Government

Public Sees Visions for Renovation Coolidge Square, Weighs In on Project

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Town officials invited the public to come give its ideas for how to redesign and improve Mt. Auburn Street in the area of Coolidge Avenue, while making the area more efficient for motor vehicles, buses, bicycles and pedestrians. Currently, the street has two lanes of traffic in each direction and parking on both sides of the street, but no dedicated bike lanes. Some ideas for changing the street include cutting the number of lanes of traffic to one each way with left turn lanes at intersections, adding bike lanes and making sidewalks wider in some places to allow easier crossings for pedestrians. Planning for all modes of transportation is known as Complete Streets.

Coolidge Square

UPDATED: See the Concept for Redesigning Mt. Auburn St. in Coolidge Square, Give Input Tuesday

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{Updated Jan. 29, 2018 at 10:45 a.m. The plans previously posted are out of date, and maps will be available to review at the meeting on Jan. 30.} 

The Department of Public Works will host an open house on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018 to discuss the plans to change the layout of Mt. Auburn Street in Coolidge Square. 

The project is part of the greater effort to redesign Mt.

Coolidge Square

Discuss Plans to Redesign Mt. Auburn Street in East Watertown at DPW Open House

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Find out about plans to redesign Mt. Auburn Street through the business district of East Watertown and share your thoughts at a meeting hosted by the Watertown Department of Public Works on Jan. 30, 2018. The Watertown DPW sent out the following announcement:

COOLIDGE SQUARE OPEN HOUSE  for a Mount Auburn Street Project Update
Date: Tuesday, January 30, 2018  
Snow Date: Wednesday, February 7, 2018*
Time: 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Location: The Apartments at Coolidge School – Auditorium 319 Arlington Street, Watertown
Visitor parking is available in the front of the building and additional spaces are behind the building along the fence. All other spots are for residents only.

Around Town

Take a Culinary, Historical and Shopping Tour of East Watertown

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Explore the rich history, culture and cuisine of Watertown’s Coolidge Square in a special tour presented by Live Well Watertown and the Watertown Recreation Department.  

The tour of the East End/Coolidge Square Shopping Area will be on Thursday, Aug. 18, from 6-7:30 p.m.

Leading the tours will be an expert on Watertown history and someone who has taught classes in healthy cooking. Audrey Jones Childs is Vice President of the Historical Society of Watertown, a third generation East End resident, and a History of Watertown Lecturer. Ilana Hardesty has taught healthy cooking programs in Greater Boston for many years and is now enrolled as a student in the Gastronomy program at Boston University.

Business

Artemis Yoga Studio Brings New Life to Building in East Watertown

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The storefront on Mt. Auburn Street in Coolidge Square next to Dunkin Donuts sat quietly for a few years, but now it has been refreshed and has a new life as a yoga studio. 

Owner Liz Padula opened Artemis Yoga in mid-December after completely renovating the former oriental rug shop. The studio offers two spaces for yoga, one on the ground floor and one in the basement. Artemis offers a variety of classes for people with a range of experience. “I hear that all the time – I am not flexible, I have no experience,” Padula said.

Around Town

Watertown’s John Airasian’s ‘Love Letter’ to Coolidge Square

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East Watertown native John Airasian was asked to give a history of Coolidge Square during the celebration of the new mural in the area. He provided a wealth of memories along with the history of the square in his speech – or love letter, if you will. Here are his remarks, which he supplemented with some stories during the celebration on Sept. 19, 2015.:

Coolidge Square is the heart of East Watertown and that heart has always beat strong and it keeps getting stronger. Let me take you back to the late ’40s and the ’50s in Coolidge Square.

Around Town

Watertown Art Students Bring Life to Wall in Coolidge Square

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A group of Watertown High School students have transformed a once gray wall in East Watertown now overflows with colorful fruit, vegetables and flowers. The mural went up on the wall next to Uncommon Grounds at the corner of Mt. Auburn Street and Melendy Avenue. This is the third collaboration between students from Watertown High School and artist Gregg Bernstein. The first two – the first along the path between Whites and Waverly avenues and second on Baptist Walk in Watertown Square – were large walls.

Development

Watertown Man Appealing CVS Development Drops Suit

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{Updated May 29 at 11:14 a.m.}

The man who filed an appeal against the Zoning Board of Appeal’s decision to approve the CVS in Coolidge Square has dropped his suit in State Land Court after an agreement deal with the developer. David Peckar lives on Wells Avenue, across the street from the back of the proposed CVS at the corner of Mt. Auburn and Arlington streets. He filed suit against the project saying that that project would negatively impact his home and neighborhood (see details here). He recently told his neighbors that he had dropped the suit.