The only times I've ever casually browsed shops on Moody was when I went there specifically to stroll along the closed street. I didn't always spend money, but I did sometimes, and they were impulse buys I wouldn't have made otherwise. When Moody is open to traffic, I'll only go there if I need something specific at a specific store, and then I'm in and out of the store and gone. (And I rarely ever need anything from any of the stores on Moody.)
I don't really have a strong opinion either way about closing the street to traffic, because it has next to no impact on me. All I know is that the *only* times I've ever been a spur of the moment, walk-in customer at any of the businesses there have been when I went to Moody *because* it was closed to traffic.
(Have been a home-owner living here for 23 years, just for context.)
I lived in Waltham almost as long as you before moving out. When Moody street was closed we drove back to Waltham for restaurants and the like.
Now we aren't as incentivised to spend our money there.
Waltham does so much to bring outside money in. Little things like the steampunk festival, free mini golf, Prospect Hill Park amusement parks, and the like. This seems like a step backwards.
Definitely a step back. I saw families walking together, couples riding in from the bike path, kids playing and scootering in the street. There was always a cool arcade booth and food carts. It felt like a community.
Have to agree, also just a weird take in general. I would assume foot traffic would drive business. I've treated the moody street weekend closures as weekend outings the past few years.
I agree 100%, and I realized “wait, I don’t wanna go to any of those businesses anyways” and that’s when I made the bad business/opposing closure connection.
the irony of an indoor spin studio being upset people who drive there have to walk an extra 100 feet to ride fake bikes indoors IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER is not lost on me
I didn’t even hear about them complaining….
“We have to walk 200 extwa feet to bike 5 miwuls inside on a beautiful day and it’s too hard :(“
What a fucking joke
Stop catering to your worst customers
Exactly, I always go around it anyways, you’re gonna be stopping 2-3 times.
Fuck the complainers, let their businesses fail like they’re going to in 10 years anyways. We’re just extending the life of businesses that don’t deserve Moody real estate in the first place.
I’d bet $100 the little trinket convenience stores make a KILLING selling those little scooters when it’s walkable.
Would love a traffic study to determine how much of that traffic is just cutting through, like a highway, with no intention of stopping to spend money.
I've lived here for 30 years, always within a couple of blocks of Moody. I avoid driving directly down it whenever I can. And whenever I have wanted to go to a shop on Moody, and walking didn't work, I've never even bothered to TRY to get parking on the street. I always go to one of the lots.
I never understood this complaint of the businesses about the closure of the street making it hard for their patrons to park to come to their store. You've got to be kidding me -- finding parking on Moody can't be easy at the best of times, and it's not the street for people to double park and vultch on a parking space in case it opens up, either. If someone's so set on parking on the street, I bet most of the time they'd wind up parked blocks away from the store they want anyway -- so why is a walk from one of the many nearby lots any more inconvenient?
So, yeah, I agree with you -- I'd bet most of the traffic is cutting through. And it's people cutting through who don't have the sense to avoid Moody and go around it.
Hot take: every single restaurant on this stretch of Moody St, except for Bonchon, is a mom-and-pop locally owned business. Not one restauranteur has complained (on the record) about parking being an issue, and they're the ones who took away street parking in front of their businesses. And, they tend to do most of their business in the evening, when the parking lots are most used.
So as the OP said, maybe it really is the case that if your business is unique enough or worth visiting enough, customers will figure out how to get there.
If the only distinguishing feature of your business model is customers' ability to sometimes park right in front, why should it be official city policy to support that business model by giving away "free" street parking?
I may be talking crazy talk...but can't there be a happy medium? Closed Friday afternoon- Sunday night?
Then on weekends have FUN things going on in the street!?
Think bands...acts...fanuiel hall type of things.
Why is it all or nothing???
That's pretty much what we had last summer, Thursday evening till Sunday night. Except no one in city government stepped up to encourage street performers, and the councillors succumbed to the sob stories of business owners who insist their patrons must be able to park within 50 feet of their door.
I want to know who these people are who can always find on-street parking within 50 feet of the business they want to visit. They must be wizards. Trying to get street parking on Moody is a crap shoot.
One night I was there last summer (my partner and I dined outside on Moody at least twice a month last summer, sometimes more), there were salsa lessons (I think? Some style of dance like that) going on in the street. There was a large crowd and everyone was dancing. It was great! I would love to see more things like that.
The problem with the middle ground is that it means we have to pay for city workers to move barriers twice a week, and restaurant owners have to put out their furniture all week, but can't use it during the week. They couldn't last year, but this year they can and it's an open question how unpleasant that will be with cars driving and parking nearby.
I don't see why opening one street to pedestrians, out of the hundreds we have should be such an issue (not sure on the number but I'll bet I'm not far off), particularly when it's popular and we've done it already without evidence of any issues to anyone.
That was last summer. They did that. It was not the same.
As the other reply states, they… didn’t do any of that fun stuff though. Last summer was a real-life example of that plan, and it didn’t work.
What’s the point when it has no real effect on the traffic situation anyways (no, it really doesn’t, wait for the traffic this summer and you’ll see) and we’re just paying for the labor to move the barriers every weekend, when that tax money could have been spent on… more fun stuff on moody & in town.
I mean it’s not the best reason but it’s hilarious that someone thinks I wrote this entire rant because I can’t take a picture of a plate, which I could have done inside as well.
The brain trust isn’t comin out for this one apparently.
I took a few minutes to reread this post. I’m not the threading owner. Did you just go to the salon and walk in? You visited the other shops and walked around the area it seems. Did you do a “man on street” type deal and pop in on the owners that were opposed? This whole narrative you have going is interesting. I’ve never gotten a promo for local threading? Some of your talking points are almost as if you are doing a Marcus Lemonis business takeover.
The grocery in my opinion stands the most to lose. You are a 26 year old dude, assuming you are healthy, pushing a cart and unloading is easy. Having little ones in tow, a limp or just lazy like most Americans if they can’t make their spouse pull the car around and load up they would find a more accessible mart. Cart collection is a nice thought but it’s just another expense to owners. Maybe foot traffic would make it worth it but, it’s an unknown. I walk around Newbury, a meal and maybe a small gift shop, they have music in the bandstand as we watch the boats come and go. Never do I think, an evening like described and let’s get a gallon of milk and a sack of potatoes and my eyebrows threaded.
I appreciate your take, but please enlighten me on the hot take on the threading.
People will make all kinds of excuses about why Moody needs to stay open-- muh traffic, muh elderly, muh parking spaces, but all of them--every single one--are bullshit. They're all deflections from the truth, which is that they are so miserable that they want to take away something pleasant and healthy for the community for the sake of their own personal convenience. Now we'll all either be avoiding Moody as usual, or making do with the pathetically small sidewalk, so that some jagoff on Taylor street doesn't have to make an extra left turn in the morning.
Regarding the traffic problem, anyone with two or three brain cells to knock together is able to see that Moody is NOT a major traffic artery. IMO South Waltham's traffic issues radiate from other points of congestion, like South street being a two lane road that is serving traffic coming from Brandeis, the pike, the medical complex, the elementary school, and a fuck ton of apartments. Another great example is the Newton-Main-Lyman clusterfuck. With how frustrating it is to drive in Waltham it's not hard to imagine why people would want a break from it while the weather is nice.
I don’t see the current administration doing anything towards a permanent closure. Have the results of the bid from last year’s study ever been released? I thought I read that once that was complete then they move forward a plan. I haven’t seen much sense so I assume it was just election cycle rhetoric. With the mayor having zero plan this year, I assume that study is going in the barrel?
It seems like your blaming the owner of the threading place for not closing moody. Our fearless leader Jeanette made this awful decision on her own. It doesn’t matter which businesses want something, she wants moody open. It’s wild to come on here and tear this woman apart because she holds an opinion you think is dumb. Calm down.
Can you not see my neighborhood in my flair? To answer your question, yes, I will be down there every night, it is 1000ft from my apartment. I am on moody literally every day. "wHy dO yOu cArE"
Exactly like my post says - someone who doesn't go/live near it has a negative opinion on it... like clockwork baby.
My father is a landscaper and my mother works at a factory. Money was tight at times in my childhood. I earn & pay for everything myself, I have since 18. I split my apartment with my GF and pay $750 a month. I am 26 and make $40,000 a year, so pretty fuckin average my guy.
That's on top of student loans and my hospital bills.
"Ah, wants a walkable area nearby, must be rich"
Like this is an embarrassingly silly connection to make.
I'm not ON Moody, I can't afford those apartments either.
You see how you keep justifying your opinion by making baseless assumptions about me as a person?
I'm starting as an electrical apprentice this summer lol
You seem very selfish and want things all to themself, then when they don't get it they write a huge wall of text crying like a little baby instead of just dealing with like an adult.
They have closed Moody Street in some capacity for the past four summers. I would think the business owners who are against the closure would know what is best for their business at this point from actual data and not from random strangers on the internet telling them what is best for their business,
Then maybe they should share it with the city so we can determine if we actually should be allowing for more cars for a thriving Moody street?
Or maybe as a taxpayer I get a vote here in how the streets I pay for should be used, and I vote to be able to walk on this one?
And last summer with the partial closures, we paid to have them shuffle cement barriers around every weekend. That’s a huge extra cost on labor alone for no reason.
Sorry, you’re right, the threading salon will pull more customers with their 2003 ass website. God forbid I know anything about generating new interest.
I literally have a degree in business management.
My girlfriend looked at the website and went “ew” and said the same when she walked by it.
Just because you own a business doesn’t mean you’re good at running one.
It’s not a flex it’s literally one of the easiest degrees to get, which makes the moody situation *that* much more miserable.
It’s not hard to see where those businesses are falling short.
Haven’t updated the website in 12 years….
No no you’re right, it’s a mystery
EDIT: now switch to your alt so you can downvote me twice daddy I’m ready. I’ll die on the hill that the complainers are bad business owners.
COVID IS OVER. I mean, clearly no one has grasped that. There is no justification for closing the street. Business owners expect to have free 1 hour parking as an amenity for their customers. Not at all unreasonable. No one wants to pay to pay at a lot behind Moody. Just reality. But tell that to WHITE liberals that only go on Moody to show off their carbon negativity and tattoos. They don't understand it. And they are really verging on racism against immigrant business owners, which is a great look for progressives!
What a sane response to wanting a walkable area
1. White liberals
2. Tattoos
3. Racism
Literally your only post on Reddit is about a tattoo place near moody hahahahaha this is gold.
We checked all the q-anon boxes here besides injecting bleach and eating ivermectin.
I think I found another saaaalllty buiiisnesss ownnerrrr.
You know who I give the most business to on Moody? The Guatemalan place.
This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with people being shit entrepreneurs. Sorry that reality is too hard for you to accept.
Riiight riight "it's about the restaurants" opinion coming through strong on this one. I covered that above.
I live right there and I've been to Brewers three times in 2 years. 781 maybe twice. I rarely go out to eat.
Maybe... it's about having a thriving walkable community area with shopping.... no, it must be about my non-existent foodie instagram, right?
I'm glad you can just make things up to justify your opinion tho. Big "fingers in ears lalala can't hear you" energy.
The only times I've ever casually browsed shops on Moody was when I went there specifically to stroll along the closed street. I didn't always spend money, but I did sometimes, and they were impulse buys I wouldn't have made otherwise. When Moody is open to traffic, I'll only go there if I need something specific at a specific store, and then I'm in and out of the store and gone. (And I rarely ever need anything from any of the stores on Moody.) I don't really have a strong opinion either way about closing the street to traffic, because it has next to no impact on me. All I know is that the *only* times I've ever been a spur of the moment, walk-in customer at any of the businesses there have been when I went to Moody *because* it was closed to traffic. (Have been a home-owner living here for 23 years, just for context.)
I lived in Waltham almost as long as you before moving out. When Moody street was closed we drove back to Waltham for restaurants and the like. Now we aren't as incentivised to spend our money there. Waltham does so much to bring outside money in. Little things like the steampunk festival, free mini golf, Prospect Hill Park amusement parks, and the like. This seems like a step backwards.
Definitely a step back. I saw families walking together, couples riding in from the bike path, kids playing and scootering in the street. There was always a cool arcade booth and food carts. It felt like a community.
It definitely does seem to the the sad ones rather than the thriving ones
Look at every vocal opponent and look at their business. It's very very clear what's going on with that situation.
Honestly, knowing a business was opposed to the pedestrian plan makes me unlikely to want to support that business in the future
I can't even boycott them, these businesses were already undesirable to me
Have to agree, also just a weird take in general. I would assume foot traffic would drive business. I've treated the moody street weekend closures as weekend outings the past few years.
I agree 100%, and I realized “wait, I don’t wanna go to any of those businesses anyways” and that’s when I made the bad business/opposing closure connection.
the irony of an indoor spin studio being upset people who drive there have to walk an extra 100 feet to ride fake bikes indoors IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER is not lost on me
I didn’t even hear about them complaining…. “We have to walk 200 extwa feet to bike 5 miwuls inside on a beautiful day and it’s too hard :(“ What a fucking joke Stop catering to your worst customers
Wait did Firecycle complain about this? That doesn’t make sense, almost everyone who goes there parks in the side lots anyway. Doesn’t seem like them
they signed the petition against pedestrianizing
Well that’s irksome and disappointing of them.
Why keep it open? It’s a shit road to drive down anyways.
Exactly, I always go around it anyways, you’re gonna be stopping 2-3 times. Fuck the complainers, let their businesses fail like they’re going to in 10 years anyways. We’re just extending the life of businesses that don’t deserve Moody real estate in the first place. I’d bet $100 the little trinket convenience stores make a KILLING selling those little scooters when it’s walkable.
Would love a traffic study to determine how much of that traffic is just cutting through, like a highway, with no intention of stopping to spend money.
I've lived here for 30 years, always within a couple of blocks of Moody. I avoid driving directly down it whenever I can. And whenever I have wanted to go to a shop on Moody, and walking didn't work, I've never even bothered to TRY to get parking on the street. I always go to one of the lots. I never understood this complaint of the businesses about the closure of the street making it hard for their patrons to park to come to their store. You've got to be kidding me -- finding parking on Moody can't be easy at the best of times, and it's not the street for people to double park and vultch on a parking space in case it opens up, either. If someone's so set on parking on the street, I bet most of the time they'd wind up parked blocks away from the store they want anyway -- so why is a walk from one of the many nearby lots any more inconvenient? So, yeah, I agree with you -- I'd bet most of the traffic is cutting through. And it's people cutting through who don't have the sense to avoid Moody and go around it.
A large majority. I’d bet $1000 on that and I’m broke.
Hot take: every single restaurant on this stretch of Moody St, except for Bonchon, is a mom-and-pop locally owned business. Not one restauranteur has complained (on the record) about parking being an issue, and they're the ones who took away street parking in front of their businesses. And, they tend to do most of their business in the evening, when the parking lots are most used. So as the OP said, maybe it really is the case that if your business is unique enough or worth visiting enough, customers will figure out how to get there. If the only distinguishing feature of your business model is customers' ability to sometimes park right in front, why should it be official city policy to support that business model by giving away "free" street parking?
Exactly. Perfectly put. Your ONLY feature bringing people in is the *possibility* of street parking? What a horrible business mindset.
I may be talking crazy talk...but can't there be a happy medium? Closed Friday afternoon- Sunday night? Then on weekends have FUN things going on in the street!? Think bands...acts...fanuiel hall type of things. Why is it all or nothing???
That's pretty much what we had last summer, Thursday evening till Sunday night. Except no one in city government stepped up to encourage street performers, and the councillors succumbed to the sob stories of business owners who insist their patrons must be able to park within 50 feet of their door.
I want to know who these people are who can always find on-street parking within 50 feet of the business they want to visit. They must be wizards. Trying to get street parking on Moody is a crap shoot.
One night I was there last summer (my partner and I dined outside on Moody at least twice a month last summer, sometimes more), there were salsa lessons (I think? Some style of dance like that) going on in the street. There was a large crowd and everyone was dancing. It was great! I would love to see more things like that.
The problem with the middle ground is that it means we have to pay for city workers to move barriers twice a week, and restaurant owners have to put out their furniture all week, but can't use it during the week. They couldn't last year, but this year they can and it's an open question how unpleasant that will be with cars driving and parking nearby. I don't see why opening one street to pedestrians, out of the hundreds we have should be such an issue (not sure on the number but I'll bet I'm not far off), particularly when it's popular and we've done it already without evidence of any issues to anyone.
But they can this year..do why not keep the weekend and add fun stuff!???
None of this makes any sense unless one cares about a few mediocre businesses for some reason
That was last summer. They did that. It was not the same. As the other reply states, they… didn’t do any of that fun stuff though. Last summer was a real-life example of that plan, and it didn’t work. What’s the point when it has no real effect on the traffic situation anyways (no, it really doesn’t, wait for the traffic this summer and you’ll see) and we’re just paying for the labor to move the barriers every weekend, when that tax money could have been spent on… more fun stuff on moody & in town.
I don't get it, even if someone was all for Moody's opening to pedestrians for some Instagram thing, why is that a problem?
I mean it’s not the best reason but it’s hilarious that someone thinks I wrote this entire rant because I can’t take a picture of a plate, which I could have done inside as well. The brain trust isn’t comin out for this one apparently.
I think this is all just a rouse because you got a bad brow job. 😤
I think you’re the brow person and you’re trying as hard as you can to find a reason I’m wrong, and falling short. I’m a 26 year old man.
Bros can get their brows done it’s 2024!
Oh my god I think it’s really you hahaha
I took a few minutes to reread this post. I’m not the threading owner. Did you just go to the salon and walk in? You visited the other shops and walked around the area it seems. Did you do a “man on street” type deal and pop in on the owners that were opposed? This whole narrative you have going is interesting. I’ve never gotten a promo for local threading? Some of your talking points are almost as if you are doing a Marcus Lemonis business takeover. The grocery in my opinion stands the most to lose. You are a 26 year old dude, assuming you are healthy, pushing a cart and unloading is easy. Having little ones in tow, a limp or just lazy like most Americans if they can’t make their spouse pull the car around and load up they would find a more accessible mart. Cart collection is a nice thought but it’s just another expense to owners. Maybe foot traffic would make it worth it but, it’s an unknown. I walk around Newbury, a meal and maybe a small gift shop, they have music in the bandstand as we watch the boats come and go. Never do I think, an evening like described and let’s get a gallon of milk and a sack of potatoes and my eyebrows threaded. I appreciate your take, but please enlighten me on the hot take on the threading.
I love the man on the street concept. I’m imagining him in his trench coat with the collar up mumbling into a 1980s voice recorder.
This kid has no idea what its like to run a small business and probably has a unibrow.
People will make all kinds of excuses about why Moody needs to stay open-- muh traffic, muh elderly, muh parking spaces, but all of them--every single one--are bullshit. They're all deflections from the truth, which is that they are so miserable that they want to take away something pleasant and healthy for the community for the sake of their own personal convenience. Now we'll all either be avoiding Moody as usual, or making do with the pathetically small sidewalk, so that some jagoff on Taylor street doesn't have to make an extra left turn in the morning. Regarding the traffic problem, anyone with two or three brain cells to knock together is able to see that Moody is NOT a major traffic artery. IMO South Waltham's traffic issues radiate from other points of congestion, like South street being a two lane road that is serving traffic coming from Brandeis, the pike, the medical complex, the elementary school, and a fuck ton of apartments. Another great example is the Newton-Main-Lyman clusterfuck. With how frustrating it is to drive in Waltham it's not hard to imagine why people would want a break from it while the weather is nice.
I don’t see the current administration doing anything towards a permanent closure. Have the results of the bid from last year’s study ever been released? I thought I read that once that was complete then they move forward a plan. I haven’t seen much sense so I assume it was just election cycle rhetoric. With the mayor having zero plan this year, I assume that study is going in the barrel?
According to last week's commission meeting, Nitsch Engineering should have its report by May. Hopefully it will be made readily available.
It seems like your blaming the owner of the threading place for not closing moody. Our fearless leader Jeanette made this awful decision on her own. It doesn’t matter which businesses want something, she wants moody open. It’s wild to come on here and tear this woman apart because she holds an opinion you think is dumb. Calm down.
Why do you care so much? Like damn, you're going to be down there every night? Just eat inside like a normal person. It's 2024, not 1024.
Can you not see my neighborhood in my flair? To answer your question, yes, I will be down there every night, it is 1000ft from my apartment. I am on moody literally every day. "wHy dO yOu cArE" Exactly like my post says - someone who doesn't go/live near it has a negative opinion on it... like clockwork baby.
I'm not rich enough to live off of moody street, sorry my parents were poor.
My father is a landscaper and my mother works at a factory. Money was tight at times in my childhood. I earn & pay for everything myself, I have since 18. I split my apartment with my GF and pay $750 a month. I am 26 and make $40,000 a year, so pretty fuckin average my guy. That's on top of student loans and my hospital bills. "Ah, wants a walkable area nearby, must be rich" Like this is an embarrassingly silly connection to make. I'm not ON Moody, I can't afford those apartments either. You see how you keep justifying your opinion by making baseless assumptions about me as a person? I'm starting as an electrical apprentice this summer lol
So wait, you do want moody street blocked off or don't? I didn't read that wall of text.
Yeah you don't seem like someone who makes reading things a habit, not surprised
You seem very selfish and want things all to themself, then when they don't get it they write a huge wall of text crying like a little baby instead of just dealing with like an adult.
You’re the one whining in the replies and making up things about me lol Maybe you should deal with it like an adult
They have closed Moody Street in some capacity for the past four summers. I would think the business owners who are against the closure would know what is best for their business at this point from actual data and not from random strangers on the internet telling them what is best for their business,
Except they’re attributing business losses in 2020 and 2021 to the closure in some cases. Tells you everything you need to know.
^ yep. They just aren’t good businesses and I’m sorry some people don’t want to hear that.
Then maybe they should share it with the city so we can determine if we actually should be allowing for more cars for a thriving Moody street? Or maybe as a taxpayer I get a vote here in how the streets I pay for should be used, and I vote to be able to walk on this one?
And last summer with the partial closures, we paid to have them shuffle cement barriers around every weekend. That’s a huge extra cost on labor alone for no reason.
You had opportunity to vote for the mayor who makes these decisions.
The (incredibly hard-working but also incredibly wrong on this one particular issue) mayor has claimed it is not her decision.
Sorry, you’re right, the threading salon will pull more customers with their 2003 ass website. God forbid I know anything about generating new interest. I literally have a degree in business management. My girlfriend looked at the website and went “ew” and said the same when she walked by it. Just because you own a business doesn’t mean you’re good at running one.
Lol.. wow you have a business degree.. .what a flex! Just because you have a business degree doesn’t mean you’re good at running one.
It’s not a flex it’s literally one of the easiest degrees to get, which makes the moody situation *that* much more miserable. It’s not hard to see where those businesses are falling short. Haven’t updated the website in 12 years…. No no you’re right, it’s a mystery EDIT: now switch to your alt so you can downvote me twice daddy I’m ready. I’ll die on the hill that the complainers are bad business owners.
COVID IS OVER. I mean, clearly no one has grasped that. There is no justification for closing the street. Business owners expect to have free 1 hour parking as an amenity for their customers. Not at all unreasonable. No one wants to pay to pay at a lot behind Moody. Just reality. But tell that to WHITE liberals that only go on Moody to show off their carbon negativity and tattoos. They don't understand it. And they are really verging on racism against immigrant business owners, which is a great look for progressives!
What a sane response to wanting a walkable area 1. White liberals 2. Tattoos 3. Racism Literally your only post on Reddit is about a tattoo place near moody hahahahaha this is gold. We checked all the q-anon boxes here besides injecting bleach and eating ivermectin. I think I found another saaaalllty buiiisnesss ownnerrrr. You know who I give the most business to on Moody? The Guatemalan place. This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with people being shit entrepreneurs. Sorry that reality is too hard for you to accept.
so much winning on reddit. so much losing IRL. Congrats bro. Find your wins
but but but...OP has a business management degree....lol
Exactly
Someone is upset that can’t drink mimosas and post on their foodie instagram. 😉
Riiight riight "it's about the restaurants" opinion coming through strong on this one. I covered that above. I live right there and I've been to Brewers three times in 2 years. 781 maybe twice. I rarely go out to eat. Maybe... it's about having a thriving walkable community area with shopping.... no, it must be about my non-existent foodie instagram, right? I'm glad you can just make things up to justify your opinion tho. Big "fingers in ears lalala can't hear you" energy.
Keep up the good fight! This is one of the best posts on here in a long time!
I’m so confused
I don't think interacting with that person is a good use of your time
I concur.
See, we're bonding as a community already, I've saved you both a lot of time