Take our 2-minute survey on the Community Preservation Act!

This summer, the City’s Community Preservation Act (CPA) program is being evaluated to help us learn what its strengths are, how it can improve, and how well known the program is. Whether you are familiar with the CPA or not, you can help by taking our 2-minute survey so we can learn about your preferences and what’s working for you. To take the survey, just visit somervillema.gov/CPAsurvey, and please share this link with your friends and neighbors too.

Get ready to ‘Seize the Summer’ at SomerStreets this Sunday afternoon between Davis Square and Teele Square on Holland Street.

By Rebecca Danvers

The city’s next offering in its Somerstreets open streets festival, “Seize the Summer,” takes place this weekend, on Sunday between Davis Square and Teele Square on Holland Street.

According to the city and other festival sponsors, the aim is to promote and encourage easy access to physical activity, fresh foods, and reconnecting with neighborhoods and businesses and their unique cultural elements in a thriving urban environment.

Check out some of the latest Somerville Neighborhood News headlines:

Somerville Neighborhood News is a production of Somerville ​Media Center, made by professional journalists, volunteers and staff. The news ​department  ​delivers lively, informative ​and engagement news segments focusing on the events, issues and information impacting Somerville residents.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning last week, and those showing up at Union Square Farmers Market found plenty of locally produced vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, fish, bread, cheese, mushrooms, baked goods, wine/hard cider and specialty foods on hand, as well as some great live music and fun activities.

Epidemiology researcher at The Broad Institute, Shawn.

By JT Thompson

Shawn: early 20s, an epidemiology researcher at The Broad Institute, a lab that is a collaboration between Harvard and MIT. Part of a wave of young professionals that are moving into Somerville, Shawn lives a ten-minute walk from the center of Union Square. Outside his kitchen window, an American flag flies at the elementary school next door, and, in the distance, you can see the lights of Boston’s Prudential Tower.

Shawn is tall, broad shouldered, slender, with carefully combed blonde hair and intelligent, kind eyes. He speaks calmly and clearly, obviously thinking as he talks, then steadily trusting in the thoughts that come to him. When he has said what he wants to say, he sits quietly while I catch up in my notebook.

By Darcie Fisher

Citizen Schools, a national nonprofit that partners with public schools to provide academic enrichment in underserved communities in four states, announced on Tuesday a major financial investment of $500,000 from Google.org, bringing the company’s total support of Citizen Schools to over $4.5 million.

By Jim Clark

As part of an ongoing surveillance operation last Thursday, Somerville Police Drug Unit officers observed a man known to them walking along Mystic Ave.

The man was known to members of the unit from previous drug related offenses.

By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

Taking a closer look at notable city data—and interesting numbers.

44 percent: Earlier this year, I used this space to discuss the realities of the national opioid epidemic and Somerville’s challenges within the crisis. As I indicated then, Somerville – like much of the Commonwealth – had been seeing an alarming trend of an increase in opioid-related deaths, rising from three in 2012 to 21 in 2016. I told you there were signs of hope, and those signs are still there and getting stronger. Preliminary Somerville Police data shows a 44 percent decrease in opioid-involved fatalities for the first six months of 2017 when compared to 2016. In recent years, we had seen a spike in fatalities during the spring months (averaging 7 each spring from 2014 to 2016). This year there was one reported opioid-related death in the spring.

The new traffic pattern in Union Square is galling to some neighborhood locals as well as commuters passing through. — Photo by Erin Wade

By Erin Wade

Monday’s rush-hour debut of the new traffic pattern in Union Square saw cars and buses driving through a lane reserved for parking and confusion over a new right-turn arrow on the traffic signal at the intersection of Prospect Street and Somerville Avenue, despite orange cones and police directing drivers through the new pattern.

Ward 2 Alderman Maryann M. Heuston reported the latest findings of the Special Committee on Rodent Issues to the Board as a whole at their last regular meeting.

By Jim Clark

The City of Somerville Board of Aldermen heard a report by the Special Committee on Rodent Issues at the most recent regular meeting of the Board.

Committee Chairperson, Ward 2 Alderman Maryann M. Heuston, updated the status of the city’s efforts to curb the rodent infestations that have plagued the city for many years.