Not to anyone’s surprise, we wholeheartedly support smart development along the various economic corridors in this city – more mixed-use, transient-use and low to middle income housing is a vital aspect of Somerville’s future economic growth – the other two equally important aspects being Assembly Square and the Green Line Extension, of course.

With all that this city has done to improve the quality of life in general for its residents by taking a solid, long-term approach to development, there are still areas that show our weaknesses to mid-level developers and the general public alike.

Revitalizing certain areas of the city strengthen the various localized economic corridors, it is true, but completely ignoring certain neighborhoods doesn’t do anyone any favors, regardless of how many parks you plan to makeover.

For example, certain sections of Washington Street, Medford Street and the Winter Hill neighborhood on Broadway all need some kind of long-term economic development projects and for all reasons specific to these different neighborhoods.

Very large developers and the small, everyday developers aren’t what we should be on the lookout – we have said this before and we will say it again – it always has been and it always will be the mid-level developers that are our community’s greatest threat. They will walk over their own mothers to make a buck and then leave – never mind what they will do to us.

What would be wrong with having a scoreboard hanging in ISD with developers and property owner’s names on them – with an itemized list of local laws and regulations ignored or flagrantly violated by them over the years? Think about it for a minute or two – shouldn’t past performances be a consideration when going before the city for permits/variances?

How about the more obvious – the kind of impression the general public gets about how local government colludes with developers? Does anyone agree that it might help to not have anyone who is a developer of any kind sitting on the ZBA? The general public has all sorts of ideas about how the local government works, why do we insist on perpetuating this impression?