for its magnificent façade.” With a whole range of reviews on Trip Advisor such as “The Ahwahnee after all! But gosh, they’re living on their reputation from 60 years ago!” contrasted with “We loved our stay at the Ahwahnee Hotel! It really was a dream come true.”
And yet despite the reputation and outward appearance of wealth (Newton is certainly home to many, many wealthy families), the city is struggling financially. So we have this increasing gap of large numbers of wealthy people and the inability to meet the growing needs of our city.
Councilor Norton shared a perfect statement in a prior Village 14 post on the city’s looming budget deficit.
“Like many municipalities, the City of Newton is unsustainably living beyond its means. We are simultaneously underfunding some of our needs and aspirations while continuing to make service commitments in both our municipal and school operations beyond our willingness to pay for them.”
https://village14.com/2019/10/22/city-deficits-are-looming-how-will-we-fill-the-gap/#axzz65Zl5gpVZ
We are not alone in this challenge.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/eastside/bill-gates-and-jeff-bezos-live-there-so-why-is-medina-asking-its-residents-to-pay-more-in-property-taxes/
We appear to be reaching the turning point of the sustainability of a budget funded almost solely by property taxes. I do not know a solution but it is about time we get creative.
To me, Newton’s Brand is distracted drivers, who don’t have a clue what a pedestrian crosswalk means and entitled kids who don’t know the meaning of work. Just MHO
One thing that has improved is Newton’s restaurants are getting more attention. I have friends who have come specifically to Newton to go to places like Moldova and Comedor. It’s kind of cool to see and I do think it has the potential to become part of our brand.
Meredith,
In view of the utter failure of all the measures tried to date, the disparity of college graduation rates due to economic and cultural differences among students remains. As I stated in my comment, employers should stop using the college degree as a default hiring device, where students are forced to spend substantial time and money on collecting degrees, regardless of whether students wish to attend college and whether the degree in question actually conveys relevant skills or knowledge.
In the age of the internet, information and teachings on all subjects can be secured on line. Of course what is missing is the “college experience” (college binge drinking and dorm hookups).
@Jim – I said I agree with you (which, granted, is rare) on the overstressing of college and graduate degrees. It’s an issue that has affected my own career which, 30 years ago, would have not been hampered by having a couple of masters degrees but no Ph.D.
But did you read the Boston Globe article? Over and over, the lower income students said that financial pressure was what caused them to drop out. And I know that this isn’t something that is taken into consideration in college advising. Nor is teaching kids the financial literacy to know what taking on college debt can mean for their future. It was an issue I discussed with my son, but he was lucky enough to have an educated mother who was aware of these things. If he were first generation college, he wouldn’t have gotten those discussions.
Newton is constantly picked on. What about Wellesley, Weston, Winchester, and Dover?
Rick,
All of those wealthy towns you mention are clearly not as liberal as Newton.
To the point of the Boston Globe article it shows that schools cannot solve all of society’s current equity problems. They are a piece of the puzzle but cannot provide a single point solution.
Thoughtful post, Chuck!
I’ve learned a lot about the political climate of Newton in the past 2 years (following the Northland project).
Sit with a Trump supporter and they will share negative feelings of the far liberal left; that they feel unsupported (by the left) if not outright attacked. This is displayed time and time again here on V14. That sadly is a dark side of Newton’s brand today.
So how do we change this?
Chris Rock did a provocative bit back in 2014 about the gang mentality of American Politics (warning: potty mouth)
https://paradox1x.org/2004/04/chris-rock-on-l/
Newton needs to move away, from being a community of sides, to a community of people….judging each issue by its merits.
Praying this starts tonight, with the City Council meeting on Development and Zoning. 🙂
Good points about the gang mentality keeping Newton a community of sides.
I hear a lot of things about Newton from both people who live here and those who don’t.
From the ones outside of Newton, I think Newton’s brand is not only a wealthy, liberal city on the green line, but also a place where any type of entitlement reigns, along with the ultra left ideologues who champion their causes without much regard to the unintended consequences or the dichotomies some of them present.
Newton’s brand is all of the above with an unhealthy mix of cognitive dissonance.
Case in point: Councilor Leary made this comment –
If you can afford to own a car you should be able to afford to park it.
If you can’t afford the tip then you can’t afford to go out to eat.
That sentiment could just as easily progress to
“If you cannot afford the prices then you can’t live in Newton.”
But she proudly proclaims that Newton is a Welcoming City and she is an affordable housing advocate.
I’m not certain enough residents of Newton want that brand to change so it won’t.
Would you believe that my internet went out right after I posted my last comment? Well it did before I could add the positive brand of Newton, in my experience.
Newton is filled with great people who will go out of their way to help their neighbor, volunteer for boards and commissions, help seniors with just about anything and care deeply about many important causes. It’s filled with people willing to put together fun activities, parades in the snow, the arts, theatre, tour de Newton, pianos on sidewalks, front porch bands, the tree lighting in Nonantum, picnics with the police and many other things.
That is the brand I like most.
Meredith,
You ask whether I’ve read the Globe article (which I have), and state, “Over and over, the lower income students said that financial pressure was what caused them to drop out.”
If you more carefully read my comments on this thread, that’s precisely my point. Leading to my conclusion (unless we’re all willing to pay for the Government fully subsidizing college), for employers to stop using the college degree as a default hiring device, where students are forced to spend substantial time and money on collecting degrees, regardless of whether students wish to attend college and whether the degree in question actually conveys relevant skills or knowledge.
And this is precisely consistent with your suggestion of schools “teaching kids the financial literacy to know what taking on college debt can mean for their future.”