Under current plans, M.S. Walker Wholesale Distribution, which employs over 180 people on Third Avenue, will be one of the businesses that will have to go to make way for the Green Line Extension transportation and maintenance facility. - Photo by Elizabeth Sheeran

MBTA unveils site plans for GLX train yard

By Elizabeth Sheeran

Seventy-six vehicles. 17,000 yards of track. 130 workers. The MBTA’s latest plans for a Green Line transportation and maintenance facility in Somerville encompass a mind-boggling array of statistics. But the number that concerns some residents is this: four parcels of privately owned property that the T will take by eminent domain.

As Americans we cherish and hold dear our rights to free speech and the ability we have to challenge and even criticize our government and other powerful institutions. Many have fought and lost their lives defending these rights that all of us now enjoy.

The celebrated historian, Niall Ferguson, captured the attention and admiration of the audience at last week’s lecture at Tufts.

Historian Niall Ferguson spoke at Tufts University on The Financial Crisis and the Descent of the West on Thursday, October 13. A weekly columnist for Newsweek and a contributing editor for Bloomberg Television, Ferguson is a prolific commentator on contemporary politics and economics and writes and reviews regularly for the British and American press. Named one of the world’s most influential people by Time Magazine, he was one of a handful of economic writers who accurately predicted the financial crisis that began in 2007.

Somerville musician Jennifer Matthews was in the words of Willie Nelson, “on the road again” for the past several years, and she has brought home “tales of a salty sweetheart.” The sweetheart is not exactly flesh and blood, but her new album to be released in the spring of 2012 based on her experiences across the country, and in Europe. I met Matthews a number of years ago, and I was impressed not only with her musical acumen, but her strengths as a wordsmith. Later the Ibbetson Street Press published a chapbook of her poetry Fairytales and Misdemeanors that is in the library collections of Harvard and Brown Universities, among others. Matthews agrees with me that Somerville is great burg to be an artist, and I have had the privilege to interview some fine musicians like Audrey Ryan, Kristen Ford, Allegra Martin, Yani Batteau, Lucy Holdstedt (of the Women’s Musician Network), and others. So it was good to have dinner with Matthews recently in Union Square and see what she has been up to.

Arrests:
*

Robert Thomas, 43, of 152 Jefferson Ave., Everett, October 10, 11:08 a.m., arrested at 77 Middlesex Ave. on charges of trespassing and shoplifting by concealing merchandise.

Victor Gandres, 45, October 10, 5:09 p.m., arrested at 149 Broadway on warrant charges of municipal by law ordinance and indecent exposure.

Robert Sanches, 44, October 10, 6:18 p.m., arrested at 67 Broadway on charges of assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon.

As an exercise in my poetry class at Endicott College I asked students to create a fictional Dad modeled after Sylvia Plath’s caustic but brilliant poem Daddy.  My student Kyle Giroux came up with this one.

Ordinance to curb late night disturbances

New rule holds landlords and underage drinkers responsible for rowdy gatherings

Alderman Robert Trane today praised passage of an ordinance that gives the City of Somerville renewed authority to directly hold absentee landlords responsible for late night parties and illegal drinking. Alderman Trane was the lead sponsor of the ordinance.

The seven candidates fielded questions and challenged one another at Monday’s debate at The Somerville Theater. - Photo by William Tauro

By William Tauro

The 2011 Alderman At Large debate took place on Monday evening at the historical Somerville Theater in Davis Square. Somerville’s four incumbent Aldermen-at-Large and three new candidates for that office were all on stage to earn your vote and to battle the right to occupy the four Aldermen At Large seats for the upcoming November 8 election.

By Sanjeev Selvarajah

So why is Kirsten Opstad asking for 5,000 dollars? She feels compelled to do so for the very reason she is also being whisked away to record her first full-length album in a studio: her music. Because of her music, a filmmaker named Whit Scott wishes her to compose a song for the soundtrack of his upcoming documentary Rolled. Afterwards, he is leaving her alone in the studio, for however long or short it takes to produce an album.

Everyone is welcome to attend the Somerville Alderman At Large Debate at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square on Monday, October 17, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. The debate is sponsored by SCATV and the program “Greater Somerville with Joe Lynch and KyAnn Anderson.” Admission is free, and the program will be videotaped for cablecast on Channel 3 later in the week.