The Somerville News

Assembly Square T stop plans fall off the fast tracks

By Andrea Gregory

The plan to bring a T station to Assembly Square is not moving on the fast-track officials and area residents had hoped.

Bringing the Orange Line to Assembly Square is an intricate part of the revitalizing the region. Large retailers, a movie theater, a hotel and several other establishments are making plans to move to the area. Having a subway stop there is not only attractive to businesses, but is being considered a must to support the area’s future.

The View From Prospect Hill

Over the past several decades, Somerville has become fairly infamous for the “aggressive” style of politics that rears its ugly head every couple of years. The stories are legendary – and some of us have been lucky to witness some of them first hand.

Today the only thing really different from the 60’s, 70’s or the 80’s is that more and more people are participating in on line discussions, especially on community-based web logs (more specifically our weblogs, thank you very much). The majority of what goes on around here is still face to face and incidental, which means that by the time you hear what happened, 88 people have put their own little twist on it and it almost never remains true to what actually happened – for example, something as benign as “how could anyone not get the signatures to get put on the ballot for re-election?” changed into “I’m going to run as a sticker/write in candidate for the open seat in Ward 4”. See what we mean?

Newstalk for Wednesday August 29th 2007

Regarding last week - we mentioned that we supported the renaming of the Concourse “Fedele Way” after the late popular SHS Headmaster Tony Fedele. The Board of Aldermen recently voted to support changing the name and made a recommendation to do that to the Veterans Commission, which has the final say. Apparently the Board of Aldermen voted back in 2006 for an ordinance which absolutely forbids, in particular, the renaming of City Hall, the High School and the Concourse - Sec. 2-309.5 of the Veterans Commission on monuments, memorials and dedications - which was passed on Jan. 26, 2006. We hope the aldermen and the commission can find a suitable solution in memory of Tony.   

                                                            ***********

The Somerville Fire Department responded to a call at Osgood Park recently that a picnic table was on fire.  Police arrested three teenagers for the alleged crime, as they were caught fleeing the scene. Maybe the kids had too much time on their hands or maybe they were having a cookout in this hot weather.

Feds raid local shop; arrest one

By George P. Hassett

Federal immigration authorities raided a Medford Street auto body shop today, Aug. 28, and arrested one alleged MS-13 gang member while checking the immigration status of the shop’s other employees.

There is still time to run for office write-in-style

By Andrea Gregory

Even though the day to pass in papers has come and gone, it is not too late to throw your hat in the ring for any of the elected seats in the city.

The fall election is already expecting one write-in candidate. And people have “up until the very end” to decide if they want to give a word-of-mouth or a sticker campaign a shot, said Nick Salerno, election commissioner.

The Ward 4 ballot will be without a candidate’s name for the local School Committee seat. Charlene Harris, who has held the seat for almost seven years, failed to deliver the necessary 100 signatures needed to run by the June 27 deadline. Harris is expected to launch a sticker campaign, hoping at least 100 people put her down on the ballot to fulfill the minimum requirement for a write-in candidate to make it into office.

Neighborhood

From Bluntly Speaking by Robert J.L. Publicover

(Editor’s note:  I asked Bob to give me a “timeless” column of his from a decade or so ago – he gave me several to choose from and I liked this one – I hope you do too – JN)

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

What exactly is a neighborhood? We hear talk that “Sanctuary City” is destroying our neighborhoods. Yet, can it really do that? I doubt it. Sanctuary City is illegal. We cannot disobey federal laws regarding illegal aliens. I would love to repeal Sanctuary City if it was on the ballot, but that really is not an issue of neighborhood.

The dictionary says: “Neigh-bor-hood – n. Nearness; proximity; the region near or about some place or thing; the vicinity; a district of locality, often with reference to its character or inhabitants; as a rundown or fashionable neighborhood; a number of persons living near one another in a particular locality…”

The city is looking a shade greener

By Andrea Gregory

The city plans to run a little differently from here on out. City officials made the call to turn to green energy. The biggest call to date was to turn the city onto wind energy.

City officials have been making inroads toward turning Somerville a more environmentally friendly city. The city bought 481,928 kilowatt hours of renewable energy from Sterling Planet. The new agreement means City Hall will run on wind-generated electricity and is expected to take care of providing electricity to City Hall for the next year. The reduction in harmful toxins released into the environment is expected to decrease about what it would if 66 less vehicles were on city roads, according to government officials.

The dichotomy between over-exposure and OCD

Reality Bites By James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

(Editor’s note: three weeks in a row I wrote about my personal life in detail, so I figured I would look at some old columns of mine and I liked the manic qualities of this one – I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it – JN)

Maybe I’m getting older, who knows. I seem to be evolving into a very opinionated person, while at the same time, trying to stay open minded about an array of important issues. An interesting conundrum. I want to be informed, but I don’t want to know too much, nor do I want to hear about it all the time.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now - there’s overexposure all around us – in professional sports, the entertainment industry, politics – even not-so-newsworthy stories can transform themselves into something bigger than they need to be. Perfect example of overexposure transforming a nobody into a somebody: Paris Hilton.

Poet celebrates seven decades

By Doug Holder

A poet who has touched the lives of many in Somerville and the entire Greater Boston community will be honored on Sept. 15 at 5 p.m. at the International Community Church in Allston. Poet Jack Powers will celebrate his 70th birthday with a potluck dinner and a reading.

Powers is the founder of Boston’s legendary Stone Soup Poets. Founded in 1971 at the Charles Meeting House on Beacon Hill in Boston, he has lead this venue of readings, activism and publishing for well over 30 years. He was also influential in establishing the Beacon Hill Free School in the 1970s, which encouraged people to teach and participate in educational courses for no charge.

McGrath Highway underpass goes disco

By George P. Hassett

A gritty stretch of concrete typically home to traffic jams and highway noise became the site of a funky retro dance party last Saturday night. Project MUM (Meet Under McGrath) brought two turntables, a microphone and a disco ball to the rugged underpass of McGrath Highway on Washington Street and turned the neglected stretch of land into a 1970s-themed party for one evening.

More than 200 revelers danced the night away to sounds of the 70s as a giant screen flashed vintage pictures from the era, complete with peace signs, polyester and sideburns. Tom Walsh and Marna Eckels said the occasion was a perfect opportunity to wear their bellbottoms.

The View From Prospect Hill

Does Rudy Giuliani even know where Somerville is? Someone on his campaign staff obviously has some clue as to where our 76,000-plus population city is. The nation learned where the presidential hopeful stood on immigration when he recently threw Somerville’s name onto a list of opponent Mitt Romney’s sins. However, what really happens here in Somerville has been turned into a campaign ploy to make our former governor look bad and our city look like it is setting its feet against the forces of progress.

 

Curtatone reportedly under police protection after threat

By George P. Hassett

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone is being accompanied by an armed police officer today after a supporter of an opposing campaign allegedly made threatening remarks against him, according to multiple sources close to City Hall.
  Lenny DiCicco, a volunteer with Richard J. Scirocco’s campaign to unseat Curtatone as mayor, allegedly said, “Don’t stand too close to the mayor this weekend,” to another person who reported the remark to Curtatone’s staff.

First Italian-American alderman-at-large speaks to the News

By George P. Hassett

The city’s first Italian-American alderman-at-large was the guest at the Aug. 17 contributors meeting for The Somerville News. Vinny LoPresti was an alderman from 1971 until 1975 and garnered the most votes of any at-large candidate in the city’s history, he said.

“Back then you had more people running for office and more people involved,” he said. “These days, I hear, there aren’t even primaries.”

LoPresti was one of 29 candidates in 1971, he said.

Florida captain is Somerville’s new police chief

By George P. Hassett

Anthony Holloway, a Clearwater, Fla. police captain, will be the city’s next top cop starting in January, announced Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone at a news conference Friday.

Middlesex County District Attorney Gerard T. Leone and Attorney General Martha Coakley also attended the meeting and congratulated Holloway on his new post.

Holloway has been a cop in Clearwater since 1986 and said he looked forward to bringing the skills he learned there to Somerville.

“I want to be a part of the good things that are happening here,” Holloway said.

News Talk for August 22nd, 2007

Former High School Headmaster Tony Fedele was very popular throughout his career and beyond here in Somerville - everyone is hoping that the concourse up at the High School will soon be named after him in his honor. Tony was so instrumental in starting the SHS Scholarship Foundation back in the late 80’s - bringing everyone at that time together on the board. Over the years the foundation has given thousands of dollars in scholarships to hundreds of Somerville High students and has over $800,000 in the bank today. We support the city giving him this honor and hope that it’s on the fast track now that the Board of Aldermen have approved it.

                                                                           ***************

We heard from a source in the fire department that they responded to a call last week at a house in East Somerville that was filled with smoke. When the firefighters entered the smoke filled house, they found a family roasting a goat in their bathtub! We’ve heard of the old grille out on the porch or in the yard, but in the bathtub?

Artist at home in Somerville

By Pam Rosenblatt

Artist Riki Moss wasn’t planning on calling Somerville home for too long, but more than a decade has gone by, and Moss is enjoying being a member of the local arts community. It was 1995 when she first came to Somerville.

“I thought I’d just be here for a little while when I left Vermont,” said Moss. “But it right away made me feel like (I was in) Brooklyn.  And I didn’t realize that I was nostalgic for Brooklyn.”

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and prior to Somerville living in Vermont, artwork and lifestyle have a bit of two places close to her heart. Living in Somerville reminds her of her Brooklyn days. And her art shows signs of Vermont, where she still has a cabin in the woods, even though she resides with her husband, Robert, in Somerville’s Brickbottom Artists Building.

Sharing memories of poet Anne Sexton

By Doug Holder

Recently, at the Wilderness House Literary Retreat in Littleton, local poet, writer, journalist and educator Bob Clawson talked with a group of literature lovers about his friendship with the acclaimed Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Anne Sexton. Clawson showered his audience with his fascinating anecdotes and experiences with Sexton, who wrote “To Bedlam and Part Way Back,” among other critically acclaimed poetry collections.

Clawson said that he was teaching English at Weston High School in 1963. He had students read the works of contemporary poets to stoke the interest of his young charges. While reading Sexton’s poem “Menstruation at 40” in the faculty room, the gym teacher asked Clawson if he was a fan of Sexton. When he answered in the affirmative, the teacher said he was a friend of the poet and he would introduce him to her.

Home break-ins fall, car breaks skyrocket

Police see a possible connection

By George P. Hassett

House break-ins in Somerville are on the decline because thieves are turning to cars as an easier way to score valuable electronic devices such as GPS devices and iPods, according to Police.

There were 465 larcenies from motor vehicles between Jan. 1 and Aug. 5. During the same eight months in 2006, 242 vehicle break-ins were reported. Both years are hefty jumps compared to 143 during the same time period in 2005, according to official Somerville Police Department crime statistics. From 2005 to now, that is a 225 percent increase and is possibly connected to a 34 percent decrease in residential burglaries over the same time span, according to Somerville Police Capt. Paul Upton.

Somerville shopper buys $500,000 bottle of beer online

By George P. Hassett

This week, an eBay shopper from Somerville bought the world’s most expensive bottle of beer for more than $500,000. And now the bottle is on its way to the city, bringing with it a story steeped in history.

An eBay shopper going by the name of “v00d004sc0re” bought the bottle, brewed in 1852, for the hefty price of $503,300 in the online auction. The buyer’s information is private, but he does say he lives in Somerville according to eBay profile. An email was sent to the auction winner through eBay’s Web site, but there was no response by The Somerville News presstime.

Keeping the Green Line on track

By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Somerville is Deval Patrick country. We gave him one of his biggest margins in the state. We support his effort to forge a new partnership with cities and towns. We back his agenda to promote economic growth by supporting transit-oriented Smart Growth development. We’re with him all the way on his campaign to improve health care coverage and manage health care costs. We’re in full agreement with his proposals to invest in education at the primary, secondary and college levels. He’s our guy.

So you can imagine my dismay to have the Patrick administration propose a change in regional transit funding that might result in another two-year delay in the scheduled 2014 completion date for the Green Line Extension from Lechmere through Somerville and on to Medford. As I understand it, the state wants to enlarge the pool of money for regional transit improvements by qualifying for more federal grant money. The Green Line extension is their best shot at getting federal money, so that’s the project they want to bring to the U.S. Department of Transportation for approval.