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

Mayor Joe
Curtatone's annual "Mayor's Senior Picnic" here in Somerville will be
Wednesday, August 12th from 11 am to 2 pm at the Nathan Tufts Park
(Powderhouse Circle) – there were be the usual dancing and
entertainment plus a lunch, along with a lot of prizes and fun for
everyone. This annual event has been going on since Gene Brune was the
Mayor. Call City hall at 617-625-6600 ask for the Mayor's Office for
ticket information.

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

Our own Jimmy Del
Ponte is hosting Project Star – a summer theater arts and recreation
production of an original musical called "Back in the 'Ville." This
masterpiece was written and directed by Jimmy with the help of his
talented Co-Director Sophia Carafotes. It's at the Somerville High
School Auditorium on August 12th at 7 pm and admission is free – we
hear it's going to be fantastic.

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

So for
the past few weeks we told you ahead of time who the PDSers were going
to endorse – and true to form – we predicted correctly. It's almost
like we are clairvoyant, but of course we're not. Why would anyone be
surprised that they endorsed their co-founder Rebekah, their long time
member and activist Mark and Marks hand picked PDS candidate in Ward 4
– Christine. Are you at all surprised? Come on, you know it's a set up
don't you? Oh, they will tell you that three other candidates that are
not PDS members didn't submit their replies…but would you if you were
those three people? It would be like the Appraiser's Association of
Somerville endorsing James and the remaining former residents of
Boston's West End endorsing Jim Campano. Give us a break. The only
endorsement that matters is on election day – let the chips fall on
either side.

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

On another note in the
Alderman at Large race – Mr. Morales' literature looks so very
familiar…the layout, the wording and oh yes – even his slogan: "Your
Alderman, for One Somerville" – maybe it's just us, but we've seen this
someplace else in another election year – can anyone guess where and
when? Blog your guesses on our web site, and we will print next week
the correct answer.

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

Wonderland Park's
rich history of dog racing is coming to an end on August 20th in Revere
– the voters narrowly banned dog racing last year. The Somerville
Lion's has booked the dinning club for the last night – only $35 pp and
all the proceeds go to local Somerville charities. Call Billy Tauro
617-293-2016 to get tickets for the event and a good evening of fun and
entertainment. By the way, if you are a business person here in
Somerville, call and talk to him about joining this great organization
– they meet every Tuesday at the clubhouse on New Washington Street for
a dinner.

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

By the way have you seen how
empty the Farm Team paper has been lately? Take away the inserts and
count the stories – it's very little local news anymore. It's "totally
wicked small paper" – don't cha think? Check out for yourself what we
see – piles of the Farm Team paper on Monday/Tuesday and especially on
Wednesday (check the CVS at Magoun Square) still on the floor and on
the racks of several other stores they deliver to – they stopped
delivering to their two remaining boxes here in the City.

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

How
does the Somerville Community Corporation get itself involved in the
Green Line train stops with another group Somerville Community Health
Agenda (we tried goggling this group and only found it on the web page
of the local PDSers members web site). They're holding a series of
meetings along the Gilman to Ball Square green line extension with the
so-called neighbors. There is actually a meeting tonight in Gilman
Square and we can tell you first hand the NONE of the immediate
neighbors were never notified about it, including both the Ward
Alderman and the School Committee person. Who is this group? If there
are meetings, why not meetings held by the City? Instead of a group
that is supposed to focus on housing issues? The last time the director
of SCC had his picture taken in Gilman Square he referred to it as East
Somerville, which goes to show you how much he knows about Somerville –
anyone that lives in Gilman Square has never been referred to as being
from East Somerville and never would be by someone who knows the
distinct difference.

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

If you or anyone
you know has been a victim of bullying, SCAP (Somerville Cares About
Prevention) is holding a community discussion for youth, parents and
any interested Somerville residents to discuss bullying. Topics for the
discussion will include: 1. what is bullying; 2. types of bullying; 3.
tips for youth to assist them with bullying; 4. tips for parents to
assist youth with bullying. It will be held on August 27th from 6 to 7
pm in the 1st floor conference room at the City Hall Annex, which is
located at 50 Evergreen Avenue. For more information or to learn more
about what SCAP does for the community, contact Cory Mashburn, the
Director of SCAP at 617-625-6600 x. 2570 or email him at
cmashburn@somervillema.gov

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

The 11th
Annual Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition "Against the Tide"
one-mile swim, two-mile kayak and three-mile fitness walk will be held
on Saturday, August 15th from 7 am to Noon at Nickerson State Park in
Brewster, MA. Against the Tide is a one-mile competitive or
recreational swim, two-mile kayak, and three-mile fitness walk to
benefit the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition (MBCC). This fun and
inspirational morning statewide event brings swimmers, kayakers and

It's
the terms of the health care reform, it will be the aftermath – the
devil in the details – so to speak, that will affect us here at home,
on Main Street, Anytown USA. Maybe President Obama wasn't upset that
the "Beer Summit" distracted the nation from his health care initiative
after all. This is just what he needed to tweak and make changes while
the nation cooled down about who drank what beer and talked about this
or that on the lawn at the White House – a nice, leisurely chat amongst
friends. And about 1,200 reporters with cameras, of course.

Not
to sound like alarmists, but, have you spent any time going over the
details of the Obama Health Plan 2009? It comes with a lot of bells and
whistles at first, but promises to be a bit more scary as the years go
on – and as you and I get older.

The first thing we thought
about when we looked into the plan, and then read the pro and con sides
of the issue, was that there is no way to get past the "Logan's
Run"-esque nature of the "special panel of experts" that could,
theoretically, decide that even though you are in perfect shape at 75
years of age, you cannot have the hip replacement you desperately need
to remain mobile under your own power.

Say hello to your new,
government issued "electric mobility scooter" – brought to you by
Easy-a-Round, a subsidiary of Haliburton.

The good news is that
the extreme portions of the health plan will most likely be the ones
modified in order to draw back in the "Blue Dog" Democrats and win over
some moderate Republicans. If they can somehow figure out how to keep
the long term costs down, then it may be a win-win for everyone from
the White House all the way down to the last house on the left.

The
commission, headed by chairman Stan Koty, emphasized the fact that this
was a public meeting, not a public hearing. Ergo, the Commission does
not adhere to the persons attending to oppose decisions that the
Traffic Board had made in the past. Also, Mr. Koty stated that topics
outside of the specific agenda of the meeting were not open to
discussion. This is where the confusion seemed to begin.

First,
the Commission stated that some of those in attendance might have been
misled by a mass telephone communication. These phone calls alleged
that all tradesmen coming into residential areas for improvement tasks
or deliveries would be subject to ticketing in accordance with the
Commission's decisions. Mr. Koty apologized for any persons who came to
dispute this, because of the fact that it was not accurate. Later in
the meeting, multiple people who addressed the board cited that they in
fact came because of this mass communication.

Next, the
Commission later stated that the meeting's agenda did not include
residential permit parking, which absolutely proved to be the hottest
topic of the night. Some of the literature given at the meeting could
have been perceived as fuel to the frustrations voiced at the meeting,
as well as the fact that less than half of those in attendance had an
agenda in front of them. This was explained as being a result of
under-estimating the turnout.

The Somerville Parking Advocacy
and Reform Coalition (SPARC) handed out a pamphlet of sorts to those
present at this event. The pamphlet opens with the following statement:
"On May 21st, 2009, The Somerville Traffic Commission voted to approve
the following changes to City parking regulation: These changes are
slated to be instated this summer." Some of the changes listed include
residential permit parking only for any and all streets not currently
designated, as well as all metered spots changing to residential permit
parking only during non-enforced hours.

In the eyes of the
majority in attendance on Thursday night, this May 21st meeting was
vastly under-publicized relative to the precedent it set forth. Several
angered and confused Somerville citizens voiced their frustration with
the changes that were scheduled to take affect August 1st, 2009.
Obviously, these changes were not implemented nor enforced on this set
date, but the fact that most citizens of Somerville were not aware of
these changes, or the original meeting on May 21st worried the crowd.
In fact, when visiting the Somerville Government's website, the only
news or press release given for May 21st is in respect to a tree
inventory being taken.

When those in attendance would try to
voice their frustration about this error in communication, the board
would cut them off, stating that these said matters were "not on the
agenda." Ward 3 Alderman Tom Taylor expressed his concerns, battling
his way through the board's interruptions. He was told that he was "out
of order" by the board after he stated: "two weeks ago…the Traffic
and Parking Department sent communications to the Board of Alderman,
and they ask if you have any agenda items please let us know. I let the
Traffic and Parking Department know that I wanted to address these
issues, and lo and behold, these issues were not on the agenda." The
fact that even an Alderman couldn't address the biggest problem on the
table disheartened the majority of the crowd.

There were several
specific arguments by small business owners around the city that felt
that they would be gravely impacted by these changes. Some local art
galleries, along with merchants, yoga studies and a wide variety of
other business believed that these changes would force them out of the
city. If their notions are correct, this would mean fewer jobs and less
general revenue in the City of Somerville.

The question that
was stated multiple times at this meeting by various attendees, and
seemed to be on everyone's mind, was just how responsible the induction
of these measures is in the struggling local and national economy. When
a decision made by elected officials in order to better the City is
perceived by the citizens therein to be trumping their business, there
should be a call for revisions. Those in attendance understood this,
but had trouble accepting it considering the unwillingness of the board
to entertain pertinent questions.

The disagreements and disorder
in the Tuft Administrative Building Cafeteria raged on for a little
over an hour. Barely anything was covered on the agenda until after the
room cleared out for a five-minute recess, and never filled back up.
Once the room was all but empty, the board quickly went through the
nine-or-so items on the agenda.

As cited by the Commission, if
there are discrepancies to decisions they have made, a petition with at
least fifty signatures from registered voters leads to a public
hearing. For any more information on this topic, visit either the City
of Somerville's website (www.somervillema.gov), or SPARC's at www.somervilleparc.blogspot.com.

Op-Ed from State Representative Denise Provost

In
March of 2007, details of the scandalous fiscal mess in the
transportation sector reached a wide audience. The Massachusetts
Transportation Finance Commission issued its long-awaited report,
"Transportation Finance in Massachusetts: An Unsustainable System." [http://www.eot.state.ma.us/downloads/tfc/TFC_Findings.pdf]
The Commission, established by the legislature in 2004 and composed of
a dozen respected experts, found that the state's transportation
departments, and independent authorities had relied too much on debt
and chronically underfunded maintenance system-wide.

The
Commission estimated the resulting funding gap to amount to almost $20
billion over 20 years. It found that some practices of transportation
agencies, such as employee benefits, were simply too costly to
maintain. Yet the Commission didn't suggest that internal reforms and
economies alone could put our transportation system back on a sound
financial footing.

The antidote to years of neglect and
excessive borrowing was straightforward. To restore our transportation
system to a decent condition, and keep it functional, additional
revenues would be required. Prominent among the Commission's
recommendations was that the tax on gasoline be increased by twelve
cents per gallon.

This revenue boost was aimed at bringing
maintenance and operations up to an acceptable level of service. It
would not fund new construction of either highways or transit – what
are known as capital projects. About the latter, the Commission had
cautionary words:

"The MBTA has a variety of projects in
planning that many people would like to move forward. The Silver Line
Phase 3 is considered essential by the City of Boston and the

Greater
Boston business community. The Commonwealth has committed to design the
Blue Line/Red Line Connector and to construct the Green Line to
Somerville project as part of the Artery mitigation program. No
commitments have been made to actually construct these projects, and
there is no finance plan for them. And even if these projects were to
be built, the MBTA could not afford the additional operating expenses."

Their
message could not have been clearer that Massachusetts needed to
establish a capitol plan for financing transportation improvements.

It
was especially important to plan financing for the transit improvements
that Massachusetts was required to provide as mitigation for the
increase in highway travel that the Central Artery project would
provide. Massachusetts has been in violation of the Clean Air Act for
so long that the fact rarely surfaces in public discourse, but the
violation was the basis for a series of successful lawsuits by the
Conservation Law Foundation (CLF). CLF secured an agreement that the
state actually built the Big Dig Mitigation projects on a fixed
schedule – including completion of the Green Line Extension by December
31, 2014.

On May 31, 2007, however, Transportation Secretary
Bernard Cohen asked the legislature to hold off on advancing any
transportation bills until the administration could complete its review
of the system and its finances. In late November, 2007, the
administration filed a Transportation Bond Bill – a three year
borrowing plan for the Commonwealth to take on $4.8 billion more in
debt, with no clear repayment source. There was still no transportation
finance or reform plan in place by the time the other shoe dropped.

In
early December 2007, Secretary Cohen received a pair of letters from
the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA). Federal officials informed the Commonwealth that
its State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) for 2008-2011 had
been disapproved for lack of adequate state funding. This
innocuous-sounding message was in fact a bombshell – it meant that
projects in the disapproved program were not eligible for federal
funding.

Typically, the federal government pays for at least
80% of qualifying transportation projects; the federal share can be
even higher if the project has federal earmarks, or qualifies for a
grant, so the amount of federal aid in jeopardy was enormous.

Motorists,
bikers and pedestrians shared the roadways via clearly delineated
pathways. No longer was the view looking down Washington Street marred
by the McGrath Highway overpass, as that had been leveled as part of
the Green Line Extension and landscape improvement project.

Sounds
pretty nice, eh? Well, that's what the group of 30 or so residents
thought when they gathered at the Holiday Inn last Wednesday night
during the fifth of six interactive community meetings to talk about
the six new Green Line stops in Somerville.

This meeting was
for the Innerbelt/Brickbottom T-Stop along the Green Line Extension,
which is planned for the Joy Street area leading out of the Brickbottom
Gallery. Most people who appeared lived and/or worked in the
Brickbottom complex at 1 Fitchburg Street, while others reside on
neighboring streets. Most residents were long-timers, claiming an
average of 15 years and more, with the range running from three to 54
years.

Lisa Gimbel, the special projects assistant for the
Somerville Community Corporation kicked off the meeting by asking
people to close their eyes and envision the Joy Street area in 2019,
five years after the Green Line project is complete.

People
could really see the landscaping and focus on green areas that would
encourage more diversity in nature, such as bird life. One resident
said it will be very important for businesses to maximize their
properties, such as how the Neighborhood Restaurant in Union Square
turned its driveway into an outdoor seating area.

People
envisioned "mom and pop" restaurants that celebrate the rich diversity
of Somerville residents, as well as the nostalgic return to soda shops.
One person hopes that there will be a zoning change for office
buildings in the Innerbelt area to encourage new business. Currently
that area is industrially zoned, but is an underutilized area that
could bring in tax revenues.

As Somerville is one of the most
congested cities around, a lot of emphasis was placed upon bike paths,
such as one leading from the Brickbottom area to the new T stop, as
well as connecting around the rest of the Green Line stops. People
optimistically saw themselves living in a world where the pedestrian
has the priority to cross streets and weed through traffic.

It
was important for people to clean up the view that they currently have
on Washington Street and to do away with the unsightly McGrath Highway
overpass.

More greener pastures come with a price tag,
however. People also realistically predict that real estate values will
go up, with median prices of homes going from $450,000 to $600,000 and
three bedroom apartments starting at around $2,200.

And with a
more expensive city to live in, people feared that the immigrant
population may be forced out, especially in the East Somerville area
where this meeting took place. Many people raised their
hands-immigrants themselves-and said that they want to ensure the city
puts plans in place to allow them and their children to stay here.

Other
fears ranged from increased traffic, to the need for more parking
(though putting in the Green Line will hopefully move people away from
using cars).

"We hope to see redevelopment as a good thing," one resident said. "But what we don't want is over development."

After
batting around their visions, people came up with a list of principles
to keep in mind moving forward. Seeing as this is a community forum,
Gimbel stressed that holding community meetings like this allow for
peoples' voices to be heard during this critical time of planning. The
principles include the following:

o Create more amenities-Planning should include building stores, a movie theater, well lit streets and landscaping.

o
Create fluid access-Getting from one neighborhood to another should be
streamlined via pedestrian crossings and improved road plans to ease
the current choppy flow of traffic. A convenient, multi-modal transport
will be a priority, which includes bikes, pedestrians, wheelchairs and
cars.

o Restore, enhance and preserve the natural green
space-Ask builders to capitalize on any available open space. People
should keep in mind the adaptive reuse of properties.

o
Include the voice of the community-Planning should preserve and
encourage the diversity of residents and businesses. People should
consider affordable housing and rent control.

Somerville
Transportation Equity Partnership has joined forced with Groundwork
Somerville, the Somerville Community Corporation, and the Somerville
Community Health Agenda to form the CCP. The CCP is providing the
opportunity for continued community involvement in the planning stages
by organizing these six meetings in Somerville neighborhoods with stops
on the Green Line Extension.

SomerStat
Director Stephanie Hirsch led a group of about 20 residents who met at
the the Dr. Albert F. Argenziano School on July 30 in a mock-budget
review session she said would give them a glimpse of how the budget
process works, especially in the face of the city's FY2010 $12.5
million deficit.

"The mayor and the Board of Aldermen over the
past five years have increasingly used data to make decisions," Hirsch
said. "We're going to ask you to recreate what the mayor and the Board
of Aldermen went through."

The group was divided into five teams
and told to create a budget using a spreadsheet that explained what
decisions could be made and how the costs would affect residents (many
items, such as the school budget, were left out). Among the rules were
that budgets had to be balanced and taxpayer costs kept low while
preserving the city's "core values."

The values, and the scoring
system given to them, attempted to match concepts such as "quality of
life" and "protect and support families and individuals" against
decisions such as whether to impose citywide resident parking or
closing fire stations. For citywide parking, SomerStat alloted 10
points for protecting families and subtracted five points from the
quality of life index.

Hirsch noted the reasoning and nature of
these core values was not up for debate, adding, "If you don't do
exactly what we did, you'll have to find other places to cut."

As the teams began to pore over the spreadsheets, both cuts and revenue additions came quickly.

Most
were in favor of the controversial citywide resident parking
initiative, which came under fire that night at a Traffic Commission
meeting, but came out against increasing meter hours. The teams were
also not squeamish about cutting employees.

The Department of
Public Works the most popular place for cuts, while the Inspectional
Services Division was also criticized as largely inefficient. One team
wanted half of the City Clerk office gone, while another group decided
to give 35 city employees pink slips – roughly 10 more than the city
has handed out.

The final results varied from running a
deficit of $6 million to a surplus of nearly $8 million, which came by
implementing a "Pay as You Throw" program that would charge $3 per
trash bag picked up in the city.

Ed Bean, Somerville's chief
financial officer, was on hand to watch as residents wrestled with the
budget and later critiqued their results. He said the exercise and
SomerStat meetings in general give city officials a chance to see how
residents view the decisions they make.

Op-Ed from State Representative Denise Provost

Many
people were shocked last week to read media reports that the state
proposes scaling back the Green Line extension. Most of us in
Somerville were feeling fairly confident about our hard-won commitment
to build this long overdue project. It wasn't just the Green Line,
either. The state, through its Executive office of Transportation (EOT)
also proposes to cut Somerville (and Medford) from the Urban Ring
project, and to delay construction of the Community Path.

Although
EOT says that it is still "committed" to building the Green Line
extension to Route 16, its official plans call for a scaled-back
project, and is conditioned on federal grant funding. Other communities
have seen their projects cut, both transit and highway. What could have
happened? Were these grim headlines just another sign of the world wide
economic collapse?

The answer is that transportation funding in
Massachusetts has been in a long, slow collapse of its own, that long
predates the current crisis in the wider economy. It's a story that
goes back for decades. For the sake of simplicity, I'll start telling
this tale from the beginning of a recent chapter.

2007: The Sad State of Transportation Finance in Massachusetts

In
January 2007, Massachusetts greeted a new Democratic Governor into
office. Many had high hopes for fundamental changes in state policies
and priorities. Those concerned about the state's transportation system
looked for action on the new administration's theme of "fixing what was
broken" in our Commonwealth.

The Governor had inherited a
transportation system which was, by 2007, in a sorry state. Most
investment in public transit had gone for years into expanding commuter
rail service, at great expense, to a relatively low number of riders.
The soaring cost of the Central Artery Tunnel project (CA/T or "Big
Dig") absorbed most available federal highway funding; the state
covered its growing share of Big Dig costs by issuing debt in the form
of bonds.

The state did have a strategy for repaying principal
and interest (the latter is called "debt service") on the billions it
was borrowing. Part of its plan was to use future federal grants as a
revenue stream – a kind of collateral – to repay this debt. As
Secretary of Administration and Finance for Governor Paul Cellucci,
Charlie Baker – now a Republican candidate for governor – promised to
forego $1.5 billion in federal transportation funds which Massachusetts
had not yet received, an obligation of about $150 million a year until
2015
[http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/17/bakers_role_in_big_dig_financing_may_test_for_his_campaign/]

Another
state tactic for avoiding Big Dig costs was to transfer this debt to
the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA) and to the MBTA. In
refinancing its CA/T debt, the MTA in 2001 entered into an unfortunate
"credit default swap" agreement with the firm UBS. The collapse of that
deal reduced the Turnpike Authority's bonds almost to "junk bond"
status, putting the Authority into precarious financial condition.

The
MBTA, by the start of FY 2007, was bearing $8.1 billion in debt, $2.9
billion in interest alone. Much of this amount was Central Artery debt
transferred by the state to the MBTA. The MBTA's debt service costs for
2009 consequently reached $436 million, requiring MBTA to spend a
higher proportion of its operating budget for debt service than does
any other transit authority in the nation http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/17/bakers_role_in_big_dig_financing_may_test_for_his_campaign/.

Complicating
the picture, the Governor had made a campaign promise to bring a new
rail line to New Bedford and Fall River. He had also taken a position
against increasing the gasoline tax. The administration clearly had
challenges ahead.

According to Carlene Campbell, this project has been in the works for about two years. Arn Franzen, the Director of Parks and Open Space for the City of Somerville explained that this project wants to succeed in turning this abandoned property into an asset to the community. Franzen also stated that this project with hopefully begin construction late this fall, with a target opening in the late spring or early summer of 2010.

Among the project spearheads of the project was the man who is controlling the design itself, as well as presenting great options for the utilities that will fill the park. Andrew Leonard of Leonard Design Associates in Arlington is running the landscape development aspect of this project.

According to Leonard the bulk of this park will be the off-leash dog area. In the Schematic Plan that the heads of this meeting had laid out, the community space will be located to the far eastern corner of the long strip shaped park, and will be filled with tables, garbage disposals, and the like. Also, a big mission is to make this area as green as possible with extensive tree-plantings and other botany enrichment.

Some of the greener options this team is looking at are very new and improved to the other community dog parks around Somerville like the newest at Nunziato Field. Of course, nothing is certain yet because of the constant battle to make the budget, but some of the gadgets being looked at are solar powered LED light posts and Big Belly solar powered garbage disposal units.

The off-leash area of the park will be composed of stone-dust, much like the grounds of Nunziato Field. This arose some concern amongst not only the dog owners in attendance, but the citizens of Cobble Hill as well. One of the major complaints of Nunziato Field is just how dusty it gets after not too long of a time. Franzen and Campbell explained how because it is a long and thin layout, instead of the big open space that is Nunziato Field, this dust would be much easier to keep in check.

For one, there will be sprinkler systems to contain it along the sides of the park, as well as a different drainage system then that of Nunziato Field. They also illustrated that the DPW will be frequenting this park to keep it replenished of plastic bags, the garbage disposals empty, landscaping and keeping the grounds in good shape.

Another move that the city is taking to prevent another major concern, the traffic on New Washington St., as well as Washington St., is to make the entire city permitted parking starting on August 1st. That is, only residents of Somerville will be able to attend this park. This didn't seem to sell certain Cobble Hill residents that were in attendance, who were not only worried about the traffic itself, but also the noise and the like that would come with a new park. 'Cut-through' was also brought up, but Somerville's finest, as well as the heads of this project assured the Cobble Hill residents that they would be taking multiple measures to prevent these problems.

One of Somerville's finest explained his concern about the crosswalks around the area, and that there would be no way that an increased pedestrian-on-foot population attempting to cross certain roads like Washington St. would be impossible. This also raises the safety concern that seemed apparent in multiple people at this meeting. Discussions of high-speed UPS trucks and even bigger trucks going even faster hung around the room for a while. Once again though, Mr. Franzen, Ms. Campbell and Mr. Leonard assured the attendees that these concerns would all be addressed to the city, and solved one way or another before the park opens.

For anymore information on this topic contact city hall at 311, or visit www.somdog.org to keep up with this project as well as others.

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

A
very happy birthday to three of our own here at The Somerville News.
Marisa Tauro, Patricia Norton and grandson Corey Norton are all
celebrating their birthdays today – the 29th of July. A very special
Happy Birthday to all three and best wishes.

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

Seems
in Ward 5 the opponent running for the School Committee seat is out
there knocking on doors and getting a great response we hear. Anna
Lavanga has been showing that she really wants to knock out the
Progressive candidate Mr. Niedergang – isn't he the one that wants to
do away with Good Friday and also thinks that Bunker Hill day is an
"annoying" holiday? In Ward 4, Jamie Norton isn't taking it for granted
either – he has been hitting the streets as well with a group of people
every night.

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

Don't miss Mayor Joe's fifth
annual Boston Harbor Cruise coming up Wednesday night August 5th (week
from tonight) this years theme is a "70's Disco Cruise" so come decked
out in your 70's attire and have a blast, cause it's going to be
"groovy." For tickets and/or info, contact our own Billy Tauro at
617-293-2016.

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

Coming up on August 20th is
a night at the races to be held at Wonderland Park in Revere. The
Somerville Lion's Club has rented out the clubhouse lounge for
Somervillians to enjoy the evening over dinner and even race named
after the Somerville All America City – tickets are only $35.00 pp and
all proceeds go to various local charities here in Somerville that the
Lions support. For reservations, tickets and info contact Somerville
Lion's President – our own Billy Tauro at 617-293-2016. Wow is he busy
with tickets or what?

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

On a sad note,
former City of Somerville Chief Assessor Dick Brescia, also a long time
CASPAR Board member and former President of the CASPAR board, died
early Sunday morning at St. Elizabeth's Hospital. His family is
requesting that donations in Dick's memory be made to CASPAR. Dick was
a great guy and will be missed by everyone that knew him.

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

This
candidate for Alderman at Large is out there campaigning, but rumors
still swirl around his candidacy. Does he live here in the city, and if
so where, since he has several properties we are told both in Ten Hills
and the Avenues. He has a great web site, we checked it out –
www.luisforsomerville.org – he's a busy man, not only the pastor of the
church on Winter Hill, but owns a couple of restaurants on lower
Broadway. We wish him well. We're sure the present incumbents are all
going to be working hard to get re-elected – Bill White, Jack Connolly,
Dennis Sullivan and Bruce Desmond have been very good aldermen. We
still wonder who the PDSers and SCC want to defeat in order to get
their candidate elected. Maybe we'll find out with their so-called
impartial endorsements that they will be handing out to their fellow
PDSers coming up soon. Don't you just love the PDSers – who espouse
transparency and open government?

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

For
those curious as to who was the first person to respond with the
correct names of the people in the recent Mystery Photo – it was none
other than the Election Commissioner himself – Nicholas Salerno – who
responded very quickly and accurately. Great work Nick!

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

Kudos
to Senator Anthony Galluccio for being the first, most vocal, local
politician to call for some rational thinking in the now infamous
Obama-Crowley-Gates fiasco last week. Senator Galluccio is one of the
more rational thinking politicians on Beacon Hill and we wish he
represented the entire city of Somerville in the State Senate.

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

The
Resistat "Wrap Up" meeting is this Thursday evening (July 30th) from
6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Argenziano School. There will be a full
agenda, including an award for community contributors, a small
workshop, comments from the Mayor on the budget process and other
informative items as well.

Was
it because Professor Gates is an old friend? Was it a racially
motivated? Was it a momentary lapse of rational thinking and just meant
to be a snippy little comment thrown towards the city where he had to
pay his parking tickets – 17 years later – before he could run for
President?

In an unabashed act of pure self-promotion, let's remind everyone of who broke that story: The Somerville News.

Typically,
when a politician does something so silly, it is to purposely distract
people and the press from another topic of discussion. That's an old
trick in politics. Unfortunately for the President, he definitely did
not want to distract anyone from his universal healthcare initiative.
You could see the uneasiness in his eyes and hear it in his voice when
he made that ridiculous statement about how he should have done a
better job "calibrating" his words more carefully.

President
Obama – you would have regained more respect back from the people you
insulted, had you just said "I never should have said anything, I am
sorry."