Good morning,

Welcome to a (one day late) fun-sized edition of Charles River Regional Chamber newsletter.

We’re looking at two pilot programs under review in Newton and why the affordability argument against Ballot Question 7 misses the point.

Plus, the former Turtle Lane playhouse has finally been sold.

Laredo revisits Fuller’s sharing experiments

During her second term, former Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller launched two pilots that took space reserved for cars and shared it with everyone else.

Both were controversial. Both had allies and opponents. Both sparked important conversations about priorities and who public spaces belong to.

Now Fuller’s successor, Marc Laredo, is contemplating altering — or perhaps ditching — both the Washington Street pilot and the Newton Centre Plaza, with meetings about each initiative tonight and tomorrow.

Washington Street road diet meeting on Wednesday

Installed in 2025, the Washington Street road diet wasn’t as grandiose as the mind-blowing vision urban planner Jeff Speck unveiled for the corridor at our Real Estate Forum back in 2017.

But it tested many of the concepts Speck championed: one travel lane in each direction, a center turn lane and a physically separated bike and pedestrian path along the southern curb.

The result? Less speeding. Fewer cars. Fewer crashes. Travel times rose by no more than one minute over the 0.9-mile stretch.

Not everybody is convinced. Critics say the lane reduction has made driving and parking worse, hurt nearby businesses that rely on deliveries and curbside access and was a costly experiment that never came with funding to make any of the changes permanent.

Oh, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who liked those massive planters, which Laredo has since removed.

Tonight (Wed.) at 6 p.m., the adminstration will “share some conceptual designs for potential changes at the Cooper Center, 345 Walnut St., and on Zoom.

Newton Centre Plaza meeting on Thursday

After a botched rollout, Fuller used federal pandemic dollars to build a smaller-than-originally-planned Newton Centre Plaza in 2025.

Newton Centre businesses and visitors worried about the loss of parking and some say it’s still a problem. Others say they’ve come to appreciate the way it’s brought new visitors to the area, with most respondents in a  city survey, saying they visited a nearby business while using the amenity.

The administration and some councilors have proposed moving the parklett to the adjacent Newton Centre Green. Others say that wouldn’t be accessible for people with disabilities.

Perhaps a compromise that restores some parking while expanding onto the Green is in order?

Tomorrow (Thurs.) at 6 p.m., Laredo hosts a community meeting to explore “ideas for a more permanent gathering space while considering ways to provide greater parking flexibility for local businesses, customers, and visitors” at 1294 Centre St. and on Zoom.

Turtle Lane comes out of its shell for 6.5 M

The troubled property that was once home to the Turtle Lane Playhouse in Auburndale has finally sold at auction, for $6.5 million.

The winning bidder’s identity is not yet public, but attendees told Fig City News it’s Dan McAuliffe, president of Newton-based Trillennium Services, a general contracting company.

Under MBTA Communities zoning adopted in 2023, the site now has the potential for several dozen housing units, many more than the 16 units approved earlier.

In 2023, McAuliffe’s Trillennium partner, Benny Arpino, ran a write-in campaign for Newton City Council after loudly opposing that same zoning for Nonantum.

Grab bag

• Our condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Jim Boyd, WCVB-TV news anchor, reporter and Needham resident.
  
  
• The lab building at 23 Elm Street in Watertown has landed its first tenant: Kano Therapeutics. The property was developed by The Triad Group and purchased by VC firm Shannon Life Sciences in 2024.  (Watertown bio)
  
  
• RMR Group is hosting a community meeting tomorrow (Thurs), 6:30 p.m. on its proposed redevelopment of 9 Galen Street in the heart of Watertown Square. In person at the Parker building or via Zoom.
  
  
• Startup accelerator MassChallenge is moving just about one good Drake Maye pass away from the Brookline line. (Globe)
  
  
• Wellesley Square's newest art gallery, Clarendon Fine Art, is celebrating its opening with a launch party Thursday, Nov. 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. Explore the gallery's collection, music and welcome the business to Wellesley.
  
  
• There will be no Green Line service between North Station and Babcock Street on the B branch, or at Kenmore on the C and D branches, and at Heath Street on the E branch this weekend. (WCVB)
  
  
• Watertown’s City Council President Mark Sideris and City Manager George Proakis will present the Watertown State of the City address tonight (Wed.), 6 p.m. in the City Council Chamber and live on WCA-TV.
  
  
• Miss the mai tais at Watertown’s now-closed China Rainbow? So did Darryl Grant. He talked the Rainbow’s owner into sharing her secret recipe. Now he serves it at Maple + High in Waltham. (Globe)
  
  
• Chris Steele has written as good an explanation as you’ll find of how Massachusetts’ housing crisis was created and how to reverse it.
  
  
• And Eastern Bank’s Bob Rivers put a human spin on Question 7 by looking back at the two-bedroom Cape he grew up in that wouldn’t be allowed in his hometown today.
  
  
• Brookline.news spoke with Israeli expats from Brookline and Newton who joined thousands from the U.S. to cast ballots in yesterday’s Israeli elections.
  
  
• The Weston Select Board declined to include HYM’s proposed senior housing development on Regis College land on the upcoming town meeting warrant. The project would have included a total of 215 townhome, independent living and memory care units. (Weston Observer)
  
  
• Gotta love this tour of Brookline from MeetBoston.

Starter homes vs. McMansions

There’s been a lots of debate surrounding Question 7’s potential impact on housing affordability in our communities.

Specifically, opponents argue that despite the ballot question’s “starter homes” branding — capping minimum lot sizes at 5,000 SF — won’t actually create starter homes.

New analysis from housing advocate Jonathan Berk, along with reporting from the Globe’s Andrew Brinker, helps explain why that criticism doesn’t tell the whole story.

Looking at homes sold in Newton and Wellesley (charts at link) over the past five years, Berk found that houses on smaller lots were generally smaller and less expensive.

Now, a $1.2 million house might not qualify as a starter home by most definitions. But the high price tag reflects the pent-up demand to live in our west suburban communities after decades of underbuilding.

In other words, a new home created around here under this zoning change will likely be less expensive than the alternative. That’s at least a step in the right direction — and a lot better than filling our neighborhoods with McMansions, which is what we too often get when developers can build only one home on expensive land.

Consider a house on Beethoven Avenue in Waban, highlighted by Brinker: A relatively modest home, valued at $1.5 million last year, was recently torn down and replaced with a nearly 5,500 SF home now listed for $4.3 million.

Under Question 7, that same property could have accommodated two smaller homes instead, giving twice as many families a chance to move or stay in Newton.

Crying foul over the “starter homes” label and asking “Where are the affordable homes?” misses the point. It’s an argument for keeping a broken status quo that’s mansionizing our neighborhoods.

Please vote YES on Question 7.

That’s what you need to know for today —  National First Responders Day — unless you need to know are you earning more, or less, than others your age.

Max Woolf will be here on Friday.

Greg Reibman (he, him)

President & CEO

Charles River Regional Chamber

617.244.1688

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Max Woolf contributed to today’s newsletter.