This is the summer of CCP meetings: the
CCP has been hosting meetings in the neighborhood of each proposed
Green Line Extension Project stop within Somerville. The Gilman Square
event was the sixth out of seven of such meetings.

As the
meeting began, I had an uneasy feeling that there were too many
community organizers and too few community members. Since CCP is a
collaboration between Groundwork Somerville, STEP (Somerville
Transportation Equity Partnership), Somerville Community Health Agenda,
and Somerville Community Corporation, there were a healthy dose of
representatives from these organizations. Members of Teen Empowerment,
as well as a contingent from Tufts University were also present.

But
maybe some of these community organization representatives are also
residents, I thought, optimistically. It was certainly true that the
members of Teen Empowerment had roots in the neighborhood…

Before
I could finish this train of thought, community residents began
trickling in. I breathed a sigh of relief. A community meeting without
community members would be a pretty dismal story to cover. As the
meeting started, there were about 15 or so neighborhood residents,
appearing to represent a diverse set of economic and ethnic
backgrounds.

Ellin Reisner from STEP and Janine Lotti from
Groundwork Somerville took turns leading the meeting, which consisted
of helping us focus our vision for the Gilman Square area in ten years,
when the proposed Gilman Square stop should be fully operational and
its effects felt throughout the community.

Early into the
meeting, I was surprised that Reisner asked each of us to participate
in a vision-quest. I was freaked out as she asked us to close our eyes
and imagine walking through the neighborhood ten years from now, on a
nice sunny day. A few of us did not close our eyes upon the first
request, and she had to politely ask us again. She continued by asking
us what we saw, smelled, and heard as we walked through the future
Gilman Square neighborhood.

Further research into The
Somerville News Archives revealed that this vision-quest was the
brainchild of Abi Vladeck, a summer intern at SCC, through Tuft's Tisch
College. In the end, I'm not sure if Abi's approach was any more
effective than simply asking us how we envisioned the neighborhood in
ten years. To be fair, the exercise did spark discussion and allow us
to engage in productive dialogue.

Residents were happy to
discuss their hopes and fears about the implementation of the proposed
stop: keeping businesses local, ensuring that low and moderate income
residents wouldn't be shoved out by insidious rent increases,
maintaining the local character, improving car traffic and pedestrian
conditions, ensuring planning for green spaces, public safety, and
reserving new jobs for the community were the main subjects brought up
during our conversation.

Both Reisner and Lotti did an
excellent job of distilling our organic discussions into focused themes
which they listed on a large paperboard for everyone to internalize.
Reisner explained that this initial series of CCP meetings was meant to
spark discussion and focus our vision, and that subsequent meetings
will focus more on turning these visions into concrete proposals that
will be presented to the state.

When asked why CCP had decided
not to include either the state or the city of Somerville in these
discussions, Reisner indicated that this community process was meant to
run in parallel with government initiatives, and that the CCP would be
ready to share its proposals with the government once they felt that
they were ready to adequately and articulately represent the concerns
and desires of the community.

***************

The
Somerville Police Department will be hosting their 1st Golf Tournament,
hopefully the first of many, on Friday, September 25th at the Hillview
Country Club in North Reading. Money raised will benefit the
Massachusetts C.O.P.S. kids program. For more information, email
Detective Mario Oliveira, Chairman of the Golf Committee at
moliveira@police.somerville.ma.us or send in a $135.00 per player fee
or a $100.00 Sponsorship donation to: Somerville Police Detectives c/o
Mario Oliveira, Somerville Police Department, 220 Washington Street,
Somerville MA 02143.

***************

Last weeks Boston
Harbor cruise for Mayor Joe was pretty nice night out there on the calm
waters – enjoying the company of a few hundred Somerville residents.

***************

While
some were on the cruise, others from Somerville were jam-packed at the
Paul McCartney concert. Host Bob Publicover, along with the Norton's,
attended and had great seats on the field in front of the stage. Great
concert and great company. Bob recently had some tests done and it
appears he will be undergoing some operations very soon; we of course
wish him well and keep you posted.

***************

Some
might remember Ricky Hart of the Hart Family (10 brothers and sisters),
well Ricky and his wife Jamie just had their third child delivered –
this time it's a girl. Congratulations to Dick and Mary Hart – the
newborn's grandparents.

***************

Happy Birthday to
Kaitlin Norton, daughter of our own James Norton, who will be attending
Somerville High this year, all the way from England – she is 15 years
old. Also Happy Birthday to Lisa Marie Tauro, the daughter of our own
Bill Tauro – Lisa Marie turns 20, and we hear they might be planning a
huge party for her. Congratulations to both.

***************

Don't
forget the Somerville Lions "evening at Wonderland Park" on Thursday,
August 20th – only $35.00 pp, including a hot and cold buffet in the
clubhouse. The last night for greyhound racing here in Massachusetts.
Contact Billy Tauro, president at 617-290-2016 or mail checks to Gene
Brune, 25 Lowden Avenue, Somerville MA 02144 by the 17th of August.

***************

Last
week we asked if anyone recognized the literature that candidate Luis
Morales for Alderman at Large put out – we got several persons telling
us that it looks a lot like former 3 time loser and PDS Presidente M.
Martinez's literature – "For one Somerville." You know how we predicted
the endorsements for the 3 ward races ahead of time, well we again
predict they will meet in the small room at the VNA and vote to endorse
candidate Morales.

***************

Best wishes to Barry
Parsons of East Somerville, who has been in and out of the hospital,
he's not doing to well. His lovely wife Emily is holding down the fort
at home and well wishes to her and Barry are very much appreciated.
Barry is a nice guy and has lived here in Somerville and been active in
a lot of organizations up until lately.

***************

Our
old friend and popular Somerville Barber Tony Alibrandi just celebrated
20 years having his namesake baseball team, the Alibrandis, ball here
at Trum field last week. Tony and his wife Donna are probably the most
generous people here in Somerville; they constantly give support to his
team and other organizations here. We wish him another 20 years.

***************

There
is still a chance to contribute to the East Somerville Cookbook – the
deadline has been extended for online recipe submissions until this
Friday, August 14th – don't miss out, and share your recipe. Go to
http://www.eastsomervillemainstreets.org for more details.

***************

Project
MUM, an open-air dance party under McGrath Highway, is scheduled for
Saturday, Aug 29th. This year's event is an intergalactic space odyssey
featuring four hours of music, video mashups, and dance-offs. You won't
have to travel to a galaxy far, far away to find the best Saturday
night dance scene; this gritty urban space odyssey is only minutes away
from Union Square. Participants are encouraged to come in their best
space attire! Project MUM as an ArtsUnion Event presented by The
Somerville Arts Council and ARTSomerville. Go to
http://www.somervilleartscouncil.org for more details.

We are talking about that
nameless little group that still, to this day, continues to spew the
disgusting diatribe about how corrupt this city is, how everything is
held in a tight power base, how there are always back-room deals and
white envelopes flying through the air with the greatest of ease. Every
now and again, someone will find a little something something to
complain about when it comes to a certain Dept. Head or elected
official, and invariably then a comment is made about another associate
or colleague from 30 or 40 years ago, and somehow this is relevant to
today.

It's silly, really – because the ultimate irony is that
every decade or so, when they seem just at the point of getting some
real traction, they fall apart and disappear back into the shadows.
Some learn to stay away from the spotlight and not hold the torch for
insanity when they finally get the axe, and others just continue to
bang the gong. So sad, really.

Getting back to the irony that
never gets the traction – is that they start out with the greatest of
intentions – fighting the good fight against the establishment, putting
democracy at work, bringing important issues into discussion – but
invariably, they fall victim to the very things they espoused to be
against in the first place. They claim there is no transparency, but
they want to hold secret meetings. They claim there is rampant
government corruption, but there hasn't been any in almost 30 years.
They claim that not enough is being done, but then don't want to pay
for it, under any conditions, especially when it comes to fees and
fines. They claim a great injustice has been done, instead of learning
the difference between a public meeting and a public hearing.

The
greatest folly that usually starts the beginning of the end for the
latest cycle/iteration of political neophytes is when they start to
believe they represent something bigger than themselves. That they
alone can make someone go away who has been here their whole lives,
that they can effect city-wide change with a single letter to the
editor or guest commentary, that they can run someone out of business
with an audibly laughable weblog, even so far as to think that they can
rid the city of the "old school" politician by putting someone in the
race against them for office – and then act shocked and indignant when
it happens right back at them.

Change is good, challenge is good, questioning is good, transparency is good. Arrogance and ignorance mixed with them, is bad.

Mark Alston-Follansbee, Executive
Director of the Somerville Homeless Coalition, greeted attendees of the
event and happily mingled with guests throughout the evening. "Redbones
is the epitome of a community partner," Alston-Follansbee said, "Their
charity and participation in the community is incredibly important."
The Somerville Homeless Coalition receives approximately 85 percent of
their funding from Federal and State agencies, but they are responsible
to raise the remaining 15 percent. The Annual Pig Pickin' is one of the
biggest events to help in their fundraising. Over the last eight years,
the SHC has developed 80 permanent housing units and has placed 125
individuals and families in permanent housing. They are part of a
coalition between 6 Somerville agencies, including the Somerville
Community Corporation and the Community Action Agency of Somerville to
utilize money from the Federal Stimulus package for Homelessness
Prevention.

According to Mr. Lambert, the City of
Somerville's Infrastructure dates back to the turn of the 20th century,
making it well past due for some strategic improvements. Somerville
Avenue is an example of an area that was assessed and fixed through
this style of improvements. Its drainage system was not only
undersized, but also completely outdated because of its construction in
the late 1800's. Factor in the low part of city in which it lies, and
thus the problem arose, causing major flooding. This problem was solved
in 2008 by the Somerville Avenue reconstruction project, which replaced
the old drainage system with a new 66' storm drainage system including
culvert.

The Inner Belt District is currently a faulty area in
terms of flooding. According to Mr. Craig and Mr. Lambert, the MBTA's
rail infrastructure has blocked drainage into Miller's River. This was
apparently a foreseen issue back when the construction was beginning;
the MBTA promised to implement a system and treatment facility to
prevent any problems. The now proposed solution is to seek a commitment
from the state to make necessary improvements that are estimated to
reach up to $30 million.

This drainage issue brings multiple
problems with it, flooding being the obvious and immediate one. One of
the others is the health of the rivers and bodies of water around
problem areas. The current 'combined sewage' system that carries
sanitary and domestic wastewater, industrial wastewater and storm water
drains into the river in the event of wet weather. This jeopardizes the
cleanliness of the water, polluting it with all forms of waste.

Other
infrastructure issues that were addressed include the city's water
usage, and the decline of 'Green Factors.' The city plans to encourage
residents to cut down on their water usage, as well as assess ways of
making the city greener on the whole. One of the actions taken during
this 'Trend Phase' was to take an inventory of the trees in
Somerville's boundaries. The inventory showed a little more than 11,000
trees, 75% of which are in good condition, and valued at just under $16
million overall. Somerville is currently the most 'concreted' city per
square mile in Massachusetts, a statistic that the Office of Strategic
Planning and Community Development intends to eradicate.

In
respect to transportation in Somerville, Mr. Craig and Mr. Lambert
found many trends on aspects like vehicular traffic, the commute to
work, buses and rail services, bicyclists and more. Oddly enough, in
2000 Somerville commuters used public transit for close to one third of
all commuting trips, trailing only Boston and Brookline in rider ship.
This statistic could be seen as unlikely, considering that there is
only one rail service stop (Davis Square – Red Line) and fairly shoddy
bus service. Still, this shows the opportunity to cut down on single
drivers with the implementation of more public transit abilities.

One
startling statistic found is that Middlesex County has seen an increase
of about 7 million vehicles between 1993 and 2001. Also, it was found
that there are fewer miles of roadway per registered vehicle length, as
well as more registered vehicles per square mile of land in Somerville
than any of the surrounding areas. This causes problems in parking, and
in transit.

Those in attendance at this meeting addressed the
fact that driving is made entirely more convenient than mass transit.
This, of course, leads to residents resorting to driving, rather than
using the greener form of transportation. Projects like the Green Line
Extension, and the new Orange Line station construction at Assembly
Square will be imperative to making the city a greener and more
efficient space in respect to commuting.

The goal of these info
sessions, according to Mr. Craig, is to act as a primary phase that
will provide a fact-based foundation for the beginnings of projects to
improve the City of Somerville. The next phase will be one of
'Visioning,' where the Office of Strategic Planning and Community
Development will turn to big scale community forums that will be
composed of both the public and an elected committee. The hope is to
produce and solidify plans and objectives by mid next year, and present
them to the Board of Aldermen by early 2011.

For any more
information on this meeting, as well as the many more to come, visit
the City of Somerville's website or call 311. The hope of these info
sessions is to raise public interest, and get the community involved in
the improvement projects. The more public voice and opinion present,
the better the chances are for an improved Somerville.

Well
when this edition comes out, I will be hosting my fifth or sixth (I
can't remember) Mayor's Annual Senior Picnic. It's been 29 years since
former Mayor Brune started the great tradition. I will have the
pleasure of working with the gregarious and talented George Landers
,who is the city's official DJ, and a very good one at that. I love
seeing the sea of seniors as I look out from the stage. I have to say
that it is one of my favorite days of the year. I have made a lot of
friends at the picnic over the years. I bump into these folks at
Johnnies, in Davis Square, even at K-Mart. They are a wonderful
audience. This year I will be presenting the Sunsetters who June Knight
and I had the pleasure of directing this year. I usually put together a
few parody songs for the crowd.

I must now take a detour to
touch a serious reality for a moment. In a one minute period I saw a
grown woman up Powderhouse park who, sadly, could not read. Although
she was smartly dressed in what looked like GAP pants, Rockport shoes
and a cute little up swept hairdo, she lacked one of life's simplest
functions. This was evident to me as she was allowing her huge mixed
breed dog prance freely around the park. Now you know and I know that
there are signs posted that say "all dogs must be on a leash," yet this
woman ignored that sign. Was she illiterate or just irresponsible and
blatantly breaking a law? Man that burns me up. Of course I had to yell
out, "you know there's a leash law!" And a moment later, a car
screeched as a pedestrian was in the cross walk. See, the pedestrian
did not wait to check if there were any cars coming, and she also did
not make sure that the driver in fact saw her. You cannot just dart out
into a crosswalk assuming the cars will automatically stop. You have to
give the driver a chance to acknowledge that there is a person
crossing. She was almost hit. On Sunday a guy in an older Lincoln Town
Car came inches from broad-siding my truck with my son in the passenger
seat. This man never saw me. He was pulling out of the Clarendon Towers
and damn near killed us. Then some nut started beeping like a mad man
at me because I stopped at the intersection of Highland and Willow – he
wanted to proceed down Highland to Davis, and I wanted to let the 3
boys continue walking across the street… who were already IN THE
CROSSWALK! I know it's summer but, we all need to simmer down.

Back
to Big Wednesday. At 7 pm in the evening, 14 youngsters will take the
stage at Somerville High School Auditorium to sing 8 new songs about
Somerville. The show is called "Back in the 'Ville" and it is presented
by Project STAR – Summer Theatre Arts and Recreation. It was a free 6
week summer workshop that borrowed it's name from the historic Title 1
program of days gone by. We have a 3 piece band and a lot of energy.
It's a short show, but we will have a raffle and some former Project
STAR members may actually take the stage to share some memories. Next
year we hope to expand our enrollment. We did this on a very small
budget this year. We started out small and made our own little
backgrounds, but next year we hope to have more parent and community
involvement and a bigger group. Actually, our student-painted
backgrounds are dwarfed by the enormity of the high school stage, but,
hey…it's our first shot! I think we did pretty good for an upstart
group. What we lack in sets, we make up for in energy. Sophia Carafotes
was my able-bodied assistant, and she worked her tail off. Also the
counselors from the Recreation Commission helped enormously. The
Communications Department and the Mayor's Office did their usual huge
part in supplying support. The Sunsetters also enter our home stretch.
You can catch the schedule on Somerville Cable or on the city web site.
The show is basically about a guy who returns to Somerville after over
30 years, expecting that things stayed the same. You will share
memories of The Waldorf, The Woodbridge Inn, Frascatis, Speedy's Pizza,
The Venice Café, The Blarney Stone, and many more.

So there's
two big events on this "Big Wednesday." The Senior Picnic and "Back in
the 'Ville." We hope this show will evolve into a vital thriving summer
theatre program, giving many kids the chance to take the stage and
strut their stuff. We have some exciting school year things going also
that I will share with you later.

Enjoy the rest of your summer
and stay cool, both physically and mentally. When I used to get all
crazy and started acting impulsively and like a hot-head, my dad would
say…"slow Down." So let's take some advice from Fred. Slow down, and
enjoy the Senior Picnic, "Back in the 'Ville," and the rest of summer
2009. You can email Jimmy direct at jimmydel@rcn.com.

(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.)

The
story so far – when Governor Patrick was sworn into office, he
inherited a poorly-maintained, chronically underfunded transportation
system. In March, 2007, an expert commission studying transportation
finance issued a damning report. In December, 2007, the federal
government disapproved the state's official transportation plans,
jeopardizing funding.

2008: Actions Short of Solutions, New Problems

The
one-year anniversary of the Transportation Finance Commission Report
arrived in March, 2008, with no signs of action on its recommendations.
Instead, the administration was urging the legislature to act quickly
on its Transportation Bond Bill, which included authorizations for $600
million for the full estimated cost of the Green Line extension. The
bond bill was enacted before the July 2008 end of the legislative
session, as gasoline prices climbed to $4.00 a gallon.

Despite
the high price of gasoline, many in the legislature recognized the need
to solve the problem of insufficient revenue to run – and expand – the
state's transportation system, which had not yet been addressed.
Issuing more debt to build the Green Line extension and other projects
represented progress towards making those projects happen. Paying back
that debt – with interest – was going to require a revenue stream.

Several
legislators – including myself – went to work on transportation bills
to file when the new legislative session opened. Representatives from
Metro West communities organized to forestall expected toll increases
for the problem-plagued Massachusetts Turnpike. Meanwhile, the nation's
entire financial system – and that of the world – was showing signs of
serious meltdown.

Still, no proposal for reforming
transportation finance came from the administration. Instead there was
a surprising announcement: Bernard Cohen would be leaving his post as
Secretary of Transportation as of January 2, 2009. He would be replaced
by James Aloisi.

2009: Crisis, Opportunity, Retreat

The
new year was full of transportation initiatives, with several of us in
the House filing transportation reform bills in early January. On
January 13, the Governor announced that he would view a gas tax
increase favorably. On January 14, the Massachusetts Senate announced
its plan for comprehensive transportation reform, filing a bill that
proposed no new revenue.

On February 20, 2009, the Governor held
a press conference to announce that he would be filing a transportation
reform bill that included a 19 cent per gallon gasoline tax increase,
and did so the following week. On January 25, the Speaker of the house,
a supporter of a gas tax increase, announced his resignation as of
January 27, 2009. With leadership in the House temporarily uncertain,
the Senate raised the volume on its insistent message: "reform before
revenue."

At hearings that the legislative Transportation
Committee held around the state on transportation bills, the public
testimony was overwhelmingly against a gas tax increase. The public,
however, did not know that the federal government had disapproved the
state's long term transportation plan (STIP) for insufficient funding,
nor, it would seem, did the administration inform legislative leaders
about the STIP disapproval, and the consequent jeopardy to expected
federal transportation aid. The whole legislative debate on
transportation reform occurred without reference to the potential loss
of the state's single biggest transportation revenue source:
Washington, D.C.

Being out of compliance with federal
transportation regulations could prove problematic especially in 2009.
Federal stimulus money became available for transportation projects
this year, yet Massachusetts has only been funding for funding projects
that are relatively minor in size and scale, such as road resurfacing.
Meanwhile, the state's application for federal grant funding of the
important Silver Line 3 project was rejected because of the state's
financial problems ("Green Line extension funding in question," Boston
Globe, July 21, 2009).

The legislature during its budget process
did add some funding to transportation projects. Part of the revenue
raised by the new sales tax increase will be dedicated to paying
transportation system costs. The amount of money involved, however,
adds up to a band-aid for our transportation funding shortfall.

EOT
knew that it had to do something to get state transportation plans
federally approved, and federal dollars flowing again. It took the only
course left: re-writing the state's Regional Transportation Plan (RTP)
and shorter term transportation plans to fit the amount of funding
available.

On July 3, 2009, EOT presented its scaled back plans.
These included a proposal for the Green Line extension which delays the
College Ave to Route 16 portion until a later date. The project's
estimated cost ballooned; pegged at $438 million in 2005, and budgeted
for $600 million in last year's transportation bond bill, is now casted
in EOT's finance plan at $934 million – and EOT wants to make the
project conditional on federal grant funding.

What next?

On August 20, 2009, EOT's final revised plans will be presented for
public comment. The comment period will end September 22, 2009. Anyone
concerned with the future of the Green Line extension, or any other
affected part of our transportation system, should think about
submitting comments.

The
Metro Mayors Coalition is a group of mayors and city managers that work
together to facilitate collaboration among the Boston Metro area and
deal with common issues. Established in 2001 by the Metropolitan Area
Planning Council, the coalition has grown to accommodate 13 mayors and
city managers from Boston, Braintree, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea,
Everett, Malden, Melrose, Medford, Quincy, Revere, Somerville and
Winthrop.

Funding for the tournament came from the Charles
Shannon Community Safety Initiative, a state grant program designed to
aid government agencies, community organizations, and law enforcement
officials in their efforts to combat youth and gang-related violence.
The Shannon Community Safety initiative was established in response to
increased gang-related violence around the Metro Boston area, an issue
Saturday's tournament hoped to counteract by bringing police officials
and local teenagers together in a fun, mutual environment.

The
tournament was successfully kicked off last year at Revere High School
and Saturday's tournament was just the second year of what the Metro
Mayors Coalition hopes to become a long-standing annual tradition. The
weather was scorching hot as the nine teams squared off in the double
elimination event, followed by a three-point shot competition at the
end. Teams consisted of teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17, some
of who were joined together through their local high schools and others
who were matched up by community youth programs.

Attendance was
reportedly up from last year as the tournament brought together an
impressive turnout of players, police officials, and fans from all nine
towns and cities involved. Mayor Curtatone came with his three sons to
cheer on the players and support the event. When asked about the
tournament, he said that strengthening the relationship between youths
and local law enforcement officials in fun, communal events like this
is a critical part of the struggle against gang-related crime and
violence. He added that he hopes for the event to "grow exponentially"
over the next few years.

Police officials created a great
atmosphere for the event by coaching some of the teams, refereeing the
games, organizing the brackets, and shooting around with the players
between games. Mama Gina's Pizza in Union Square sponsored the event
and provided pizza for all players, law enforcement officials and fans
who attended. Chelsea emerged as the winner of the tournament, knocking
off Quincy in the finals, while a representative from Quincy won the
three point competition, making an impressive 17 three pointers in 1
minute and 30 seconds.

Amy Desrosiers, a manager with the Metro
Mayors Coalition, said the tournament is "a great event to bring kids
we work with in Shannon Grant together with police in a fun
atmosphere." This environment certainly seemed to be achieved as
Saturday proved to be a day when teenagers and law enforcement
officials from the Metro Boston area were able to play some basketball
and have fun as a group.

The OSPCD is in the process of fine
tuning a proposal that will expand the current zoning policy in hopes
of attracting new commercial developments to help revitalize the Winter
Hill and lower Broadway areas. Generally speaking, the plan will allow
businesses to expand the square area of their property through an
increase in the allowable height and density of buildings along the
Broadway corridor.

Rob May, the Director of Economic Development
for Somerville, states that Somerville's "current zoning ordinance is
very limited in height, density, and the bulk of buildings. The new
zoning, which is based on the successful passage of zoning in Union
Square, brings these concepts over to Broadway and works with owners to
redevelop their property." The restructured zoning will also create a
series of incentives to make it more palatable for businesses to
redevelop their lots. "It is not financially feasible to redevelop
under the current zoning ordinances," says May. New zoning regulations
will also reward "green" developments and will attempt to discourage
vehicular traffic with underground parking regulations for certain
classifications of property.

The OSPCD and Ward 4 Alderman
Walter Pero admit that one of the main reasons for the change in zoning
is to help alleviate the issue of the vacant Star Market site in the
heart of Broadway. "The rezoning is really critical to the development
of Winter Hill, says Pero. "The catalyst for the rezoning was the Star
Market site which, unless it went through some zoning changes, could
only have been another market." The Office of Strategic Planning and
Community Development has contacted numerous supermarket chains over
the past few months but has found little interest in leasing the
property from its owner due to the current building specifications and
the close proximity of the Stop and Shop. "With the change in zoning,"
says Pero, "we can build something denser, bigger–maybe with mixed
use, and get the parking away from Broadway. Winter Hill looks tired
and it needs a boost."

Rob May and the rest of his team
believe the old Star Market site to be the lynchpin for the Hill and
feel that its current vacancy is a detriment to surrounding businesses.
"When you get into the Winter Hill area, all those businesses are
suffering because Star Market is empty-it is not bringing customers
into the community." Seven new businesses have opened their doors in
the last nine months along Broadway, but there have been few signs of
growth along that area of Winter Hill.

The Office of Strategic
Planning and Community Development will also be rolling out a program
called "Streetscape" next spring in an effort to further rejuvenate the
lower Broadway area. The initiative will widen sidewalks, provide
pedestrian amenities, and will make Broadway more of a bike-able route.
The OSPCD hopes that the new zoning regulations will help make lower
Broadway and Assembly Square "gateways" to Somerville through a
revitalization of architecture.

The meeting ended with some
questions from concerned local residents over the potential size and
scope of a new structure in the old Star Market location and how it
would affect the homes set below the back side of the lot. One resident
felt that a taller building would cast a shadow over the nearby homes
already set 15 feet below the vacant lot. Under zoning laws, the
Planning Board and the Design and Review Committee would have to sign
off on building changes that would affect the area.

There will
be a final community meeting to discuss the rezoning of all of
Somerville on August 12th and the OSPCD will submit their final
proposal to the Board of Aldermen in September.