By Rebecca Danvers

The City of Somerville has some serious questions it wants answered, such as does workplace safety affect substance abuse? How does access to a means of transportation weigh upon how quickly someone becomes proficient in English? The city doesn’t know yet, but is launching a new program to explore those possibilities and more, fundamentally changing the way the city approaches policy-making.

A peaceful protest was challenged on Monday. ~Photos by Donald Norton

By Tom Bannister

A quiet protest of two individuals on Winter Hill in front of Citizens bank on Monday drew the attention of many passers by and customers of the bank.

One customer was offended by the protesters’ signs that read “Impeach Obama” so he called the Somerville Police.

“Holiday Lights” by V Van Sant.

By Gabriela C. Martinez

Nave Gallery is currently holding a photography exhibition titled Illuminated: A Photographic Essay of Holiday Lights, which explores the spirit and feelings of holiday season through images of winter lights.

No matter what end – or portion of the middle – you may lean to politically, you have to hand it to those who step up and serve their communities. It takes a lot of dedication and know-how to effectively get there, and then do a good job once one actually gets there.

This is so on the grand national scale, and just as much so on the smaller, civic level of city administration. Service is service, and it takes the same grit and commitment, no matter how large or small one’s constituency may be.

By Rebecca Danvers

It has been announced that the members of the Somerville School Committee will hold neighborhood meetings throughout the city from December 5 through December 8, seeking post-interview community input on the three finalists vying for the Superintendent of Schools position.

The School Committee anticipates making a final decision on Somerville’s next Superintendent of Schools on Monday, December 8.

— Photo by Donald Norton

By Rebecca Danvers

Mount Vernon Restaurant, located at 14 Broadway in Somerville, has been a family owned business going on 80 years next April, a distinction that most restaurants only hope to achieve.

In a city of under 4 miles in area and with all the various new restaurants popping all over the city, Mount Vernon has to be considered the city’s best of the best.

Guest columnist Emily Pineau, a student of mine at Endicott College and an intern at Boston University’s AGNI magazine, wrote this article about a panel I hosted at the Boston Book Festival last month – I hope you enjoy.

Anna Ziering will receive her MFA from Boston University in January 2015. She is currently traveling on a Robert Pinsky and Leslie Epstein Global Fellowship, spending time in Geneva and Prague before embarking on the Camino de Santiago. This is her first publication.

With more than 20 years experience in the recreation, planning and administrative fields, Lathan sets sights on improvements, additions to Recreation programming.

Somerville’s newest Superintendent of Recreation is off and running. Jill Lathan, a Recreation Director from Casco, Maine, took the reins from Acting Director George Scarpelli on Nov. 3, and has gotten off to a successful start in the city.

The Somerville nonprofit community has embarked upon a new journey of collaborative fundraising: Giving Tuesday Somerville. This holiday season, 15 nonprofit organizations are joining forces to collaborate on a first-annual joint fundraising effort as part of the international Giving Tuesday program. Giving Tuesday is an annual global day of giving that helps to raise funds and awareness for important causes everywhere.