The Upper Falls News is an email newsletter about what's going in our village.  The Upper Falls News is brought to you by the Upper Falls Area Council but it's intended to cover any and all news in the village. 

Upper Falls Trivia - What set of three street names in Upper Falls is missing the 4th one that would complete the set.  For example: North, South, and East Street but no West Street?

Those Aren't Thieves - Early signs have begun to appear at Braceland Park to signal the start of the upcoming construction project to revitalize the park.   First, orange surveyor's marks appeared recently in the parking lot.  This week, the "Braceland Park" sign was removed by the city workers, which caused a bit of a stir.  The city got a number of calls reporting that someone had "stolen the sign".   There was no thievery involved, just a couple of hard working city employees with a Saws-All doing their job. 

Construction's expected to start next week (May 21).  The city will rebuild the tennis courts, add a new pedestrian entryway to the park, and yes, replace the Braceland Park sign.  The whole project is expected to take about a month and a half if the weather cooperates.

The Bells Are Silent - the church bells at Mary Immaculate of Lourdes church (Oak and Elliot ) went silent this week,  We have no word yet of what's gone wrong or when they're expected to be ringing again.

Seeds of a New Playground - Every year the Boston Marathon donates money to the City of Newton in return for their help and cooperation.  This year, $12,500 of that money has been set aside as seed funding for the future replacement of the playground equipment at the Emerson Playground.   The playground equipment has probably got a few years life left in it but it's definitely showing its age.  This past year the swings were shut down for safety reasons.  The Parks & Recreation Dept were able to repair them in time for some spring swinging but the handwriting is on the wall - we'll be needing a new playground before too long.

This seed money is a great start and a down payment but it will take quite a bit of time, money and effort to come to fruition.  The Area Council will take up the project and begin making plans.  Stay tuned for more details in the months ahead.

Post Office Reprieve - Months ago, the US Post Office announced that they were planning on closing thousands of branch post office branches including ours in Upper Falls.  The announcement was followed by a series of public hearings and lots of local voices were raised to try to save our branch office.   The USPS has now announced that the entire plan is now off the table .. for the moment.  All of the branches, including ours will remain open until at least the end of the year.  It's not clear whether this is a new lease on life for our branch office or just temporary life support.  In either case, the neighborhood's certainly relieved that, at least for this year, our friendly branch office will continue to take our packages and sell us stamps.

Everyone's Favorite Park - The Newton Patch ran an on-line poll last week to find "Newton's Best Outdoor Hidden Gem".  Among the ten candidates, Upper Falls' Hemlock Gorge won by a landslide (40% of the total vote).  It's nice to know that the rest of the city likes it as much as we all do.

Local Art - This weekend is Newton Open Studios.  On Sat & Sun artists across the city will open the doors of their studios and welcome everyone in.   Start your day by visiting Upper Falls own Elizabeth Carter, 48 Cottage St who create all sorts of sculptures, monoprints and collages in her studio at what might be the highest spot in Upper Falls, (aside from the top of the radio towers).  From there you can spend the whole day discovering every imaginable kind of art at studios across the city.

Free Ice Cream ! - Come join your neighbors for a walk and get a free ice cream.  Last month an army of volunteers cleaned up the entire mile+ route of the future Upper Falls Greenway bike trail and park.  For the first time in years, you can now walk from the Charles River to National Lumber.  To celebrate, UpperFallsGreenway.org is inviting everyone to walk the trail on Saturday June 2 from 10AM to noon.  To sweeten the offer, there's an incentive for anyone who walks the entire trail.  When you get to each end (Charles River & Easy St/National Lumber) you'll be handed a token.  Take the pair of tokens to the Upper Falls Variety and trade them for an ice cream or slush of your choosing.

Greenway Plans - the planning continues for the Upper Falls Greenway. The city has just assigned a landscape architect (Carol Schein) to the project.  The Greenway Working Group has been meeting regularly and is working on hammering out the plans.  One minor snag - the approval from the MBTA board of directors has been bumped from their June to July meeting but that's not expected to delay the overall project.

Upper Falls Area Council - The Upper Falls Area Council is your voice to the city.  The council held their monthly meeting this week on Thursday night.  Among the items on the agenda were a report on the rebuilding plans for the Angier School, a project to install a garden at the corner of Chestnut and Oak (Pettee Square), early planning for the Upper Falls Village Day in the fall.

Send Us Your News - If you have any upcoming events, activities, news, trivia, stories, anecdotes or jokes related to Upper Falls just send them to info@UpperFallsNews.org and we'll include them in the next newsletter. 

Trivia Answer - We have Winter, Spring and Summer streets but no Fall or Autumn St.