Based on the
findings, which relied mostly on 2000 census numbers, the largest
difficulty facing the city seems to be its stagnant population growth
and a declining percentage of youth. Since 1970, the city's population
has decreased by over 11,000 people, from 88,779. Over the course of
the '90s, Somerville had a positive net gain, but only at a rate of
1.7%, much lower than the averages of bordering communities. One reason
is the declining size of households in the city, which now hold on
average, just over 2.25 people. This reduction in the size of the
average family in Somerville is also contributing to the drop in young
people who live within the city. Once a group of nearly 30,000, the
number of individuals under the age of 18 was 11,495 in 2000 and shows
little indication that it will rebound. Despite an average lack of
enrollment, a new school will still be built in East Somerville, an
area in which the youth population has remained intact while the West
side has seen a large drop.

This is certainly not the only
difference between Somerville's two halves. When the majority of
categories are displayed on the map, if West Somerville is black, the
East is white, and vice versa. The East Side is more densely populated,
suffers higher poverty rates and has, on average, fewer college
degrees. At the presentation of the study's results, one elderly
resident from East Somerville attested to the divide. "There has always
been a line between East and West," she said, "and the two will never
meet." Despite the clear differences between the two sides of the city,
Rawson wishes to bridge the gap. "One of the things we're trying to do
is to steer away from a sense of us versus them." One of the biggest
positives that he identified comes up in the discussion of race and
ethnicity.

Somerville has long been a town of immigrants, from a
first wave of Irish in the mid-1800's, to the Portuguese and Italians
who arrived en masse in the early part of the 20th century. Immigration
has forever been linked to renewal in the city and it appears that that
trend is once again picking up steam. While Somerville is not quite as
diverse as Cambridge or Boston, it continues to attract immigrants on a
large scale. Over 29% percent of Somerville's residents in 2000 were
born outside of the United States, a higher proportion than any other
neighboring city other than Chelsea. Since 1995 alone, a third of the
current foreign-born residents came to Somerville, mostly from Brazil.
"If it weren't for its diversity," said Rawson, the city wouldn't
experience as much economic investment." Nor would it be such an
interesting place to live, work and to study.