TWO THINGS CAN be true at the same time, and that is very much the case with the teachers strike in Newton that is now entering its 11th day.

First: Newton’s striking school teachers deserve more money.

Second: But the city doesn’t have enough money to sustain paying teachers as much as they’re asking for over the long term.

Here’s something else that’s true: If the city hadn’t been as hostile as it has been to new development over the years, there would be a whole lot more tax revenue available to spend on teachers and other city services.

Contrast Newton to its just across the river neighbor, Watertown.

Watertown has embraced new development and boasts a fully funded pension system and has built two elementary schools, renovated a third and is now building a new high school – all without raising taxes.

Now consider the Riverside MBTA development project in Newton. The 13-acre mixed-use project dates back at least to 2011. It took two years for the city council to approve that plan, but only after it was scaled back so far to appease neighbors that the final project proved unviable financially and was scrapped.
 
An even better vision for Riverside, from Mark Development, surfaced in 2018. But reacting to the predictable neighborhood teeth-grinding, Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller urged the developer to halt the process, hire a facilitator and engage in a months’ long vision planning session.

Two years and many, many, meetings and public hearings later, Newton’s City Council finally approved Mark’s Riverside plan. But by then the faltering real estate economy caught up with its financial feasibility. The project has yet to break ground.

In a similar vein, it took three years of community outreach and an 18-month public hearing process, for the 23-acre Northland Newton mixed-use project on Needham Street to win approval. Then a group of unhappy neighbors forced another months-long delay due to an unsuccessful attempt to halt it by referendum.

Both the Riverside and Northland projects would likely be occupied, or close to it, by now — adding millions in net tax revenue to city coffers — if the projects hadn’t encountered so much inertia from residents and city councilors.

Meanwhile, we’ll never know how many other developers – large and small — have been persuaded not to build in Newton after observing just how hard it was for Northland and Mark Development.

Here’s the reality. There are only two ways municipalities can substantially increase operating budgets:  Through a Proposition 2½ property tax override, or through “new growth,” which is the property tax revenue generated through new developments.

But last year, Newton voters said no to both: Rejecting an operating override in the spring and then ousting city councilors who favored a city-wide zoning plan designed to generate more housing, economic vitality and tax revenue across all of its village centers.

And so here we are on Groundhog Day. Just like Bill Murray’s character in the film, each day parents and kids awake to the same story, over and over — no school today, check back tomorrow – and to the same vitriol between the teachers and city leaders who are both right at the same time.

Greg Reibman is president and CEO of the Charles River Regional Chamber, which serves Newton, Needham, Watertown, and Wellesley.