Mayor Joe Curtatone held his re-election event this past Monday. About 80 – most were payroll patriots employees – showed up at this campaign kickoff. We heard his campaign even did robo-calls. One of our Newstalkers mentioned that he got a call about the kickoff and couldn’t figure out why. He is a registered Republican and has never gone to any of Mayor Joe’s fundraisers. The new Dilboy Post is said to hold way over a 100 and something. It must have looked bare, with only 80 people present. One person told us that in his speech he mentioned Donald Trump 19 times. Now, don’t you think he should have been talking about development and various projects going on in the city? We couldn’t find out why the Personnel Director, who we heard hasn’t received a college degree, had her salary shoot up to $147K. That must piss off some other department heads. Does the DPW Commissioner Stan Koty make that amount?

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City Councilor At-Large Bill White held his re-election event on Monday night at the Olde Magoun’s Salon in Magoun Square. Bill had a lot of competition, but he managed to pull out a small but committed crowd. We heard from one of our Newstalkers there there were about 20-25 there on Monday night. Maybe it was the mayor’s time, which was same night and time.

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What is wrong with the city? Potholes this late in the year all over, rubbish on the streets in the squares, sidewalks broken. Maybe the city should review the contract with the people who sweep our city? The city infrastructure just hasn’t been kept up and we’re wondering what are the councilors are doing, referring people to 311? Was a time in the past that the not so old Board aldermen would pick up a phone and things got done? Speaking of pot holes, Aldersey St. in Ward 3 seems to have more than its fair share of pot holes. Maybe the city councilor representing Ward 3 might want to check it out.

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Last week, Wednesday, June 19, at Healey School on Meacham St., the city held a meeting to discuss the old Star Market site. About a hundred people showed up to listen to basically nothing. They handed out sheets with three options on it, one of which was “wait and see what happens.” It appears that the developer they had for the place totally backed out of the project. It’s been a long time and it is now the city’s sore spot. Mayor Curtatone and Ward 4 Councilor Jesse Clingan both should be working day and night to get something going and fast. People are getting upset.

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The Encore casino grand opening was this past Sunday. Thousands stood in line from all over to get in, but a few Somerville residents wondered why Somerville doesn’t have a shuttle? It appears that Everett, Medford, Malden, New Hampshire, South Shore and even Boston at various points have direct shuttles to the casino, but not Somerville. Why? Somerville is closer to the casino than even Chelsea. Assembly Square sits right across the channel from the casino, but no shuttle! Who pissed off Wynn? Someone has, and now Somerville has to go to Wellington to get a shuttle to the casino or walk from East Somerville over the bridge. Hopefully, something will be done and soon. We can’t get there from here, but why?

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What happened at the Winter Hill Bakery? It seems like that nice lady who was always smiling and helpful to the customers during the week has been exiled to only weekends. Anyone who has gone in to the bakery for the various breads they sell knows who we are talking about.

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More new faces are showing up behind the prescription counter at the former Rite Aid now Walgreens in Winter Hill. It appears that the old staff has been fired. The other current Rite Aid stores are very anxiously waiting to see what happens to them. Will they just be thrown out like the pharmacist on Winter Hill or will they keep their jobs? One thing we can say is that many of them do not want that manager from Winter Hill to come down to their stores!

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Last week we told you that we called a local councilor and asked why the traffic lights at Broadway and Boston Ave. are not blinking. It seems pretty stupid to have two transit cops sitting there playing on their phones, with signs everywhere and several huge trucks parked in front of the bridge. That councilor wrote us back and forwarded a letter with an explanation as to why it’s the way it is. We can’t print the reason why this week. but it sounds like the men and women at the GLX are still raking in the money!

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Celebrating their birthdays this week: Happy birthday to a good guy, Jonathan Buck, who celebrates this week. Jonathan is the General Manager at Mirak Motors in Arlington. He currently lives in Winter Hill and is well known. Happy birthday to Rod Laurenz, a great guy and generous with his time and energy. We wish him a very happy birthday this week. Happy birthday to the nicest Somerville lady – and we mean lady – here in the city her whole life and is still here. She’s paralegal at Attorney Sean O’Donovan’s Law Office. She’s committed to doing her work every day and her love for her family, happy birthday Paula! Happy birthday to a good friend as well, Cheryl Taylor, of ERA Keys Realty. Happy birthday to Katherine Cremins this week as well. We wish her the very best and that all her wishes come true and soon. Happy birthday to a former writer here at The Times who has moved on, Beecher Tuttle. Finally, a happy birthday to Joe Grafton, who is celebrating this week. To those that are celebrating this week, and we didn’t post, again we wish you the best of birthdays.

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The retirement party for Ricky Willette (DPW) is tonight  at the Olde Magoun’s Salon. We’re sure it will be  packed. He’s a popular guy and we wish him well. Of course, we wish Ricky the best of luck in whatever he does.

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We heard that the DPW Commissioner is staying on until December 31 of this year. We guess so Joe can have him run his campaign again. Hopefully, Joe has others co-running it, because although Stan was good in his day, now it’s like he is in a Twilight Zone. We’re concerned here at Newstalk that he can’t handle both jobs at the same time. Some are already questioning the decision, but he trusts everyone now, doesn’t he?

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The campaign for School Committee in Ward 3 is already very active. We heard from Mary Marshall that she and her followers are planning on canvasing the ward several times. We know one person in Ward 3 who met her recently and was impressed with her credentials. Now, we don’t want to say the other two aren’t working hard. We haven’t heard from anyone in Ward 3 that says they are or not.

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It’s getting worse. The city streets are getting smaller because of bikes, that some don’t even pay attention to the rules. We say charge them a license fee for bike excise tax.

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There appears to be a rush on applications from home owners and developers to turn multifamily homes into condos before the new law takes effect. It appears the condo review board is earning their money and more. When and if this law happens, you can thank the city councilors for the prices drop here in Somerville – like a rock. Many homeowners with two, three and more families will see a significant drop in prices. Guess the city council doesn’t get it. We are a city of less than four square miles (fifth smallest in the country, and first in New England).

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After trying out some other donut places, we keep coming back to Demet’s in Medford on Mystic Avenue. They are made on location and fresh daily, and most of all they taste so much better than most.