Late October 2019

Keeping Up the Good Work

The Somerville Transportation Department installed a bus and bike lane on Broadway, and Mayor Joe Curtatone is standing strong in support of it, despite grumbling from some quarters. This is great news. These transit improvements save lives, improve air quality, save money, and are a benefit to everyone in the community, especially for lower-income people. If you’re in the neighborhood, drop by and check it out, and if you like it, drop a line to [email protected] and let them know!

Over in Union Square, the Lein’s Auto Body shop on Bow Street in Union Square has been approved for redevelopment into a small mixed-use building with net-zero carbon emissions and limited parking. From the sketches, it looks like it will fit into the neighborhood nicely, and will preserve some historic details as well. We’d have liked to see it with more homes and less parking, but we’ll take what we can get.

Things You Can Do By Email

• Davis Square Neighborhood Plan: The comment period has been extended. Please write to [email protected] in support of this well-researched, carefully developed plan to manage the future of the square.

• SomerVision 2040: If you want to get into the really long-range stuff, SomerVision 2040 wants your comments on a few draft chapters this month as well.

Public Meetings This Wednesday

There are several meetings on Wednesday, and we'd like to organize a presence at each of them. Reply to this message to let us know if you're available to join us at the following:

Scape/Davis Square/Elm Street6:30pm, Community Baptist Church, 31 College AveNo formal plans have been filed, but there's already a community meeting about a project from housing developer Scape on Elm Street. We don't know what this project will look like and are withholding judgement until we see, but there are a lot of people who already oppose it.

Beacon Street Star Market6:30pm, Public Safety Building, 220 Washington StreetJT Scott will host a community presentation from WS Development about their initial plans for the site. Note that this is the currently-operational Star Market on Beacon Street near Porter Square, not the vacant one on Broadway in Winter Hill.

Ward 7 ResiStat6:00pm, West Somerville Neighborhood School, 177 Powder House BlvdResiStat helps use data to guide city programs, and the city runs a series of meetings in each ward to present that data and gather feedback. This week, Ward 7. For details, visit the event page on Facebook.