10 Comments

1. 

   James on August 24, 2020 at 1:40 pm

   …George Howell Coffee on life support.

2. 

   Bob Kavanagh on August 24, 2020 at 11:05 pm

   Dang I prefer Dunkin’ Donuts

3. 

   Greg Reibman on August 24, 2020 at 11:11 pm

   As predicted, the Austin Street project sure has destroyed the character of this neighborhood. (Insert I’m being sarcastic emoji here.)

4. 

   Dan on August 25, 2020 at 8:00 am

   The Austin St. project is great, the space before was an eye sore, we have now increased store frontage in a key village AND more housing stock!

   But what did ruin Newtonville is the horrible butcher job that they did to the curbs, streets, and sidewalks. It looks terrible and actually looks like maybe they made a mistake in several locations (elevation, grade, and pitch).

5. 

   Rick Frank on August 25, 2020 at 8:45 am

   @Dan are there going to be any trees, we ( my wife and I ) wonder?

   Boy, you can sure get coffee in Newton these days!

6. 

   Sean Roche on August 25, 2020 at 9:12 am

   I’m delighted by how good a neighbor Austin St. is visually, including the streetscape. Great that Caffe Nero is open.

7. 

   Mary Mary Quite Contrary on August 25, 2020 at 9:30 am

   The Caffe Nero storefront looks great. Looking forward to seeing some similarly vibrant looking storefronts pop up on Dunstan Street in my ‘hood.

8. 

   fignewtonville on August 25, 2020 at 12:05 pm

   Caffe Nero has outside seating and the interior has a much different vibe for when things get better and we go back to leisurely coffee breaks. Tons of great seating, couches, comfy chairs. I do hope all three coffee shops survive, they all have a different niche.

   Austin Street apartments could have been better in certain ways, and I’ll have a fuller post about that another day. But all in all, I’m pretty happy about how things turned out.

   As for the Newtonville streetwork, I’d say give it some time. There are a lot of tree pits and landscaping that are planned, but you can’t plant that stuff in the summer. The gravel will be bricks. There are streetlights coming in. There is more paving to be done which handles the grading issues. It is VERY much a construction site. I read the plans a few weeks ago, they are on the city website. I was impressed overall. I wish there was a few fewer parking spaces (and more pocket parks like now exist in front of a few places along Walnut), and I wish I could figure out what the plan was for the bridge over the Pike, and the alleyways to make them better lit and more decorative. But once the lights are in, the trees are planted, and the bricks are in, and the street is marked, I think it will be a great improvement.

   I’m telling myself to be patient….

9. 

   Chuck Tanowitz on August 25, 2020 at 12:19 pm

   Of course, you can no longer get Dunks, since the outlet in Newtonville closed.

10. 

    Donald Ross on August 25, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    @Greg

    I’m not sure why one would celebrate the arrival of an(other) international coffee chain as contributing to the ‘character’ of the neighborhood.

    Hopefully we can get a big Chase Bank branch in there to bring Newtonville up to the standard character of the ‘better’ neighborhoods in Newton (where’s my sarcasm emoji?).