Home Care In Newton Lower Falls, MA

A judge has temporarily reduced escalating fines against the Newton Teachers Association, which has been on strike since Jan. 19, closing schools for almost 12,000 students.

After a hearing Friday, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Christopher Barry-Smith said that a further escalation of fines for the striking union might “undermine effective and fair collective bargaining.”

The union has already been fined $375,000 for its strike, which is illegal under Massachusetts law. Judge Barry-Smith ruled that daily, $50,000 fines would resume Monday night at 8 p.m. until a deal is reached.

Newton’s is the longest educator strike thus far in a statewide wave that began in Malden and Haverhill in the fall of 2022.

The sense of delay has bred acrimony on both sides of the contract dispute.

In a statement sent Friday, members of Newton’s nine-member school committee accused the union of inflexibility. Committee members wrote that in recent days they have put forward new proposals on aides’ working hours and parental leave — but that leadership of the Newton Teachers Association, or NTA, “rejected this and failed to [make] a counteroffer.”

“We are asking the NTA to compromise and collaborate,” the committee members wrote. They said they would submit proof of their “good-faith participation in the mediation every day” to the Superior Court, while, they argued, “the NTA has not moved from its original positions on major issues.”

Union educators have made similar claims since the strike began last week, pointing out that the contract dispute dates back to October 2022. They also noted that the Newton district shared anti-union posts on social media before deleting them hours later.

While lawyers for the union were in court, Newton students led a rally in the rain Friday in support of their teachers, followed by a march to the Newton Education Center, where negotiations are taking place.

After sitting in on what he called “frustrating” negotiations Thursday night, David Bedar — a history teacher at Newton North High School and union spokesman — went to bed “livid.” But Friday’s rally was uplifting.

Citing the “overwhelming” support of families and neighbors, Bedar said, “Nothing is going to stop us from doing what’s right for the students and educators of Newton, and doing what it takes to settle a fair contract.”

As public-sector employees, public school teachers are barred from striking under Massachusetts law. As such, the current work stoppage in Newton has persisted in the face of staggering fines, which climbed to $200,000 per day as of 8 p.m. Thursday night.

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Those funds – totaling $375,000 after Friday’s closure – are being assessed against the roughly 1,700-member Newton Teachers Association.

According to the latest available federal tax filings from the union, it held roughly $750,000 in assets as of 2022.

Union president Michael Zilles said as early as Wednesday that “the plan of the judge is to exhaust our reserves by the end of the week, on Friday.”

At that same appearance, Zilles pledged to continue the stoppage in spite of the mounting fines. “We are out on strike until we get a contract that our members will feel, our community will feel, was worth it,” he said.

Those words appeared again Friday in an affidavit filed with Middlesex Superior Court by Anna Nolin, the superintendent of the Newton Public Schools.

Nolin wrote that those six days will have to be made up, especially for students with disabilities entitled to a set amount of learning time. She noted that a week of “compensatory services” could cost the district over $270,000.

“The biggest sticking point is that the Newton School Committee refuses to bargain with us,” Zilles added at a press conference Thursday night. “This is an exercise in trying to beat the proud members of the Newton Teachers Association into the ground.”

Wednesday was the only day that the union and the school committee reported any progress in negotiations — on what Zilles called a “more modern and humane” parental-leave policy for educators. Those discussions involved the union’s request to increase the cost of living adjustment. But progress seemed to stall again as of Thursday.

Some elected officials have shown support for the striking teachers, including Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, who visited the district Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has called for an end to the labor action.

On WBUR’s Radio Boston Friday, Healey said she’d “like to see them back in the classroom, even while they’re negotiating, because, honestly, our kids are suffering — families are suffering.”

Healey also repeated her support for the existing state law that bars public-sector strikes. Teachers’ unions, including the NTA, often argue that strikes are the only way to force districts to bargain in good faith, sometimes months or years after a prior contract has expired.

The union has scheduled its latest solidarity rally for 1 p.m. Saturday, while negotiations will continue through the weekend, at a fevered pitch.

Kelly Henderson, who teaches English at Newton South High School, said Friday night that “in the next 48 hours, there are no minutes that your educators are going to spend doing anything other than getting kids back in the classroom on Monday.”

The development planned for the 15 acre piece of land next to the Riverside MBTA station just got a little smaller.

NEWTON, MA — The development planned for the 15 acre piece of land next to the Riverside MBTA station just got a little smaller. Following concerted pushback by some residents Mark Development scaled back plans for its project Friday, reducing the overall footage of its proposal by 209,000 square feet.

The new project would be 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial and rather than be 1,234,000 sq. ft., it would be 1,025,000 sq. ft., according to the proposal. It would also establish maximum heights and minimum setbacks along the Grove Street corridor.

"Over the past several months, Mark Development has been engaged in extended discussions with representatives of the Lower Falls Improvement Association ('LFIA') in an effort to craft amendments which will be reasonably acceptable both to the developer and to the LFIA," Stephen Buchbinder said in a letter to the city council. "The developer is submitting the revised proposed text amendments today in order to have the same considered by the Zoning and Planning Committee at its meeting this coming Monday evening."

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Those opposed to the project say the development will forever change the face of Newton and fear the leafy corner of Newton will become too citified, complaining of noise issues, too tall of buildings and traffic.

The Lower Falls Improvement Association's group "Right Size Riverside," which is against the proposal, points out there are 499 housing units in all of Newton Lower Falls.

Following pushback over the summer, the developer trimmed those plans to more than 1.2 million square feet with 524 housing units making it 11 buildings, including a garage.

The project would also include a replacing the Hotel Indigo, office space and retail and more than 2,000 parking spaces.

This comes as a number of developments are proposed across the city, including an 800 unit development in Newton Upper Falls, which is the largest of its kind the city has seen in recent memory. It also comes amid a rezoning of the city.

From the letter:

There's more:

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).

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Newton’s City Council has approved a roughly 1 million-square-foot development at the MBTA’s Riverside Station that would bring 582 apartments, a hotel, stores, and offices next to the Newton Lower Falls transit stop.

Mark Development and Normandy Real Estate Partners plan 10 buildings on 13 acres, including the station’s parking lot on Grove Street and the nearby Hotel Indigo property.

In two votes late Monday night, the 24-member council unanimously approved a special permit and zoning changes for the project to move forward, following about two hours of discussion.

Robert Korff, the principal of Mark Development, praised city officials in a statement Tuesday and called the votes a clear reflection of nearly three years of “hard work, creativity, and compromise.”

“As a result of this collaborative effort, the city will gain much needed new housing, including a significant number of affordable units, and commercial space,” Korff said. “Equally importantly, it transforms an unattractive parking lot into a new neighborhood that contributes to the vitality of the City we all call home.”

Work is due to start with a parking garage in 2022. Overall, construction is likely to last five to 10 years, according to the developer.

The development approved Monday would have 480 market-rate apartments and 102 affordable units, according to the city.

The project was first proposed in 2018, and Monday night’s votes were the result of negotiations between developers, residents, and city officials, who hammered out a final plan that scaled back the initial pitch.

Joshua Krintzman, a councilor-at-large representing Ward 4, including Newton Lower Falls, said during the meeting that the Riverside project would increase the city’s housing stock, improve access to the train station, and bring much-needed vitality to the area.

“I definitely remain concerned about some of the impacts that this will have, but I am hopeful the developer will be true to their obligations and mitigate problems when they arise, and all in all, I will be supporting this item,” Krintzman said shortly before councilors voted.

The Lower Falls Improvement Association Riverside Committee, which represented residents who raised concerns about the development, praised neighbors and city officials for their involvement in the project and credited Mark Development for meeting with the group and negotiating in good faith. The group’s statement said it will continue to advocate for the community during construction.

“While we succeeded in reducing the overall size of the project and working out many details, the 10 building, 1.025 million square foot development approved tonight essentially creates a new Newton village," the statement said. "Nonetheless, this is what compromise looks like.”

A critic of the project has been the Woodland Golf Club, located across the street, which raised objections about noise and dust from construction and whether reflected sunlight from buildings would burn the grass.

Lisa Mead, the attorney representing the club, told the Globe in an e-mail Monday that Mark Development and Woodland continue to have “productive, private discussions,” adding that “We have continued to make progress and our discussions are continuing.”

The project would include a 10-story building with about a quarter-million square feet of office space, including 7,500 square feet reserved for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. A new hotel building of six stories and 77,000 square feet also would be part of the project.

The 582 rental apartments would be distributed among the remaining eight buildings, ranging in height from four to eight stories. The project’s roughly 39,000 square feet of retail space would be split among five of the residential buildings, the city said.

Forty-four apartments would be set aside for households that earn 50 percent of the median income in Newton, which is about $113,000 for a family of four.

Another 43 apartments would be set aside for households earning 80 percent of the median income. The other 15 apartments would be for households earning 100 percent of the area’s median income, the city said.

The development also calls for 1,971 garage parking spaces and 42 surface parking spots.

The project would offer more than 1.5 acres of public open space and improved bicycle access, according to the city.

Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, in a statement earlier this month, said Mark Development will also finance a new exit ramp off of Interstate 95 northbound and a new roundabout at the intersection Grove Street and the highway’s southbound exit ramp.

The city will also receive $7.2 million in mitigation funds, including $1.5 million for the Williams School, she said.

Monday’s votes constituted something of a déjà vu moment. In 2013, the then-Board of Aldermen approved a 600,000 square-foot project for the site following years of debate and review.

That earlier project, sought by Normandy Real Estate Partners, was never built. Developers later said it had been scaled back and was not financially feasible at the smaller size.

In 2018, Normandy joined up with Mark Development, which has been active in projects along Washington Street, to propose a Riverside project that incorporated the nearby Hotel Indigo property.

The second iteration of a Riverside development was also scaled down from its initial proposal, which included about 660 residential units and an 18-story tower to house a hotel and condos, and a 14-story building with office space.

The MBTA praised Monday’s decision in a statement from spokesman Joe Pesaturo that said the T "looks forward to seeing this Transit Oriented Development project become a reality.”

Jon Chesto of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

As more people move to the Greater Boston area, there's more demand for housing, which means the cost of homes goes up. And housing experts say it’s partly up to the suburbs to develop more affordable housing to address that.

But when it comes to new developments in the 'burbs, the most hotly debated issue is density.

At a public hearing in Newton last week on a proposal for a huge new housing and commercial development, some community members who spoke said they see density as a solution to the city's housing problems. Dense housing, these residents said, creates a more vibrant community atmosphere, enables more use of mass transit, and helps reduce the city's impact on climate change.

But for others, even those who want to see more housing built, the question is — how dense is too dense? Opponents of the proposal said they are concerned the housing development would overwhelm surrounding communities and create a “traffic nightmare.”

Right now,one site that's proposed for development isn't much to look at. It’s a huge parking lot for the Riverside T stop at the end of the Green Line's D branch.

Randy Block and Liz Mirabile are members of a community association in Newton’s Lower Falls neighborhood, which is okay with this site being developed. But they're not happy with the scale of the proposal, they say.

"It brings an urban setting to a suburban town,” said Block.

“We have 499 housing units in all of Lower Falls, and 675 residential units are being considered for this development,” said Mirabile. “This [new development] is on 14.4 acres, and Lower Falls is on 200 plus acres.”

Newton's mayor, Ruthanne Fuller, said the city plans to require about 100 of the new development's units to be affordable. And in order to do that, the developers need to add more market-rate units to keep the project profitable.

"That tends to lead developers to have taller buildings and more units in one place,” said Fuller. “Plus, when you combine it with a place like Newton that has high land costs to begin with, the two together often mean that there are more units in one place than otherwise."

A study published last week by the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance says if Newton does allow the Riverside development and several other proposals, it will join a ring of cities and towns around Boston — including Chelsea, Somerville, Revere and others — that are seeing some growth in multi-family housing.

"There's been a movement to allow multi-family housing and our historic commercial centers, the town centers, village centers and downtowns," said the study’s author, Amy Dain.

But, she said, most of those developments were for 10 units here or 20 units there.

"In our region, there's demand for hundreds of thousands of new dwelling units," Dain said. And, she added, we’re not close to meeting that demand.

Housing economist Jeffrey Zabel of Tufts University said the only way we’re going to get there is if the state steps up and makes it happen.

A law called 40B pressures cities and towns to have 10 percent of their housing stock be affordable. As of 2017, less than 20 percent of Massachusetts cities and towns met that. And Zabel said one way to spur more affordable housing growth is to change that threshold.

"You could raise the percentage of affordable housing that that the towns would have to meet,” Zabel said. “Or you could loosen up the density restrictions that that towns have established to allow for higher density building."

Those density restrictions are set by the individual cities and towns. And to change that kind of zoning requires the support of two-thirds of the local government body — not just a simple majority, like most votes. Governor Charlie Baker wants to see that changed.

"There were a whole series of really good projects representing probably thousands of units of housing that all went down this spring, not because they weren't supported by a majority of whatever it was — town meeting, board of selectmen, city council — but because they couldn't get two-thirds," Baker said recently.

Baker is pressing for the state legislature to pass a bill that would allow local governments with a simple majority to make the kind of zoning changes necessary to build more dense housing developments.

For now, though, those zoning changes still require a two-thirds vote. And in Newton, to the relief of some and disappointment of others, it’s not clear if the city council can meet that high bar.

The Postal Service's Operation Santa program wants to help ensure kids have a magical holiday. But they need to send letters soon.

|Updated Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 8:46 am ET

NEWTON, MA —As guardians struggle with unexpected medical bills, job loss and food shortages, their children could also wake up on Christmas morning to discover Santa missed their homes. However, the U.S. Postal Service is hoping to help make the holidays a little more merry for kids whose families have been affected by hardships this year.

For the first time, the Postal Service is taking its Operation Santa program nationwide. The program, which dates back to 1912, encourages kids from across the country to write letters to “Santa.” Once the letters are received and posted online, others are encouraged to “adopt” and respond to one or more letters of their choosing.

"Through the years, the program grew and took on a life of its own," the USPS wrote on its website. "Today, customers can go online to browse through the letters and, if one touches them, they can adopt it and help the child have a magical holiday."

Anyone in the United States is allowed to write a letter, regardless of religion or denomination, according to the Postal Service’s website. Letters requesting clothes and shoes should include sizes and colors. Those requesting toys, games and books should be specific.

1) Any family with a child who wants to write to Santa should use this “official” address:

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2) Write your full name and return address in the upper left corner of the envelope. Then, apply a first-class stamp in the upper right.

3) Letters will be posted to the USPSOperationSanta.com website. Letter adoptions open on Dec. 4.

4) Drop the letter off at your nearest Post Office:

5) All letters should be postmarked by Dec. 15. Once letters are received, they will be uploaded and made available for adoption. The sooner your letter is received, the more likely it is to be answered.

According to the Postal Service’s website, there will be no in-person letter adoptions this year because of the pandemic. Instead, participants are encouraged to share their personal experiences on social media using the hashtag #USPSOperationSanta.

More details on writing and adopting letters through the Operation Santa program can be found at USPSOperationSanta.com.