You have to hand it to city leaders and planners when it comes to delivering on promises of big things taking shape at Assembly Square.

The big Odysseo show opens this week, bringing world-class entertainment to town, and a few much welcomed jobs to go around during its run here as well.

By Jim Clark

Police responded to Shaw’s Market on McGrath Highway last week on a report of an unwanted person on the premises.

Upon arrival, officers were advised by the store’s loss prevention personnel that a woman, Maxine Davis, 49, of Cambridge, had attempted to shoplift from the store.

A memoir-essay of the author’s early years.   I think we all have memories of that hole-in-the wall we lived and survived in, during our first foray into the ADULT world. You know the drill– the hot plate, bathroom down the hall, maybe kitchen privs, or as a friend of mine described it, ” the suicide suite.” Well in the late 70’s I moved back to Bean Town and got a furnished room on Newbury Street. That’s right- fashionable and oh-so chic Newbury Street. But behind the august Brahmin Brownstone facade, was a gone-to-seed series of rooms that constituted a rooming house. And what a cast of characters resided there. Right across from me was a red-faced retired Irish civil servant.

Poet Robert K. Johnson is a keen observer. Here are two summer poems that he sent us recently.

Arrests:
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Ricardo Vasquez, 36, of 201 Main St., Waltham, July 29, 2:23 p.m., arrested at 162 Central St. on a charge of operation of a motor vehicle with a suspended license.

Jose Hernandez, 38, of 17 Dexter St., Medford, July 30, 11:07 p.m., arrested at 197 Cedar St. on charges of leaving the scene of property damage and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Mayor Joseph Curtatone and Somerville Office of Prevention (SOP) Director Cory Mashburn announce that, for the 10th consecutive year, Somerville Cares About Prevention (SCAP) will partner with the Somerville Police Department to host Somerville’s National Night Out Against Crime and Drugs.

– Photos by Donald Norton

Law enforcement officials, youth services workers and local teens joined together for the Sixth Annual Metro Mayors Basketball Tournament, Saturday, August 3, in a show of solidarity among youth and those who fight for their safety.

Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Quincy, Revere, Somerville and Winthrop sent teams to a five-on-five tournament hosted by the Metro Mayors Coalition as a way to promote safe summer activities and kick off the coming school year.

The Metro Mayors Coalition, facilitated by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), is a collaborative group that brings together 13 mayors and city and town managers from the Greater Boston area to find common solutions to shared problems.

The actual process of taking down the Brickbottom Waste Transfer Station has not yet been determined, according to City of Somerville sources.

By Cathleen Twardzik

The plan to demolish the Somerville Waste Transfer Station, located at Brickbottom, just off McGrath Highway, in August has still not been solidified.

Somerville Public School’s Summer Wind Camp performed at Cross Street Center. This is a program led by Richard Romanoff and Rosemary Sears, SPS music teachers and Anthony Prestigiovanni, a recent Music Education graduate of UMASS Lowell. Pictured here, Grace Lotti performs on saxophone.

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

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

Hello Somerville! Here is a great article from a good friend of mine who is a true Somerville kid, Anthony J Accardi Jr.  But before you read his story I just want to congratulate The Sunsetters, for who I have the pleasure of being the director. They performed on Fox 25’s Zip Trip last Friday and were a big hit! It’s too bad someone actually called the police on them while they were doing a show on Hall Ave. the Wednesday before. Maybe the irate neighbor would rather have had the teenagers hanging on the corner, or breaking windows, or drinking or doing drugs. For the past five years I have met some of Somerville’s finest kids who work their tails off singing and dancing, and entertaining the people of Somerville.  I would also like to thank Thalia Tringo of Thalia Tringo & Associates for providing pizza and soft drinks at Wednesday’s Sunsetters preformance on Hall Ave.  To the neighbor who called the cops I say…nay nay, they didn’t stop the show!

Between last year and this year, the alumni of Somerville High School’s Class of 1981 will have turned 50 years old. Last year my friend and classmate Angela Sperduto sent me a Facebook message suggesting we do something to celebrate this once in a lifetime event. I thought it was an awesome idea, so in March of this year I put the idea in a post on our Facebook reunion group. The responses were overwhelming. So, this past April a group of us from Somerville High School’s Class of 1981 met at Casey’s Bar in East Somerville. How fitting that the class of ‘81 returns to Somerville.