Here’s your chance to talk about any issue, so long as it’s Newton related. Take the opportunity to raise issues that haven’t been discussed on Village14 so far,
Comment away
This week’s Open Thread
by Jerry Reilly | May 13, 2020 | Newton | 34 comments
General question: how many meter maids have been laid off in Newton now that parking restrictions have been relaxed? If none, what are they doing, because surely, no one would be paid for doing nothing? Are they being paid to sharpen their pencils? To break in new orthotics?
Please don’t tell me we need the same number of meter maids to enforce the few parking rules that still apply when no one, including meter maids, is going out of their homes!
Newton’s restaurants, gift shops, theaters, small businesses have all been shuddered and fired staff because of the pandemic.
When do the people in the glass castle on Commonwealth Ave share the pain?
@Charles – The government has been going to extraordinary lengths to prevent private businesses from laying off employees during the shutdown. You’re advocating for more layoffs?
@Jer
Well, since you put it that way I take it you’re advocating for the guvmint to pay more people to do nothing?
I ask again: What are the meter maids doing? Working from home?
Will newton be able to lure companies (tech, biotech, finance) from Boston to Newton.?
Ability to drive to work, parking. Houses with backyard available (for those who can afford)
Btw, twitter just announced all their employees can work from home ‘forever’… maybe this trend will catch on to solve the unnecessary commutes into downtown boston, Cambridge
Regarding the Twitter announcement, the end of the commute, even if only for a minority of the workforce, would be a magnificent thing. Imagine the number of fatal and debilitating road accidents avoided, the number of hours freed up to allow those people to do something more enjoyable than sitting on a highway or in a subway tunnel, the reduction in stress-related ailments, the curtailment of emissions, the opportunity to repurpose 5 billion square feet of floorspace for more dignified use, etc.
Anyway, I have a question: Why are there still MWRA “NO TRESPASSING” signs posted at some entry points to the aqueduct trails? The MWRA’s policy of partnering with cities and towns to enhance access to the rights-of-way is over eight years old at this point.
It seems to me that the net result of the signs is to intimidate and/or exclude a lot of potential users by effectively limiting the trails’ use primarily to neighbors and the handful of others who are aware of the use policy or have come across the walking routes on the Newton Conservators website.
@Michael – I have certainly been reveling in the added 1.5 – 2 hours a day that have been freed up in my own life by working at home.
I was just talking to a friend a few days who runs a local small business office in Newton. All of his employees are working at home and he’s been marveling at our smoothly its gone and his employees are delighted. I definitely think when all this is over we’ll find a step wise increase in people permanently working from home.
That’s great.
I am sure Newton’s meter maids love working at home too.
@Michael:
The city permit application to remove some of those MWRA No trespassing signs is pending, but postponed because of the pandemic
For those complaining about our city paying some people to not work, that’s what many businesses are doing because it’s the humane thing to do right now. People have families to feed and housing to pay for. We all hope that jobs will resume soon. In my experience, most people whose employers do right by them will be grateful and show it in their work when they can come back. Also, in practical terms, the city is going to need those workers once things start ramping back up – it doesn’t make sense to fire and then have to hire new people.
@ Charles, the correct term for employees who monitor and enforce marking regulation in Newton is Parking Control Officer. You use of the term “Meter Maid is pejorative and has you coming off as just mean spirited
So…the answer to my simple question is: the parking enforcement administration control enforcement (PEACE) officers are being paid to do nothing at this time, just as many business are paying their employees to do nothing?
Sounds preposterous, but that quaint mode of thinking is the norm in our dear, progressive city – little relation to the real world.
How does a meter, I mean Parking dude show his appreciation for “being done right by”? By writing fewer tickets? More tickets?
Maybe Charles is a child of the 60’s and we can blame it on the Beatles, Claire. 🙂
“Lovely Rita, meter maid
Nothing can come between us
When it gets dark I tow your heart away
Standing by a parking meter
When I caught a glimpse of Rita
Filling in a ticket in her little white book…”
But you are right: Beyond this old artistic usage, the term is best thrown into the dust bin. As far as I can tell, it is never used in a positive way.
My preference has always been the Montreal hypocorism, which was extremely popular back when I was a Quebec sovereigntist but not so much today: «Les oignons verts»
What is the fair discount/abatement to commercial property taxes for those owners who have been deprived of their ability to generate income from said property (which is the underlying metric upon which commercial assessments are based).
Should retailers – who will have bee closed for a full quarter – be asked to pay anything at all?
Asking for a friend.
Charles, have you owned a business? Run a business? That’s meant as a genuine question, no snark.
Lots of my friends run businesses and are pretty darn conservative. They are keeping most of their employees. Even the folks that aren’t fully employed right now, like receptionists. Partly out of loyalty. Partly out of good business sense, since training is a sunk cost. And partly because of morale. The practical nature of things also comes into play: if this is a 3 month work stoppage or a 1 year work stoppage, etc.
Now I get the efficiency argument for government, namely that they are spending your money and my money. But it is rarely as simple as that, and it takes a fair amount to build a competent workforce, government workforce included.
Many cities have furloughed part time employees, and reduced time. I believe we’ve done some of that as well. For union contracts, there are likely provisions in place that restrict what can occur, and those were bargained for in good faith.
Donald: Are those same landlords collecting rents from the tenant?
I would be fine with a property tax abatement if the landlord could prove a rent holiday. Otherwise, not sure why the city would do that. I guess if the Landlord/owner was getting a percentage based rent from the tenant (percentage of sales, so if a restaurant or retail establishment is more successful, they pay more, but a smaller base rent) then perhaps that as well. Although they did bargain for the upside, so the downside risk logically is there as well.
Is this friend you?
Last, a post of my own:
I was thrilled to see that the Newtonville and West Newton Village Enhancements are funded and moving forward. Apparently per the city budget there was a bond issue in late February, and that money is slated to be spent as promised. I’m hoping that the city can use this downtime with much less traffic in the village centers to make substantial progress on those projects, and I’m hoping that the finishes and design remains the same. Speaking of the design, the city has posted the final design plans for Newtonville, but no plans or presentation that show it in a layperson’s understanding. And I’ve gotten no emails at all regarding the final approved design. I signed up again for the email, but either there was a tech failure or the city went a bit dark on this project.
Anyone else know the time frame?
Finally, the Globe has an article on Douglass Williams, chef at MIDA, in the South End. He mentioned that he had a project in Newtonville, now on hold. Anyone know where that was slated to be? MIDA is terrific.
PS. Boston College bought Pine Manor college today.
@Fig
I own my real estate, so no landlord. But I did just get a reminder to file my sales tax (!) return to the state, which was somewhat insulting.
Regardless of who owns the property, the underlying principle of commercial valuation is the city’s rake on the property’s ability to generate income. If the City/State denies the opportunity to generate income from the property…how can we demand the same tax payments?
I can assure you that most retail landlords are not getting paid right now.
The Sales Tax should be filed (although if closed, what sales are there?) but I hear your point on the valuation not being the same if the owner is unable to use it. I would support some degree of accommodation, although typically force majeure events aren’t granted tax forgiveness in my experience (sometimes tax payments are delayed). Tough times, these. No easy answers on this.
I’ve added Newton data to the “all category in http://app.jackprior.org and used it to create an updated analysis of Newton’s Covid-19 data against the larger context of the state, country, and world:
https://covid19.jackprior.org/2020/05/14/newton-may-13th-update/
I’ve invested quite a few of my non-work waking hours the past several weeks making this as effective an app as possible for assessing Covid-19 patterns and trends.
The ranking button can give you a sense on where states/countries stand on a scale from best to worst, and the “flattening” trends allow for opening states to be monitored for shifts.
On another note…
Has anyone done an analysis by village to determine whether the assessed values of properties are consistently proportionate to the market value of properties?
For example would the Progressives be concerned to know that assessed values are 70% of market value in tony Chestnut Hill but 95% of market value in West Newton?
#let’emeatcake
@fignewtonville I’m sure that a private business that is paying a receptionist who is prohibited from coming to the office is asking him or her to do SOMETHING to grow the business, sustain the business, improve a process, support a customer, take notes. SOMETHING.
Now, I understand that union rules may prohibit the meter maids from thinking about how to improve their processes but hopefully they are not just sitting at home watching The Price Is Right.
Charles, I think it really depends on the length of time that person is out of his or her chosen job. You can certainly do a deep dive into the hundreds of employees in any city and find many that are not being currently fully utilized in their current positions due to the virus. Janitors? School Nurses? PE Teachers? Traffic cops? Parking enforcement?
If this is a new normal for 12 months, it deserves a rethink of jobs and roles in a different way. Absent that, with the Commonwealth having a soft reopening in a few weeks, I’d hold tight on the mass layoffs. I don’t know about the parking folks, but I imagine that where folks can be useful they are being asked to be useful. But I’d advocate for a slow roll on major actions, and a look behind those layoffs to the folks working the jobs.
Also, pick a name and stick to it, will ya? Charles, Charlie, Charlie the Parking Scofflaw. Might I suggest Charlie Brown? Charlie Card? Ground Chuck?
Also the Pine Manor College news item deserves is own thread. That is a large chunk of real estate, and BC just majorly expanded. I feel awful for the Pine Manor students and faculty, it does sound like BC learned from UMass Amherst and is providing a much longer runway for the current students.
Maybe BC will sell us the remaining portion of the lot on Webster Woods and we can put the Senior Center there. 😉
@Fig
Agree that the Pine Manor news is worthy of its own thread, despite it being entirely in Brookline.
It will be interesting to see what BC does with the PM campus. The location is just wonky enough that it’s difficult to do anything transformative with, but the Boston market can only sustain so many $30M houses…
Yes Charles, pick a name and stick to it.
Please provide supporting data to back up your statement that Chestnut Hill assessments are 75% market value but West Newton’s are 95%.
Furloughed employees are not eligible for unemployment- if there is any left. That stinks unless they are still being paid.
@Marti Bowen
Though they ordinarily would not be eligible, I’m pretty certain they are today under the recently enacted emergency federal rules.
Thanks Jerry. I’m happy to hear that.
Can you apply for and collect unemployment benefits if you get furloughed?
As unemployment insurance is predominantly managed at the state level, this usually depends on where you live and work; some states may allow furloughed workers to collect unemployment, while others may not.
However, Congress’s recently passed coronavirus stimulus package has temporarily resolved this issue on a wider scale—extending unemployment benefits to those who may not be eligible at the state level, so long as their unemployment is connected to the coronavirus outbreak. Furloughed employees qualify, as do part-time workers, freelancers, independent contractors, and the self-employed.
Am I eligible for the federal government’s $600 weekly payment to unemployed workers if I’m furloughed?
Yes. Congress is extending that $600 weekly check to all individuals eligible for unemployment insurance—now a significantly larger number given the coronavirus stimulus package’s expansion of unemployment coverage. The $600 weekly payout lasts through July 31.
Are NN and NS administrators going to take pay cuts next year and year after so teachers can keep their jobs?
Newton will spend 37% of its $500k housing assistance on admin fees???
There is a possibility that Newton will pay $187k to distribute $500k?? huh.
I know this an maximum amount, but what is the transparency behind this? what is the PER applicant cost to process? $2000 to process paperwork? (assuming 66 applicants get the maximum payout)
Assuming the grant is not increased to 2M, then this does not seem fiscally responsible. We are paying them to process an application to verify the resident is eligible… If they already in deed-restricted unit, then there is little to verify than the fact they lost their job?
https://newton.wickedlocal.com/news/20200515/newton-offers-housing-business-grants-due-to-coronavirus-crisis
“…The city would hire the Metro West Development Collaborative to assess each applicant by checking eligibility. The company would only be paid for each applicant that is approved and Heath previously said that the upper limit of the administration fee could be about $187,000.
During a May 11 meeting, some councilors were concerned about the amount that would be spent on Metro West’s services, but Heath said the payment was reasonable…”
Bugek- please, the guvmint is working very hard to make sure everyone is happy.
When do the nine baby grand pianos NN ordered get delivered?
Hi all:
I’m looking to do some fishing this summer with my kids. Freshwater or off docks. Any ideas for good fishing holes? Any advice for a good starting rod for kids/young teens would be welcome too.
Lots a families fishing at Crystal Lake
Charles, Are you a proponent of corporate welfare? People should be outraged that the taxpayers routinely take the hit for corporations to stay vibrant and healthy. Is this fair, ethical, and acceptable? I find this recurring practice revolting. Our country is a corpocracy/plutocracy hybrid. These two players hugely compromise the idea that the US is a viable democracy.