Watertown Square Revitalization!

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Hello Everyone,

Wow! A city government who is actually listening to all stakeholders (housing, open space, transportation, small businesses) and planning a revitalization project that leaves no one behind.

Allston Brighton residents will be so pleased to have another destination to patronize in Watertown.

Tony 

P.S. Don't forget, the city government also took action on behalf of arts and culture stakeholders:

"Designated by the Mass Cultural Council in 2024, the Watertown Cultural District creates an enriching and vibrant arts and culture destination for those who live, work, or play in Watertown. The Cultural District is key to energizing Watertown Square by providing an environment that nurtures and supports creativity and artistic expression. The Cultural District will serve as an inclusive community hub for the arts and cultural events throughout Watertown. The Watertown Cultural District is governed by the Cultural District Partnership, a public-private committee of city entities, non-profits, businesses, and artists." 

Next possible step for Watertown Square unveiled

Watertown’s ambitious plan to transform Watertown Square is moving forward on multiple fronts.

Several multi-family housing projects are in the pipeline or underway, thanks to new zoning. Consulting teams are helping reconfigure the streetscape. A landscape architect team will be selected to incorporate many open spaces.  And U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, just secured a $500,000 grant to help with costs.

Last night, City Manager George Proakis presented yet another element: a potential public-private partnership to develop a parking garage with ground-floor retail, market-rate housing and public space built on parking lots and adjacent parcels behind Main Street.

The garage itself could add up to 100 parking spaces (the overall plan already adds street parking), something Proakis stressed is essential for restaurants and retailers to succeed (and we agree). Incremental tax revenue from the new housing would help support the garage and public space.

Proakis repeatedly stressed that nothing’s been decided. As with earlier Watertown Square efforts, there will be oodles of public engagement, starting with a May open house.

But then, in a twist, Proakis ended his presentation, suggesting the city may already have a partner for the effort:  Hg80 Real Estate, a firm Proakis got to know when he worked in Somerville and its principals developed Assembly Row.

He said Hg80 has been in talks with the city and with property owners whose parcels would need to be acquired to make a residential project possible. That could squelch competition, but also make it feasible.

This project would be a demonstration project for future revitalization efforts under the city council’s authority, potentially sparking a much larger transformation.

[Barbara Parmenter]

Thank you for sending this, Tony. I think the key here is that Watertown has a city government that is focused on Watertown, and Watertown Square is such an important Center. 

Allston-Brighton has more than double the population of Watertown (close to 80,000 people vs Watertown 36,000). Anywhere else, we would be a good size city. But we seem to have a city government that seems to see us as a place where college students live, and a few long time homeowners over in the far west of the neighborhood, and and basically no one else.

If we want the kind of vision that Watertown is developing, we are really going to have to show up and advocate loudly for it.

Sorry, I'm pretty jaded by the Jackson Mann issue right now as I think many of us are! If people haven't heard about it, check out this Instagram reel by Nikhil Dasgupta, write the Mayor, and show up at the rally on April 14th: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWy1x8BgIRc/?igsh=eHJoZmt6YmprdnBz

Barbara 

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[Barbara Parmenter]

In regards to parking, notice the potential proposal for a parking garage is a public-private partnership. So Watertown, and presumably Watertown taxpayers, will be deciding this. It's not a tax on private housing development that too often requires more parking than is needed, needlessly making housing more expensive than it already is.

As I said in an earlier post, parking should be managed by the city, which can be done in a variety of ways, but typically includes charging for it. When there's a cost to drivers, that typically results in more efficiency of use. So that drivers get the spaces they need, and our community doesn't suffer from an overabundance from an of parking asphalt.

I would be very happy to see the City of Boston engage in better parking management. 

Barbara Parmenter 

On Tue, Apr 7, 2026, 11:22 AM Eva Webster <evawe...@comcast.net> wrote:

Note that in Watertown Square they’re planning a parking garage and ample on-street parking – since both are essential to bringing people into the area to make the businesses successful, and to generally make life easier for the vast majority of road users who cannot bicycle everywhere.

 

But “parking” seems to be a bad word for some planners in Boston (though perhaps some re-thinking is slowly emerging on that).  Still, a small but disproportionally vocal group of A-B residents who never miss an opportunity to argue against parking, is trying hard to influence planning, zoning, and development in our neighborhood to fit their agenda.

 

When you’re young, energetic, healthy, single, live in a small rental in a structure that your landlord maintains, and you have time to use public transit that fortunately happens to take you to your place of employment – then, parking is not essential. (Been there, done that myself when I lived in NYC – though the NYC expansive subway system was an important factor in that – and something we don’t have in A-B and most of Boston.)

 

But whether you like it or not, life takes everyone through phases where their needs change – and this is what the anti-car crowd doesn’t understand. They don’t get it that A-B is not just for them. They refuse to admit and accept that their preferred lifestyle is not something that all neighborhood residents can have or want for themselves.

 

 

From: "cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com" <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tony Disidoro <anthony...@msn.com>
Reply-To: "cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com" <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 9:48 AM
To: "cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com" <cleveland-cir...@googlegroups.com>, AllstonBrighton2006 <allstonbr...@googlegroups.com>, Brighton Allston Community Coalition <bacommunit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Cleveland-Circle] Watertown Square Revitalization!

 

Hello Everyone,

 

Wow! A city government who is actually listening to all stakeholders (housing, open space, transportation, small businesses) and planning a revitalization project that leaves no one behind.

 

Allston Brighton residents will be so pleased to have another destination to patronize in Watertown.

 

Tony 

 

P.S. Don't forget, the city government also took action on behalf of arts and culture stakeholders:

 

"Designated by the Mass Cultural Council in 2024, the Watertown Cultural District creates an enriching and vibrant arts and culture destination for those who live, work, or play in Watertown. The Cultural District is key to energizing Watertown Square by providing an environment that nurtures and supports creativity and artistic expression. The Cultural District will serve as an inclusive community hub for the arts and cultural events throughout Watertown. The Watertown Cultural District is governed by the Cultural District Partnership, a public-private committee of city entities, non-profits, businesses, and artists." 

 

 

Next possible step for Watertown Square unveiled

 

 

 

Watertown’s ambitious plan to transform Watertown Square is moving forward on multiple fronts.

 

Several multi-family housing projects are in the pipeline or underway, thanks to new zoning. Consulting teams are helping reconfigure the streetscape. A landscape architect team will be selected to incorporate many open spaces.  And U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, just secured a $500,000 grant to help with costs.

 

Last night, City Manager George Proakis presented yet another element: a potential public-private partnership to develop a parking garage with ground-floor retail, market-rate housing and public space built on parking lots and adjacent parcels behind Main Street.

 

The garage itself could add up to 100 parking spaces (the overall plan already adds street parking), something Proakis stressed is essential for restaurants and retailers to succeed (and we agree). Incremental tax revenue from the new housing would help support the garage and public space.

 

Proakis repeatedly stressed that nothing’s been decided. As with earlier Watertown Square efforts, there will be oodles of public engagement, starting with a May open house.

 

But then, in a twist, Proakis ended his presentation, suggesting the city may already have a partner for the effort:  Hg80 Real Estate, a firm Proakis got to know when he worked in Somerville and its principals developed Assembly Row.

 

He said Hg80 has been in talks with the city and with property owners whose parcels would need to be acquired to make a residential project possible. That could squelch competition, but also make it feasible.

 

This project would be a demonstration project for future revitalization efforts under the city council’s authority, potentially sparking a much larger transformation.

 

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[partslar...@aol.com]

Eva,

Maybe you are missing the point. Those who are planning A-B do NOT want families, elderly or those that want to venture beyond the T-stop access points. Designing for a car-free agenda requires exclusion to be successful. This is something you need to accept by adapting to for the greater good or else migrate.

For what it is worth.

Michael

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[Tyler Gabrielski]

A dedicated parking garage, especially one that is mixed use, is the "least bad" form of additional parking. That being said, I hope that the folks who are always extremely concerned about traffic whenever a housing development is built will take an equally hard look at the increased traffic demand that comes with an additional 100 parking spots. Overall though this looks to be a good project.

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