Somerville, Massachusetts, a city on the
outskirts of Boston and Cambridge, has often been called the "Paris of
New England." Maybe at one time, when the city was a down-at-the heels
old industrial town, it was said with tongue in cheek – but no more.
The UTNE READER opined that Davis Square is the hippest Square in the
country, and a study in the tony literary magazine GRANTA reported that
Somerville has more writers per-capita than Manhattan. In this charged
literary milieu, I am able to entertain my passion for interviewing,
more specifically: interviewing Poets and Writers. I happen to be very
lucky to be the Arts Editor for The Somerville News, and to have my own
column "Off the Shelf." This gives me a sort of license to tap the rich
lode of writers and artists who live in my burg. I have interviewed
people in my favorite café Sherman in the Union Square section of the
city, in my study on School St, on my Somerville Community Access TV
show " Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer," in the offices of The
Somerville News, and at my regular writers' group the "Bagel Bards," to
name a few spots. I decided to compile the many interviews I have
conducted in a collection "From the Paris of New England: Interviews
with Poets and Writers." (Ibbetson Street). Here is a review of the
book by Hugh Fox, who was a founding editor of the Pushcart Prize:

From the Paris of New England:

Interviews with Poets and Writers.

By Doug Holder

2009; 133pp; Ibbetson Street Press,

25 School Street, Somerville, MA 02143.

http://ibbetsonpress.com

http://lulu.com/ibbetsonpress

It's
really true, Somerville, Massachusetts, right next to Cambridge, is a
kind of New England Paris, all kinds of little eateries and galleries
and everything-else-ries, like an Asian market, a Peruvian cafe, you
name it. And what Holder has done here is to take the interviews he has
done with Somerville (and other fancy-wancy, avant-garde, or
no-guard-at-all) writers, bookstore owners, publishers, etc. and put
them together in a book — with photos.

Masterfully done,
Holder really brings the Somerville lit-world alive, alive, alive.
There's Louisa Solano, who ran the Grolier Poetry Book Shop for over
thirty years, talking about Robert Lowell, Philip Levine, Bukowski,
Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ed Hogan, there's poet Lisa Beatman, talking about
her recently published working-class-centered poetry (author of
Manufacturing America: Poems From the Factory), there's poet Martha
Collins who established the Creative Writing Program at U/Mass Boston
and who teachers Creative Writing at Oberlin College, there's Dick
Lourie, poet-musician-publisher (of Hanging Loose mag and publishing
house) talking about the old (and new) days in Somerville, Beat poet
and organizer Jack Powers, Eva Salzman, who has spent years and years
in England, there's poet Afaa Michael Weaver, a professor of Literature
at Simmons College in Boston talking about being an African-American
poet in a community that gives you the space to be eccentric, poet
Sarah Hannah, a professor at Emerson College in Boston, talking about
Ph.D.'s versus poetic creativity, there's poetic genius Lo Gallucio
talking about psychological problems and creativity, poet-publisher
Gloria Mindock who glories in the richness of cultural life in
Somerville, filled with writers, painters and actors…..

It
would take another book to just write about this book, that's how rich
it is. Interviews with Mike Basinski, Errol Uys, Lan Samantha Chang,
Miriam Levine, Mark Doty, Claire Messud, Ed Sanders, Robert Creeley,
it's a veritable Who's Who of artistic souls in Somerville. You go to
the Bagel Bard readings in Somerville, hang around with the Somerville
poet-artist gang, and it is like going back to Paris at the end of the
nineteenth, the beginning of the twentieth century.

*Hugh Fox is a founding editor of the Pushcart Prize and author of "Way, Way Off the Road: Memoir of an Invisible Man."

Breathe, Smell

The breath of the unshaven Russian on the other

side of the counter smells like decaying

rats in a trap

The beautiful woman at another counter has

blue eyes like marbles and yellow hair of a

distant sun but her perfume is

like rancid butter

Another man has the odor of a thousand

smoked cigars snuffed out and left in the closet

to grow putrid

There are times the nose wishes to be buried

in roses, greased by orange zest or trapped in

a pecan pie

The nose knows beauty and ugly

as for danger and safety the nose tells the eyes what

to look for

–Zvi A. Sesling

The 343 Summer Street property where the Dakota
Partners plan to build a 14-unit condominium development has remained
empty as a series of litigation has stalled the project. A suit by
abutter Dr. Mohamed Hanif Butt wound its way to the Massachusetts
Supreme Court, with Butt eventually losing. With the construction
permit on the brink of lapsing, the ZBA unanimously approved an
extension at the Feb. 18th meeting.

While Dakota now has until
March 2010 to begin work, their ongoing lawsuit against the city over a
proposed fire lane that would take down a public shade tree continues
to block progress.

In addition to Dakota's litigation against
the city, which the group used as the justification for hardship to
gain the permit extension, a lawsuit filed March 9th by residents Carol
Dempkowski, Nancy Iappini and George O'Shea alleges the ZBA overstepped
the boundaries of the city ordinance by giving the extension.

The
same group of neighbors has also called the proceedings leading up to
the decision into question. At two hearings on the project, they say
Assistant City Solicitor David Shapiro gave misleading information that
heavily influenced the board's decision in favor of Dakota.

After asking for a recording of the meeting, they found it cuts off immediately before the hearing on the project began.

"Quite
simply, the tape failed," said Tom Champion, executive director of
Somerville's communications department. "It was frustrating for us,
too."

Champion said that such a malfunction had never occurred in the year since officials started recording meetings.

"People
who feel passionately one way of the other will feel skeptical about an
error of this kind," he added. "All you can do is tell them it was an
accidental problem. No discussions happened that weren't in public
view. All the points were on public record."

The purported
malfunction has added fuel to criticism of the way the city has handled
the extension request. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the ZBA
say Shapiro made a critical mistake when he told the board at its Feb.
4 meeting that the Dakota Partners could apply for an extension only
once – a fact which several members cited in justifying their votes at
a meeting two weeks later.

"I'm not going to lie, I won't be
heartbroken if this thing doesn't get settled in court and expires in a
year," board member Richard Rossetti said. "Unfortunately, I have to go
with what the law says. For that reason, I'm going to lean toward
giving them the extra year."

A day after the meeting, Shapiro
sent an e-mail to the ZBA explaining that Somerville's one-year limit
was susceptible to legal challenges based on a 2002 decision by the
Massachusetts Attorney General's rejection of a similar ordinance
proposed in Swansea.

"While the Attorney General opinion does
not constitute case law," Shapiro's e-mail stated, "I do agree with the
rationale that an ordinance may not limit the number of extensions
where there is good cause to extend the permit."

The discussion
of the limit on the number of extensions, including the subsequent
e-mail clarifying Shapiro's position, are not included in a draft of
the meeting minutes provided to Nancy Iappini. Neither the Feb. 4 nor
Feb. 18 minutes have been posted on the city's Web site.

Iappini
said the botched meeting tape, combined with meeting minutes that omit
a majority of the points made by both sides, shows the city's lack of
oversight of the proceedings.

"We don't feel we had the
appropriate process met," Iappini said. "When meetings like that go
down, it's hard to be confident in the public process."

Just
after the lawsuit appealing the ZBA ruling was filed, the issue was put
on the March 18 meeting agenda as an "abutters' request to reopen
proceedings." The board will vote on whether to bring the matter up
again – which plaintiff George O'Shea, Iappini's husband, said could
lead to them dropping their suit.

"You have only twenty days to
make an appeal, and you had to hedge your bets," O'Shea said of the
decision to sue before seeing if the ZBA would consider a new hearing.
"Obviously it would be dropped if they opened it and changed their
mind, but we had to act."

Ras
na hEireann, which shares its Gaelic name with a cross-country race in
Ireland, attracted participants from all over Massachusetts, and about
30 from Ireland, where the Somerville event made news. The race was won
by Irishman Mark Carroll, who has been touted as Ireland's top long
distance runner, and who holds the country's record in the 5k. Carroll
came in at 14:22, or only 4 minutes and 38 seconds per mile, and the
large crowd at the finish line had to wait nearly a minute to see the
second-place finisher come in.

When organizer Paul Collyer, a
Somervillian of Irish descent, spoke of his plans to organize an Irish
race on the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day, people thought the
Somerville event wouldn't be able to compete with the parade held in
South Boston. But this year had the biggest turnout to date, with 1200
more runners than last year, and a larger crowd.

"People are
really starting to make this a yearly event," Collyer said, "more
people are using it as their St. Patrick's Day celebration."

Alderman-at-large
Jack Connolly, an avid runner who helped create the race in Somerville,
said that the idea behind the race was to mirror what's going on in
Ireland. "We wanted to make St. Paddy's weekend special, we don't need
a 3-hour parade," he said, noting that that people can drop by for 15
minutes to watch the race, or stay all day for the festivities.

After
the race ended, the crowds flocked to local bars, and long lines ran
out of The Burren, Redbones, Sligo and The Joshua Tree in Davis Square.
Bars from Magoun to Union Square were filled as well, said Collyer,
"every bar in Somerville was packed." There was a line coming out of
the Druid in Inman square as well. "We're bringing overflow business to
Cambridge instead of vice versa," he said with a laugh.

"Our
goal was to bring lots of people to Somerville, including residents,
and make it an attractive choice for people on St. Patty's," said
Alderman Connolly. "It's a huge economic uptick to businesses, and a
win for everyone."

It's also a win for youth athletic
organizations who will receive the proceeds from the event, which
Collyer estimated would be around $25,000. Somerville Track PAC, which
provides college scholarship money to Somerville High School Students,
is the main beneficiary, but money will also go to other groups such as
Somerville YMCA Learn to Swim, Somerville HS Soccer, and Toys for Tots.
All these organizations provided volunteers for the race, said Collyer,
and were very involved. "I like to work with high school teams, because
with cuts, their budgets get whacked first," he said.

Both
Collyer and Connolly contrasted the Sunday's celebration, which brought
in 20 police officers and resulted in no noted altercations, to the
South Boston Parade, which required as many as 600 police officers and
in past years has led to arrests and citations for disorderly conduct
and public drinking.

Collyer seems excited by the event's
success, and noted that it is one in a series of recent high-profile
Irish events Somerville, including the U2 concert at Somerville
Theater. He's also proud of Somerville's "ability to go head-to-head
with with the larger parade." Poking fun at the rivalry, he joked
"people go 'South Boston who?'"

Brickbottom Gallery residents lined up to
take the microphone during the comments period and told the Executive
Office of Transportation (EOT) that the project – complete with glaring
lights in their windows – would kill the quality of life for the 150
families that live there, thwart the site's potential for the creative
industry, and divert dollars away from a commercial tax base.

The
impassioned pleas were followed by rounds of applause in the high
school auditorium that was nearly filled to capacity with Somerville
(and a few Cambridge) residents and city officials.

City officials were also unanimously against the maintenance facility proposal and urged the EOT to look for alternative sites.

"We
already have the commuter line and cargo lines right next to us, and
that is something that we can get used to," said Ramon Bueno, a 20-year
resident at Brickbottom. "But having a maintenance facility will
jeopardize our health, our quality of life, the air pollution…We have
families. We fear a loss of value…We should not take on this
permanent burden."

Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone was quick
to say that a blog comment, "community path design running along the
Green Line Extension in exchange for building a maintenance facility"
was false. Nothing is final yet-though much of the angst that night was
over the reported action of the EOT "shoving the project down our
throats," as one Brickbottom resident described it. The project also
involves building a community path parallel to the extension, from
Cedar Street in Somerville to North Point in Cambridge.

The
EOT wants to build a "support facility" to store and maintain Green
Line vehicles that serve the extension. The EOT has recommended that a
mid-sized maintenance facility be constructed at the Yard 8 parcel 50
feet away from Brickbottom because the site is the best size and
location. Read the EOT's Support Facility Report at
www.mass.gov/greenlineextension.

EOT project managers defended
the facility, stating that few other parcels existed – if any – in the
city to build. They said that the EOT would incorporate mitigating
features like window treatments to mange vibrations and lights directed
downwards.

There's also the argument that building a
non-taxable facility will cut off chances for commercial development at
the Inner Belt. Brickbottom resident Susanna Darling questioned why a
tax revenue study has not been conducted for Yard 8.

Still
others pointed out that Somerville is relying on state aid right now –
which is also being cut. "We only have two areas to build
(commercially) and one of those spots is the inner belt," said Bill
Shelton, a Union Square resident. "Developers will not want to build
anything by a maintenance facility."

He also urged residents
to be informed with their battle. "If all we do is say 'no,' we can't
get what we want," he said. "People must educate themselves to find
creative solutions.

Yard 8 concerns dominated, but residents
did have a few other comments. Ward 3 Alderman Thomas Taylor said the
Union Square location is too far up Prospect Street and should be moved
closer to the square.

Ron Newman of Davis Square said that the
community path is important. The path in Davis Square is a key driver
for pedestrians to get to the T Stations there. But the path along the
Lowell Street, Gilman Street and Brickbottom stops should be
reevaluated as they needed a better interface with the path.

East
Cambridge resident Alan Green said that the Lechmere relocation is a
concern because people will have to cross many lanes of the O'Brien
Highway to get to the trains. He added that the EOT needs to hold more
meetings in Cambridge and involve citizens there more. Planners
acknowledged that the Lechmere issue is "a complicated one" and the EOT
is aware of neighborhood concerns. The EOT vowed to hold more meetings
there.

The Green Line Extension must be completed by
the end of 2014, or else the EOT will have to pay penalties. The
project – which has been in the works for 40 years – is still in the
infant stages. The EOT must apply for funding and create the final
plans. In the short term, in the spring of 2009, EOT expects to submit
a draft Environmental Impact Report detailing the transportation and
environmental impacts, followed by a public comment period. Preliminary
engineering plans will commence this summer, Victor said.

The
Extension consists of two branches. The "mainline," the longer of the
two lines, will travel north from a relocated Lechmere Station to
Mystic Valley parkway/Route 16. The shorter of the two lines will veer
off to Union Square.

The pros of the project-which residents and officials congratulate-include the following:

o
It will operate in existing railroad rights-of-way, reducing the need
to purchase or take local property and limit construction.

o The branches will open many neighborhoods to new development

o It will connect residents to jobs and services

o It will improve air quality and reduce traffic and congestion

Following an impressive 15-5 mark, along with
an 8-0 mark en route to another Greater Boston League title, the
Highlanders delivered an impressive 66-48 first round win over Beverly
before succumbing to Andover in a 56-41 defeat in the Division 1 North
quarterfinal match. Also recording a milestone victory was veteran
coach Brian Harris, who posted his 300th career win in the Highlanders'
win over Beverly. Overall, Harris has delivered a 246-136 mark at
Somerville while boasting a 54-50 mark at Arlington Catholic.

"I
really didn't think about it (300th career win)," said Harris. "All I
knew was that we had two days to prepare for our game against Andover,
and we had to cram in a lot of information in one practice. If we had a
couple of more days to prepare, and study them, then who knows what
would've happened."

Top performances included sophomore
sensation Kelsey Garrity, who delivered a career high 25 points in an
overtime loss to Notre Dame of Hingham. Notre Dame of Hingham captured
the Division 2 Eastern Mass Championship and later vied for the state
title, which took place last weekend.

"In beginning of the year
we had hopes to make a statement for ourselves," said Garrity. "We have
always been the underdogs and never really hit our high standards. From
game one, all of us wanted to start out with a bang, but going down 0-2
right away just shocked us. Then we won our tournament and our
confidence flew back up."

Just when the season had appeared to
have turned the corner, the Highlanders continued to suffer roadblocks
along the way. During one game following the Christmas break, senior
Jill Liberatore suffered a season ending torn anterior cruciate
ligament in her knee while Jennie Vallesio sprained her ankle, forcing
her to miss the bulk of the regular season. As a result, the
Highlanders were searching for answers.

Despite the injuries,
the Highlanders overcame adversity and managed an impressive run,
including an 11 game winning streak to end the regular season,
including a season sweep of top ranked Lynn English.

"We hit
some rocks in the season losing our starting shooting guard to a freak
accident and our backup point guard to a really bad ankle injury in the
same game," said Garrity. "We really had no clue where that would take
us. We pulled it all together and won 11 straight. We just pulled our
selves together – we never put our heads down – we where there for each
other, worked hard in practice and didn't worry about the changes."

Finishing
the regular season on a high note, the Highlanders were seeded fifth
and cruised to a 66-48 win first round home win over Beverly.

"When
tournament time came coach Harris deserved his 300th win," said
Garrity. "I think that we were the perfect team to give him that win.
We had a lot of momentum going for us heading into the Andover game,
and we were hoping We felt really strong – when Andover came I really
thought we were going to shock Massachusetts, but it just wasn't meant
to be. We did everything we could do, but in the end we came up short.
I think from my 8 years of playing basketball that that game was the
moment I was waiting for."

While the Highlanders' season may
have fallen well short of a Division 1 state title, it's certainly been
a season to remember for both the players and the coaching staff.

"The
girls just kept working harder and harder every day in practice," said
Harris. "They kept working through the sicknesses and the injuries, and
did a fabulous job. They showed commitment to the team, and they left
it all out on the court."

With a whopping 12 seniors lost to the
cap and gown, the Highlanders will aim to regroup come next year when
they'll once again be favored to defend the Greater Boston League
title.

One key asset for the Highlanders' success over the
next two years will be Garrity, who averaged 18 points and six assists
per game while earning all-star status in the process and developing
into one of the league's top point guards.

Charting
subjects such as drug and alcohol use, bullying, and the roles of adult
family members in the lives of high schoolers, the survey shows that,
while Somerville's teens continue to be exposed to the requisite
dangers of their age group, they are generally less "at risk" than the
average Massachusetts teenager. Cory Mashburn, the Acting Director of
SCAP, was encouraged by the results. "We're lower than statewide
average in most categories," he said. "Since 2006, levels didn't go up.
That's a positive."

64% of Somerville high school students
reported having consumed alcohol, but only 37% had done so within 30
days of taking the survey. In each category, Somerville's numbers are
9% lower than the Massachusetts average and have decreased nearly 7%
since 2002. In terms of other substance abuse, 20.8% of high schoolers,
and 29% of 12th graders, have smoked marijuana, a slight rise since
2006 but nearly seven points lower than in 2002. "Hard" drug usage,
such as cocaine, oxycontin and heroin appear to have declined slightly,
while ecstasy showed a slight rise.

Though the numbers are
encouraging, the work of SCAP, and other community organizations
devoted to adolescent health, is far from finished and may be at risk
due to the declining economy. At a presentation of the results on March
5th, students repeatedly suggested more after-school programs, and
other projects that might engage adolescents in the community, as
antidotes to substance abuse and violence. "It starts with making sure
that the kids have something to do," said Mashburn. As the economy
contracts, however, such programs are being subjected to cuts. For
example, Teen Connection, a health clinic within Somerville High School
that is designed to provide teens and young adults with physical and
psychological assistance, has lost its funding and will close in June.
SCAP appears to be safe–at least for the time being–as it has been
guaranteed two federal grants that will provide funding for the next
two years.

Although drug and alcohol use largely decreased or
remained stable, not all the results were positive. A reminder of the
potential hardships of adolescence, the number of students who reported
having been bullied increased 6% since 2006, up to 24%, despite the
fact that fights on school grounds decreased by 2%. Bullying, said
Mashburn, has been known to lead to depression, weight loss and the
potential of self-inflicted harm.

Such issues of student
health and safety have recently been spotlighted by the two deaths of
Massachusetts teenagers in the last five months due to underage
drinking. "These kinds of incidents put more pressure on SCAP," said
Mashburn, "and it shows why we're needed."

The funding is set up to take care of the most
frequented bridges in the most need of repair across the Commonwealth
first, like the Longfellow Bridge of the Charles River, the Whittier
Bridge in Amesbury, the Route 9 Bridge of Lake Quinsigamond in
Shrewsbury and others. Then, the rest of the funding will be allocated
through a proposal system. Among the bridges in the running for the
priority list of ones in need of repair and restructuring is the Mystic
Valley Parkway Bridge over the Alewife Brook, which lies between
Somerville and Arlington. Last Wednesday, the DCR threw a proposal
dinner at the VNA conference room in which they gave a presentation
about the bridge.

This particular bridge currently is in need of
repair, and the DCR has decided that its rehabilitation should be
extensive. The bridge currently has two wider driving lanes and two
very narrow sidewalks. One of the ideas for the renovation is to widen
the bridge, enlarging both the driving lanes and the sidewalks with the
possibility of adding a shoulder, as well as making both safer and
easier to navigate.

According to Alan Moore of Somerville, one
of the topics which raised the most attention at this meeting was the
one to "widen the sidewalks for both pedestrian and bicycle usage and
adding shoulders for possible conversion to bike lanes in the future."
This comes in the wake of the Green Line Extension programs decision to
extend to the Mystic Valley Parkway (Route 16). The new Green Line T
stop, along with other factors, have most people believing that this
stretch of road will attract many other bikers and walkers in the
future.

Moore stated, "Many agreed that this Alewife Brook and
Mystic River area could eventually attract as many bicyclists and
pedestrians as the Esplanade in Boston." This proved to be a convincing
argument with listeners present from: "LivableStreets Alliance,
MassBike, Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership, Somerville
Bicycle Committee, WalkBoston, Mystic River Watershed Association,
Friends of the Mystic River and Medford Green Line Neighborhood
Alliance, Senator Pat Jehlen's office, the City of Somerville and
residents from Arlington, Somerville and Cambridge," according to Moore.

This
project will be part of the DCR's $900 million budget and will take
place between 2009 and 2011 if it is accepted as one of the priorities.
Because of the DCR's previous promises to improve the area's biking and
walking paths near the Alewife Brook and the Mystic River, this bridge
should be a shoe-in for a spot on the master list.

East Somerville Main Streets (ESMS)
held its second annual meeting at the neighborhood eatery amidst a
roomful of small business owners, residents and elected officials. The
positive energy that came from teamwork amongst the many volunteers
that comprise the group (ESMS Executive Director Carrie Dancy often
says she is the only paid staffer) was palpable amongst much applause
and shouts of a lot of good work done in East Somerville-the
"forgotten" part of the city-over the past two years.

Gatherers learned about revitalization efforts in East Somerville that spanned ESMS and city-wide initiatives.

"For
a long time, people thought about this area as a pass-through, and we
are now just starting to capitalize on all of our assets" said Mayor
Joseph Curtatone.

For example, the funding has come in to
rebuild the East Somerville Community School (a bout of applause
erupted here), Curtatone said. The owners of Stop & Shop in
Somerville have approached the city to build a hotel by Harris Park.
Over at Assembly Square, IKEA will finally have a home there and the
foundation is already in the ground, he said.

The Assembly Square project will be the greatest example of "smart" development in the region, Curtatone said.

Washington
Street will be repaved "one way or another," Curtatone said, before he
was drowned out by another round of applause. Additionally, 14 other
streets will be repaved this spring.

In essence, East Somerville will get the extra attention that it so deserves, he said.

Dorie
Clark, the ESMS vice president announced some exciting projects planned
for 2009. ESMS' main priority is to beautify the neighborhoods, she
said. Last fall, city officials held a gathering at Sullivan Square to
discuss ways to convert the sad, "no man's land" there to an inviting T
Station that residents want (more applause).

Enchanting murals
like the display along Mystic Avenue are planned for East Somerville.
ESMS is working with the Somerville Arts Council on a particular
project right now, which will soon be announced, Clark said. "We are a
neighborhood of many artists," she said.

ESMS has been looking
into guidelines to unify storefronts. For example, studies have shown
that erecting grates and bars on windows sends out a negative message
about the safety of a neighborhood, Clark said. "So we encourage all
businesses to take down the grates," she said, amidst another bout of
applause.

Clark stressed that many ESMS initiatives require
help from residents. Visit www.eastsomervillemainstreets.org to sign up
to volunteer. For example, ESMS will stage "outreach days," which
entails erecting a tent with information and inviting volunteers to
talk to people walking through the neighborhood about the neat stuff
going on in East Somerville.

A new ESMS committee-the "East
Somerville Cafe Recruitment Committee"-will commence working on getting
a Bloc 11 or Sherman Cafe-style cafe in their neighborhood, Clark said.
The committee is looking for others to join the effort.

Other ESMS efforts for 2009 including the following:

o A neighborhood cleanup on May 9, in conjunction with the city-wide clean-up

o To continue the International Movie Nights this September

o To continue the "Lights of Broadway" holiday contest

o The "First Tuesdays!" monthly neighborhood gathering, starting with a wine tasting at Sullivan Square Liquors on April 7

o Establish an East Somerville site during Somerville Open Studios at the Cross Street Senior Center

ESMS
will hold a fund raiser in November to pay for these initiatives, with
Jimmy Tingle serving as the headline performance, Clark said.

Ben
Grossman, who leads Green Marketing Solutions for the East
Somerville-based Grossman Marketing Group, delivered the keynote
address. He talked about how Max Grossman founded the company in
1910-fulfilling a dream to own a company when he was selling envelopes
out of a pushcart. His innovation to create a more secure pay envelope
that immigrants in Boston used to send money back home led to the
Massachusetts Envelope Company (which later became the Grossman
Marketing Group).

This same kind of entrepreneurship exists
amongst the students at the local colleges-such as MIT and Harvard-who
the city of Somerville should encourage and foster. Grossman suggested
a "student incubator" effort where local businesses would donate money
to start-ups based in the city.

"Our company is lucky to be
close to schools like Harvard and Tufts, but we want to encourage the
students to stay here," he said. "We want them to think of Somerville
rather than Route 128."

Grossman encourages people to contact him about this proposal via www.grossmanmarketing.com.

Entrepreneurship
is how the city can rise out of the recession, he continued. "So that
we can capture the potential," he said. "We are positioned to do so.
After all, business growth is critical to support the tax base and to
create new jobs."

For Somerville to grow, it's also important to
invest in teaching children in the public schools the importance of
technology and innovation, Grossman said.

Susan Fontano, the
ESMS president, was also quick to highlight that making East Somerville
a better place to live is up to the residents.

"We had a great
year, thanks to volunteers and residents," she said. "It's a great team
spirit, and Somerville, in general, is known for that."