Good morning, friends,

We live in a society so well off that each October, we decorate our porches with vegetables and then literally heave them into the air when done.

But come this Saturday, an estimated 1.1 million Massachusetts families (one in seven residents) are expected to lose public food assistance benefits due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

Of those, 32% are children, 26% are seniors and 31% are people with disabilities.

That includes close to 3,000 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients living in our chamber communities.

• 1310 families in Newton (4.2 % of population)
• 945 families in Watertown (6.4 %)
• 304 families in Needham (2.9 %)
• 185 families Wellesley (2.1 %)

“We are definitely seeing people who used to come maybe once every three months are now coming twice a month,” Sandy Robinson, executive director at the Needham Community Council, which operates the Needham Food Pantry, tells Needham Local.

The United Way of Mass Bay’s United Response Fund was established to rapidly provide resources to mitigate impacts from federal delays in SNAP benefits.  Project Bread's FoodSource Hotline is another good resource.

And here’s a list of food pantries in our communities that need your financial support to meet this moment.

• Newton Food Pantry
• Centre Street Food Pantry
• Watertown Food Pantry
• Watertown Community Fridge
• Wellesley Food Pantry
• Needham Food Pantry
• Needham Community Farm
• Watertown Catholic  Food Pantry

Let me know if there are other local pantries we’ve missed, or about any efforts you’re organizing to help.

Another development emerges in Watertown Square

Last night, Boston-based Triad Group presented preliminary plans for 153 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments as part of a mixed-use development at 45–59 Mount Auburn St.

The site (currently several small mixed-use buildings, a parking lot, a Dunkin’ and M&T Bank) is set to be transformed into a five-story building with approximately 9,800 SF of ground-floor retail and sidewalk improvements.

The project is made possible by Watertown’s ambitious Square Area Plan, which significantly exceeds the requirements of the MBTA Communities Act, allowing Traid to proceed by right and avoid a special permit.

This is the third major development proposed in the square under the new zoning, joining two other large-scale projects currently in the pipeline.

Triad also recently completed Elm Street Labs, a life science project in Watertown.

The next community meeting is Nov. 17.

First Citizens going big in Wellesley

First Citizens Bank has purchased the former Taylor True Value Rental site at 26 Washington St. in Wellesley Lower Falls for $5.5 million.

The bank --  which did not have a Massachusetts presence before its purchase of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 -- may invest another $10 million into the property, including construction of a 15,000-square-foot branch, according to Jon Chesto at the Globe.

The existing First Citizens branch in Wellesley Hills (formerly an SVB branch and, before that, Boston Private Bank) will relocate to the new site in about three years. As many as 40 employees could end up working there.

Taylor Rental moved to Fremont Street in Needham in March after 41 years at the Wellesley site.

Are any of our communities open to this strategy?

Somerville just offered a 10-year, $18 million tax break designed to lure an Andover biotech to a vacant lab building in Assembly Square, reports Banker & Tradesman.

“Somerville has three or four vacant lab spaces, soon to be one fewer hopefully. In the long term, this is going to be a huge deal for Somerville and draw other labs

into the region,” said one city councilor.

Years ago, Needham did something similar to bring Tripadvisor and NBC10 to what was once a mostly deserted office park. I’d be interested in your thoughts on whether we should consider this to lure employers to our chamber communities today.

Keeping up with Newton’s municipal election

Some of the best election reporting in Newton continues to be produced by student journalists at the BC Heights.

That includes Genevieve Morrison’s excellent recap of the controversies surrounding election endorsements and Laney McAden’s exit interview with Mayor Ruthanne Fuller.

Another must-read is the Globe’s reporting about Newton City Council candidate John Chaimanis’ social media comments concerning transgender kids.

There’s also the Globe’s schools editorial I wrote about last week.

Tuesday grab bag

• SharkNinja has signed the GOAT as its latest “product ambassador.”
  
  
• Remix Therapeutics, a 40-employee biotech at 100 Forge in Watertown, hopes initial results from a clinical trial will lead to fundraising and more hiring as it seeks to develop a treatment for a rare cancer that originates in the salivary glands.  (BBJ)
  
  
• Join the Massachusetts Permanent Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities for Meeting the Moment, Nov. 4, 5 p.m. at Needham Town Hall and via zoom. This hybrid event brings together employers, advocates and community leaders to strengthen partnerships that expand employment and access for people with disabilities.
  
  
• Trader Joe’s at Newton Nexus on Needham Street opens next Thursday, Nov. 6.
  
  
• Wellesley businesses: Take a moment to complete a Town Communications Survey to let officials know how you receive information, what works best and how they can improve communications.
  
  
• Join the Massachusetts eHealth Institute on Thurs. (Oct. 30) 1 p.m.) for a virtual info session on its next Primary Care Innovation Challenge, offering $300K in prizes for digital health solutions that reduce administrative burden, workforce burnout and improve access.
  
  
• State Housing Secretary Ed Augustus and Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller host a  Fair Housing Regional Listening Session on Nov. 6, 1 p.m., at Newton City Hall. The goal is to bring together residents, advocates and stakeholders to share experiences, identify barriers to the production and preservation of affordable housing.  RSVP.
  
  
• A small electrical fire briefly disrupted operations at Wanna Hear It Records in Watertown over the weekend.
  
  
• MBTA D Line (Riverside) branch service is suspended through Friday (Oct. 31), replaced by free buses. Framingham/Worcester Line service will be suspended between South Station and Framingham Nov. 1 – 2 and Nov. 8 – 9.
  
  
• ICE agents were at the National Guard armory in Framingham last week without providing the Massachusetts National Guard with “prior notice and without permission." (WBUR)
  
  
• Blue Lotus Healing Arts will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a free community event on Sun. Nov. 2 (9 a.m.–1 p.m.) in Needham featuring yoga, healing sessions, raffles, and more.
  
  
• The main Authors & Innovators Business Ideas Festival event happens on Thursday. But the annual event kicks off tonight (Tuesday) with the screening of a documentary, "Death and Taxes," at the West Newton Cinema, followed by a panel discussion about the resiliency of the Massachusetts and New England regions. Full schedule.

Globe urges Wellesley, state, to ‘get to yes’

Yesterday’s spot-on Globe editorial on the state’s plan to sell part of the MassBay campus to a housing developer offered a welcome call for compromise.

“Potentially, the project could go down the type of oppositional, litigious path that has plagued the MBTA Communities Act,” the editorial reads. “Some Wellesley residents and select board members have discussed at meetings whether they have grounds to sue the state or could use environmental laws to block the project,”

But the editorial instead urges state and town leaders to “get to yes” by crafting a project both sides can be proud of — one that preserves some forested land in exchange for greater housing density.

Adam Baacke, commissioner of the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), told Globe editors, “the state is open to that idea.”

"As in any compromise, residents will not get everything they want. There will be additional use of town resources, whether sewers or schools,” the editorial concludes.

“But new development also means more people will enjoy the benefits of living in an idyllic Boston suburb, and the state will be a little closer to meeting its housing goals. That’s worth celebrating.”

Clarification: In Friday’s newsletter, I incorrectly suggested that the state must follow Wellesley’s inclusionary zoning ordinance at MassBay. The Commonwealth is not required to do so under the Affordable Homes Act, though state officials have told the chamber they plan to follow it voluntarily.

Can Boston Mag please get an Uber or EZPass account

for its food writers?

Finally, it’s hard to believe that not one of Boston Magazine’s recent “Top 50 Restaurants of 2025” is located further west than Brookline, even though we know there are many special places in our chamber communities and west of us. 

Thistle & Leek and MIDA, both in Newton, get pats on the head in a short “No Need to Drive Downtown” sidebar about suburban eateries — a list the magazine editors apparently didn’t think was important enough to publish online.

This is not just a slight. It seems like a bad business decision, given that our ‘burbs are where many of the publication’s coveted high-income readers live…and dine.

And that’s what you need to know for today — National First Responders Day — unless you need to know what happens when you use ChatGPT for everything.

I hope to see you Thursday at the Authors & Innovators Business Ideas Festival. It's free!

Greg Reibman (he, him)

President & CEO

Charles River Regional Chamber

617.244.1688

Max Woolf contributed to today’s newsletter.