To The Newton Beacon Editor,

In response to Greg Reibman’s Guest Essay (July 18, 2025), what does one say? ‘B S, be serious,’ might be appropriate.  The item before the Zoning & Planning Committee was “Requesting discussion on the current state of Newton’s commercial office space.”

Mr. Reibman’s “starting point” was “Build more diverse housing.”  This may have some relevancy for a candidate for office but what does it have to do with the state of commercial office  space?  We don’t build housing for office workers and where we have it, we try to replace it with upscale, expensive apartments and condos.  Also, new housing adds significantly more cost to the city budget than new office space does.

His second point is “Business attraction is a contest between Newton and everywhere else.” This is news?

Third is “Speed,” it takes too long to get things done.  Good point.  Should we skip safeguards and environmental concerns; should we fire inspectors and cancel laws?  The reason we have these rules is that history says that business is unable to govern itself.

Fourth, “You’re nickel-and-diming our businesses. Rents and taxes are astronomical.”  The city does not regulate rents, yet.  Is he proposing Newton should regulate commercial rents?  Also, it costs money to regulate business and supply customers.  If you don’t want to pay the cost of doing business, go  elsewhere.  Perhaps he would support a proposal to regulate costs and limit profits to assure success.  Or he might not.

In conclusion, it appears that the committee was not denied any useful information by refusing to let him participate.

Peter F. Harrington