The Somerville News Blog

Yarns exchanged over needles

by Julia C. Reischel

Every Sunday afternoon a popular Ball Square café begins to flash with knitting needles and flutter with yarn as it fills with members of a local knitting group called Stitch ‘n Bitch.

“Here, socializing is almost as important as knitting,” said Kristina D. Cairns, one of the ten or so Stitch ‘n Bitchers that sat at True Grounds on a recent Sunday. “I look forward to it.”

Hundreds attend Green Line meeting

by Julia C. Reischel

After two snow emergency cancellations, MBTA and other state officials successfully held the second public hearing regarding the Green Line extension Monday night at Somerville High School.

"This process you're going through now is a fiction," Alderman-at-Large William A. White Jr., said to a panel of state officials sitting on the stage in the high school’s Eugene C. Brune Auditorium.

Winter Hill's Sunnyside Hospital remembers

by Julia C. Reischel

A woman's question of where she was born was answered by a number of readers after this paper published her e-mail inquiry Feb. 2 on the front page.

It is likely that Elaine Shelton, a West Palm Beach, Fla., resident who grew up here, was born November 1941 at the Sunnyside Hospital at 400 Broadway.

Toast Ladies Night in transition; first Blush, lost Tribe

by Julia C. Reischel

 
The Boston area’s last remaining lesbian club night, which has drawn hundreds of women to  Somerville  on Thursdays for the past 15 months, is  facing an uncertain future.

“The promoter was let go,” said Ken Kelly, the owner of Union Sqaure's Toast Lounge. “However, Ladies’ Night has absolutely not closed."

Focus: SomerStat reports

by Julia C.Reischel

Six months after Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone formally staffed SomerStat, the city's new performance improvement program that was a cornerstone of his campaign, things have begun to change in City Hall. 

“We’re way ahead,” said Curtatone of the progress made by the city’s SomerStat program. “We’ve learned good lessons and gotten excellent feedback.”

Doctoral candidate surveys 18-22 year-old w/one Jewish parent

by Julia C. Reischel

A sociology Ph.D. candidate from Brandeis is recruiting interview subjects in Davis Square to study the effect of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds on the formation of identity.

“I’m really interested in how people negotiate the different aspects of their identities,” said Rachel L. Rockenmacher at Feb. 4 contributors meeting of  The Somerville News.

LoRusso: I may run for alderman again

By Julia C. Reischel

Across the city, rumors have been swirling about possible candidates for this fall’s Board of Aldermen races. 

“I’m keeping all my options open,” said Elio LoRusso, the owner of Somerville Ornamental Ironworks in East Somerville who ran for alderman-at-large two years ago. “I’ve been keeping abreast of the problems of the community.”

City plows high tech into snow removal

After the blizzard dumped 30 inches of snow blanketed the city Jan. 22 through Jan. 23, and even more fell last in the following days, the DPW worked overtime to keep its citizens safe and informed. 

"Everyone is doing their part and we appreciate it,” Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said on Jan. 28, a day after Somerville

officially emerged from almost a week of snow emergency status.

“We’re finally catching up with this storm, which is the worst in more than two decades,” the mayor said.

Alderman White hosts News' tsunami benefit at Toast

by Julia A. Reischel

The Somerville community came together to provide relief to the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami at a benefit concert sponsored by The Somerville News, hosted by Alderman-at-large William A. White Jr.

The lights go out at DoubleTake

by Julia Reischel

After almost ten prize-winning years, the gain and loss of millions of dollars, and a memorable last-ditch effort at survival that brought Bruce Springsteen to the Somerville Theatre, the lights in DoubleTake Magazine’s offices above the Someday Café in Davis Square have finally darkened. 

“It's always difficult for a magazine like DoubleTake to survive,” said Kirk Kicklighter, the magazine’s most recent editor. “I just think it's a testament to the fact that many great magazines don't make it.”

Greyhound documentary gets the red carpet

by Julia Reischel

A local Cambridge filmmaker teamed up with a Boston-area Greyhound rescue organization to create a documentary that premiered Dec. 11 at Johnny D’s in Davis Square. 

“I like doing work for non-mainstream organizations,” said David A. Smith, the director of the twenty-minute film It’s a Long Way From There. “I have skills that they need.  And Greyhound Friends is truly an incredible organization.”