Letters to TAB Editor: 12.8.2009

Open Letter to Mayor-elect Warren

For 25 years I have lived in Newton Centre and watched it increasingly taken over by banks, coffee shops and nail salons, and I have watched small businesses which provided valuable service to the city close, including a children’s shoe store, furniture store, an office supply store, a book store, a five-and-ten cent store and a florist, among others. What I have also seen is the center of Newton Centre remains a parking lot instead of a vibrant city center.

There are three public parking lots less than two blocks from Newton Centre. Why not make these ground-level parking lots multi-story?

This would free up Newton Centre for development along the lines of Concord. The city should build a brick arcade with open central plaza similar to those in many towns like Durham, Boston, San Francisco, etc.

And rather than make the rents unaffordable for most small businesses, the city could support a variety of useful businesses in Newton Centre, while creating a promenade open space, and also make Newton Centre a destination for shoppers.

I do not understand why this has not been done, leaving us in the crisis management situation where the area is now a dead zone in the evening with expensive real estate that only a large business that can afford $30,000 overhead per month can afford.

I’m sure this isn’t a new idea. I just don’t understand why a city that has spent so much on one high school, can’t manage to maintain its center.

Anna Dunwell

Park Lane