Is the Retail Apocalypse Coming to Watertown?

The rise of e-commerce and Amazon has created new challenges in traditional retail space. So far, in 2019, more than 7,000 retailers in the United States have shut their doors. This is according to a report released Sept. 11 by global accounting network BDO USA LLP.

Store closures this year have already surpassed the number of stores closed in 2018, which was just under 6,000. Before the end of 2019, global marketing research firm Coresight Research predicts there could be upwards of 12,000 store closures.

With the fate of brick and mortar uncertain, what does this mean for the not one, but two shopping centers, both located on Arsenal Street in Watertown?

A change in consumer preferences

Many factors are impacting the increase in store closures. Watertown Mall General Manager Pat Stenson and Arsenal Yards developer Tom Wilder pinpointed one in particular, a change in consumer preferences.

More consumers are using the internet to purchase everything from groceries to cars. E-commerce sales have been growing nine times faster than traditional in-store sales since 1998, according to a 2017 report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

As more and more consumers opt to shop online, shopping centers and traditional brick and mortar stores around the country have to adapt or risk shutting down.

“People want an experience when they come to the mall,” Stenson said. “They don’t just want stores and a place to grab something quick to eat.”

Wilder has noticed the same trend. Shopping centers, he said, have to become a destination not just for transactions but for social and cultural experiences.

Give the people what they want

To stay relevant with modern consumers, both the Watertown Mall and Arsenal Yards are ditching traditional retailing.

The Watertown Mall has changed the makeup of their tenancy. The most recent change was to the Registry of Motor Vehicle.

The RMV occupied 6,500 square feet of the mall. After a recent construction project that combined five stores in the mall, it now occupies over 12,000 square feet.

The registry, which was already busy, now brings thousands of people into the mall every day which, Stenson said, creates traffic for the other stores. The mall has also added an upscale dining option, a Chinese restaurant called Joyful Garden, and a new dance studio that will open soon.

The new tenants should increase traffic to the mall, and these are not the only changes coming. Stenson would not give specifics but said there are more changes to come.

A new neighborhood in town

Arsenal Yards’ approach is even more extensive. The site, which used to house the Arsenal Mall, is being redeveloped by the Wilder Companies, where Wilder is a principal, and Boylston Properties. Instead of designing a traditional shopping center, Wilder said they are creating a neighborhood.

Arsenal Yards will have an open-air design and will house a mix of retail and office space, a hotel, and 300 apartments. The new design, which eliminates the old mall, is meant to reinforce Arsenal Yards as a destination, and to ensure every storefront is accessible from the street.

The developers have also focused on finding a diverse variety of tenants. In the past, Wilder said apparel stores could make up 40 to 50 percent of new developments. With the rise of e-commerce, new developments need to diversify what stores and services they offer to consumers.

Focusing on more than apparel, the developers have rented space to a variety of local and regional restaurants, Roche Bros. grocery store, The Majestic Movie Theater, and more. They will also rent out space for fitness classes, such as spin and yoga, as well as personal services, like therapeutic massages and salons.

You cannot get these services online, Wilder said.

A new model of relevancy

E-commerce and the subsequent change in consumer expectations have made their mark on the retail industry. While traditional shopping centers and malls seem to be running their course, both Stenson and Wilder see a place for a new kind of retail space. A space that provides more to consumers than apparel stores and a quick bite to eat.

“I see malls as being relevant for a long, long time,” Stenson said. “Not the way they were relevant, 10 or 20 years ago, but this kind of new model for relevancy.”

Watertown’s Hayley Sutter crawls to qualify for Olympic trials

Hayley Sutter had 30 seconds to cross the finish line if she wanted to qualify for the 2020 Olympic trials. Hurting and fighting to stay conscious, Sutter kept running. 10 seconds left. A few meters away from the finish line, Sutter’s legs buckled. She dropped to the ground. Five seconds left. On her knees, Sutter crawled the last few meters across the finish line.

There are two ways to time a race. Gun time tracks how long it takes a runner to complete the course from when the initial pistol is shot. This method does not consider whether a runner began the race at the start line. Chip time uses radio-frequency identification tags to measure how long it takes a runner to complete the course. RFID mats are placed at the courses’s start and finish line. A runner’s time begins at the moment they cross the mat at the start line and ends when they cross the mat at the finish line. USA Track and Field use gun times to determine who qualifies for the Olympic trials.

There are time variations between the two methods. The difference is less significant in a smaller race but, in a larger, more crowded race, the variances are noticeable. For Sutter, this difference determined whether or not she would qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials.

Houston we have a runner

Sutter remembers the exact date her career in running began. When she was 12 years old, Sutter severed her Achilles tendon.  Sutter recalls sitting in the surgeon’s office, where she was told her she would never run again and would most likely walk with a limp for the rest of her life.

“I am very fortunate that I was a very defiant little girl,” Sutter said. “I remember sitting in that office, thinking ‘I will show you. Don’t tell me what I can’t do’”

A year and a half later, Sutter competed for her middle school track team.

Sutter ran her first full marathon in Houston, at 27 years old, placing 12th overall in women. Sutter learned she was seven and a half minutes away from qualifying for the Olympic trials. She had run the course in 2:52:36. To qualify for the Olympics, she would need to shave her time down to 2:45:00.

The next year she started training with qualifying for the Olympic trials as her goal.

“You just have to get there”

On Dec. 2, 2018, at the California International Marathon, Sutter started off the course well. If she continued at the same pace, Sutter would finish the course in about 2:43:00.

“In the moment I adapted this mindset ‘you are going to do it, you just have to get to the finish line.’” she said. “This became ironic in the later stages of the race, when this became the motto I had to keep telling myself over and over.”

At mile 23, she hit a wall. Her pace had slowed from a 6:12 mile to a 6:38. She kept pushing, but Sutter said wondered if she would even finish the race. If she kept running she knew she could still make the qualifying time. With the finish in sight, she had 30 seconds to run across the line.

“I am trying to sprint as hard as I can because I have 30 seconds, 28, 27, and I can see the clock right there with the time” she said.

A few meters away from the finish line, with the clock ticking, Sutter collapsed. Unable to get back up, she dragged her body across the finish line and crumpled back to the ground.

Sutter’s chip time clocked 2:45:00, but her gun time was 2:45:07. She was seven seconds over the qualifying time. A few hours later, after she recovered, Sutter petitioned the USA Track and Field to accept her chip time.

Sutter and her boyfriend researched her case. They found two cases the previous Olympic cycle similar to Sutter. In both cases, the USATF accepted the runners’ chip scores. About a month after the marathon, Sutter received the news. USATF told her they would accept her chip time. Sutter would be going to the 2020 Olympic trials.

Setting the sights high

The trials will be held Feb. 29, 2020 in Atlanta. Sutter’s goal is not to qualify for the Olympics but to finish in the top 50. The USATF has put out a list showing the athletes who have met the qualifying standards. The list is ranked by time, and Sutter is last on that list.

“It is definitely an audacious goal,” Sutter said “I figure, set the sights high and, even if I don’t make it, I have at least given myself the ability to try to compete my best.”

A motto of relentless positivity

Sutter said a motto of relentless positivity fuels her. It gets her out running when she would rather stay inside, sitting on the couch. It helped her get through a month of not knowing whether she had qualified for the trials. It is what motivated her at 12 years old when the surgeon told her she would never run again, and it is what carried her across the finish line.

To see USATF’s list of athletes who have met the Olympic trials qualifying standards visit: http://www.usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2020/U-S--Olympic-Team-Trials---Marathon/QualifyingStandards/Eligible-List/Women-Marathon.aspx

Watertown is making Common Street safer for pedestrians

Common Street just got safer for pedestrians.

Residents traveling down the street will notice bright orange traffic cones directing cars into a new roundabout at the Common and Orchard streets intersection. Travel further down the street, and residents will notice a new traffic signal at the Spring Street intersection.

These changes are one piece of a larger complete streets project that the Town and the Department of Public Works has undertaken to make traffic conditions in the area safer. (Complete streets are streets that are designed to enable safe use for all users: pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, commuters, etc.)

Making safety a priority

The decision to reconstruct Common Street came to the forefront in 2015. Prior to this, town administrators had discussions about the street’s sidewalks and pavement conditions, as well as various safety concerns in the area.

Town Engineer Matthew Shuman said the project was designed to address multiple issues and concerns. Common Street is a major throughway.  It is also an access point to Watertown High School and, with the many students in the area, there is heavy pedestrian traffic.

In 2015, a public works subcommittee began meeting to discuss how the town could improve the street. The major concern, Shuman said, was getting students to and from school safely, and slowing down traffic at the Common and Orchard Streets intersection.

The town settled on concept that added two noticeable features: the roundabout at the Orchard and Common Streets intersection, and the traffic signal at the Spring and Common Streets intersection. The design also included a northbound bike lane, road repaving, new curbing, and utility improvements.

Common Street is getting more than a face lift

Construction on the project started last year but, even prior to that, National Grid upgraded the gas mains. Shuman said the construction last year focused on the section from Mt. Auburn to Columbia streets.

The road in this section was ripped up and removed using a process called reclamation. Shuman said this process grinds the road in place, and provides a base for new pavement.

“It was not just a face lift. It was a real reconstruction,” he said.

The curbs and sidewalks in this section were also replaced. In the past the DPW had difficulties plowing the sidewalks, because they were so narrow. As a result, the walkways were widened for easier maintenance.

The new traffic signal at the Spring Street intersection, an access point to the high school, was also installed.

Shuman said the traffic signal channels the pedestrian traffic going to and from school, and is probably the safest way for pedestrians to cross the street versus the signal-less crosswalks that were there before.

In addition to these more obvious changes, there was also water, drainage, and electrical work in the area.

What’s happening now?

This summer construction started where the town left off last year at Columbia Street. Early on, the roundabout and a new crosswalk were installed at the Orchard Street intersection.

According to Shuman roundabouts tend to slow driving speeds down and better organized traffic. He said the changes should make traveling to Victory Field and the High School easier for people.

There are inspectors monitoring the traffic to see how everything is functioning.

“I think the sense is that the roundabout is making things safer and slowing down the speeds. It seems to not be having major traffic impacts. So far, we are pleased with it."

Now, curbs and sidewalks are being replaced. Construction this year will go up to Orchard Street.

The project’s completion is slated for next year.

Watertown officer restores a piece of policing history

Parked in the lot behind the Watertown police station is a relic of the past, an old 1991 Ford Crown Victoria police cruiser.

The cruiser, which was used for policing in Arizona, looks brand-new. No one would suspect that a little over a year ago this Crown Vic was in rough shape, covered in chipped paint and barely working.

Officer Michael Hill bought the car in 2018 and has spent the past year restoring the cruiser to its original state.

Born a car guy

Hill remembers having an interest in cars as a kid and said he has always been a car guy. In college, Hill worked at Perfection Auto Body on Pleasant Street, where he picked up the knowledge and mechanical skills needed to do car restorations.

Hill’s interest in restoring old police cars also ties back to his childhood. His father was an officer for the Newton Police Department and, as a kid, Hill would go to the station and play in the old Ford cruisers.

The Arizona cruiser is not the first police car that Hill has restored. He got the idea a few years ago at an event that showcased restored police cruisers.

“I remember seeing the old cars and thinking that is a good idea,” he said.

At the time Hill worked in the Boston Sheriff’s Department, so he bought an old Boston cruiser. Restoring the car took about a year and, after finishing it, Hill sold the cruiser to a collector in New Hampshire.

Restoring the cruiser to its original state

Hill purchased the car for under $2,000 and paid another $1,000 to have it shipped from Arizona to Watertown.

The Arizona cruiser was in rough shape. The paint was so chipped that the “DIAL 911” lettering on the side of the car was illegible.

“Old police cars are pretty much used and abused and then sent to the junkyard,” Hill said.

He had to repaint the exterior and rip out most of the interior, as well as replace some of the older parts. The hardest part of restoring the police cruiser, according to Hill, is finding the parts.

“These cars are not well sought after, so there is not that big of a market for them, and there are not a lot of places that reproduce parts for them,” he said.

Hill used a search engine for mechanics and auto body shops to locate the parts. Most of the parts, he said, came from the South or West where there are fewer issues with salt and subsequent corrosion.

Hill spent a day a week on average working on the car, slowly making repairs and putting it back together. He works odd hours at the police station, but whenever he had some free time he would spend it working on the car.

“It is a stress reliever. Everyone has their own thing. I enjoy working on cars,” he said.

What will happen to the Arizona cruiser?

Hill’s plan for the Arizona cruiser is a little different from the Boston cruiser.

“I will probably end up keeping this for a while anyway, until I get the itch to build a new one,” he said.

Hill plans to show the restored cruiser at various car shows around New England, and will drive it in Watertown’s annual Memorial Day Parade in May.

After working on the car for more than a year, Hill said he is satisfied and will take a break from restoring old cruisers, for now anyway.

Watertown to honor Vietnam War vet Paul Gorman

In 2011, Watertown native and war veteran Bonnie Gorman traveled to Khe Sanh Valley in Vietnam to see Hill 606, the spot where her younger brother Paul had died 51 years earlier.

Today, the area is all beautiful hillside, she said. Bonnie searched and searched, but she never did find Hill 606. Despite this, visiting the site felt therapeutic, Bonnie said.

This week, Paul Gorman will be honored by his home town.

Watertown honors Paul

A few months ago, Marines Joe Derian and James Prendergast got in touch with Bonnie. Derian and Prendergast had both joined the Marine Corps with Paul back in 1967.

The pair told Bonnie they planned to ask the town’s veterans service officer to hold a dedication ceremony for Paul. Derian and Prengergast had requested dedications for other veterans in the past and told Bonnie they had wanted to have one for Paul for some time.

Patrick George, Watertown’s veterans service officer, gave the Marines the go ahead. Bonnie filled out the required paperwork, and the memorial plaque was ordered.

“It has been wonderful to see the Watertown veterans come forward; those from his high school class and those who knew him,” Bonnie said.

Paul joined the U.S. Marines after graduating from Watertown High School in 1967. He was 18 when he was deployed to Vietnam.

“[Gorman] signed up for the Marines at a time when young men sign up as teenagers, not thinking about what the consequences might actually be, and what they are being asked to do,” Bonnie said.

Bonnie also served in Vietnam. She worked for two years in the Vietnam Air Evacuation Hospital network as a military nurse. Bonnie had been studying nursing at Boston College, when she decided to join the military for financial reasons in 1963.

“They had no idea, and neither did I, as to what we were in for,” she said.

In July, 1968 Gorman and his company were defending Hill 606 in the Khe Sanh Valley. At the time, the military saw Khe Sanh as a key region to control Vietnam’s northern provinces. Hill 606 was in an area nicknamed the DMZ, or dead marine zone.

Robert "Bob" Fasano, Paul’s comrade, described how Paul died in a letter he wrote to his wife Donna on July 31, 1968. According to Fasano their company had left for Hill 606 the morning of July 30 and reached the hilltop with no problems.

At around 1 p.m. the first platoon went to patrol at the base of the hill on the opposite side which they came up. The platoon was attacked, and two of their men were killed. They called for help and Paul and Fasano fired back at the enemy’s position.

“Paul was only about 10 to 12 feet from me when he was hit. I watched him fall,” Fasano wrote. “Paul died instantly. The bullet went through his jaw and hit his right side of the neck.”

A lasting impact

Paul’s death rocked the Gorman family. He left behind four older siblings, a mother and a father. Soon after Paul’s death, his mother, Madeline had a massive heart attack.

The heart attack left Madeline to live as an invalid until she died two years later. Bonnie attributes her mother’s heart attack to Paul’s death.

“She died of a broken heart,” Bonnie said.

Bonnie’s losses led her to join peace groups advocating to end the Vietnam War and to prevent future war. Today she works with a number of advocacy groups to provide veterans with access to medical and mental health services.

'An honor for the family'

The shadow of Paul’s death is omnipresent. Over 50 years have passed, and Bonnie’s eyes still brim with tears as she reminisces about her lost brother.

The dedication ceremony, Bonnie said, is an honor for her, her family, and for Paul. To Bonnie, the ceremony will also give Paul’s fellow veterans the opportunity to come together and acknowledge their time and service, and to celebrate that they are still here.

“This is a comfortable venue for men to be able to come and talk about the consequences of war, and their experiences in the war, and to get support. For that, I am very happy,” Bonnie said.

The dedication ceremony takes place on July 12 at 11 a.m. at the intersection of Emerson Road and Main Street. At that time, the town will recognize the intersection, near the house where Gorman grew up, as “Private First Class Paul James Gorman Memorial Square.”

Paul is buried alongside his parents at Ridgelawn Cemetery.

Should Watertown schools require summer reading?

With July 4 in the rear view mirror, and back-to-school around the corner, the time students have to finish their summer assignments is quickly coming to a close.

Summer reading is a norm for many schools in the United States trying to negate the effects of a phenomenon called summer slide.

Summer slide is when students, especially those from low-income families, lose some of the achievement gains they made during the previous school year over the summer.

To avoid this many schools assign summer reading, but the Watertown High School English Language Arts Department found that these requirements were not necessarily helping all of their students.

What happened to summer reading?

Last summer, the ELA Department implemented new summer reading requirements for students. The new requirements are more relaxed and based on the students’ chosen ELA course level.

For college prep classes summer reading is optional, but students can choose to do it for extra credit. The department also scaled back some of the reading expectations for AP and honors students. All senior English courses still require summer reading.

Maureen Regan, the ELA curriculum coordinator for grades six through 12, said the district made the decision after evaluating what had been happening with summer reading at the high school over the years.

“What we were finding was that, regardless of whether [summer reading] was a requirement or an option, there were students who were not doing it,” Regan said.

Before Regan became the department chair, summer reading assignments counted as 10 percent of a student’s first quarter grade. Regan said those students who did not complete the reading found themselves starting the year at a deficit and often became even more embittered about the process of reading.

The department found that tying a grade to summer reading, or punishing those who did not do it had a negative effect on students.

“We found that was punitive and that didn’t really work for our college prep students,” Regan said. “Kids who were inclined to read anyway did so, and the kids who weren’t, it didn’t motivate them to do so.”

A new set of requirements for Watertown students

Over the last decade, the department has implemented various changes to summer reading assignments. Regan said they have tried giving students more choice about what they could read over the summer and even scaled back the grade percentage reading assignments counted for in the first quarter.

Even with these changes the Department found there were still populations of students who were choosing not to do the summer reading.

The department issued surveys to students in an effort to understand why some students were choosing not to complete their summer assignments. Regan said the responses were eye opening and that she thought the results surprised many teachers.

“There were students who were opposed to the idea of summer reading and, no matter what we did, no matter what the consequence was, they were going to choose not to do it,” Regan said.

In the surveys, students wrote about their other responsibilities during the summer months, and other issues that precluded them from being able to select or read a book.

Regan said the department also heard from parents who felt their children were overburdened with the sheer volume of summer work from all the various honors and AP courses.

Another factor the department considered is how technology has impacted students' ability to read long-form texts. Regan said that, with the rise in technology, books can no longer compete in the same way for their students' attention.

All of these factors led the department to implement the new set of summer reading standards last summer. They decided to reward the students who were invested in reading, but not punish those who were not.

“We don’t care what you read, we care that you read.”

The more relaxed requirements have not significantly impacted the number of students choosing to read over the summer. Regan said a few more students did choose to read, but this was in part because some classes now offered extra credit.

Conversations in the department about best practices for summer assignments are ongoing, and they have not settled on a final solution.

“We have tried a number of things over the last decade, and we are still examining where does it work, and how can we get our kids engaged,” Regan said.

In the meantime, the department has implemented other methods during the school year to motivate students to read.

Last year, the department worked in tandem with the High School’s librarian Erin Piazza to create “speed dating for books.” Piazza set up different book stations about the High School Library, with tea and hot cocoa, reminiscent of a cafe, so students could pick up a book, read a few pages, and have time to engage with some of the texts.

“Our hope is that we model that reading is really fun,” Regan said. “In some ways, what we were trying to say to kids is we don’t care what you read, we care that you read. We are hopeful that eventually that message will get through.”

Plumbing Museum gets Reel

Watertown’s Plumbing Museum is paying homage to the town’s namesake with its first-ever film festival.

Next week, June 27-28, the museum will screen 21 short-length films that center around the theme of water. The event is free, so everyone has the opportunity to visit the museum and enjoy some thought-provoking films.

“We want people to build more awareness about the importance of [water] culturally and physically as a resource,”  Museum Program Manager Sasha Parfenova said.

Parfenova is the film festival’s director. She recruited two others, Demitra Papadinis and Paul Taft, to help her organize the festival. The three have worked together on events at the museum in the past. Last summer they staged Theater Playfest, a two-day event, which featured short comedy plays centered around the theme of plumbing. Parfenova said the event worked out well. Playfest ran for two nights, and each night the Plumbing Museum had a full house.

Post-event, Parfenova started to mull over what type of events the museum might host next. When she discussed this with Papadinis, Parfenova said Papadinis was excited about bringing a film festival to the museum. The pair started researching local film festivals and then asked Taft if he would hop on board. He agreed, and the trio started planning.

How did the trio select the films?

At first, Taft said, Parfenova thought they could put the festival together by November.

“I had no idea how much really goes into putting together an event like this,” Parfenova said.

Parfenova soon realized creating a successful festival would take some time. The trio have been planning the June event since early last fall.

One of the first things the team did, Parfenova said, was to come up with an application guide for filmmakers. They decided to limit the entries to short-length films, 30 minutes or less. The trio also decided on water as the theme for the festival.

“We are in Watertown, [FilmFest] is hosted at the Plumbing Museum, so water is the central theme of the festival.” Taft said.

This done, the team put out a call for submissions. The museum received 41 submissions. Reviewing the films was a lot of work, Parfenova said. The team watched the film submissions individually and scored them using a rubric Parfenova developed. The three then came together to make the final selection.

“It was a difficult choice actually deciding which films we would screen,” Parfenova said. “There were really good submissions.”

In the end, they chose 21 films. The films’ genres vary. There are animated films, documentaries, as well as experimental and narrative films. The shortest film, “Sea,” is one minute long and the longest, “Bass by Kayak,” is 30 minutes. The filmmakers hail from Iran, Uzbekistan, Australia, and from the more familiar neighboring city of Cambridge.

“I really feel like we have a strong lineup of films. I couldn’t be prouder of the ability to showcase these films, because I think people are going to walk through the doors and be thoroughly entertained,” Taft said.

The beginnings of a new Watertown tradition

The event is broken up into four sessions over two days. Session one and two will be held Thursday, June 27, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. and 7:45 to 8:45 p.m. Session three and four will be held at the same times respectively Friday June 28.

Taft said the team has worked hard to ensure the festival is legitimate. They want people to feel like they are a part of something, he said, whether they are an audience member, or somebody showcasing their work.

“We want more people to come back next year, because we don’t just want it to be a novelty,” he said.

Parfenova also said she foresees continuing the film festival in the future.

“I hope our festival will inspire other people to be creative and to think outside of the box,” Parfenova said.

To reserve a seat, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/o/the-plumbing-museum-14197500663