It was a year that the so-called “progressives” thought they would run the board – once they got past Jack and put Marty on the Board of Aldermen – but it never happened. Take a look at the political landscape rolling into 2008 and it’s not looking too rosy for a group that somehow, somewhere along the way, became what they originally despised – typical politicians. Sure, the darling of the PDSers – Rebekah – retained her seat, but look at the wreckage the rest of that group caused this year and very little to show for it.

The implosion of Marty Martinez, who showed some real promise very early in the year, only to be stomped on by the venerable Jack Connolly. It wasn’t racist of Jack to point out the problems with letting a gang member into the Youth Center when Marty was the director – it was a simple matter of the impact on the children over the laudable effort to reach out to a struggling segment of the population. Children first, gang members second – if you don’t agree, then you’re obviously not a parent (or a rational human being).

By George P. Hassett

City officials are beginning plans to lease or purchase sites for two police substations – one in East Somerville and one in West Somerville. Last week Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone announced the issuance of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the lease or purchase of a Teele Square site for a West Somerville Neighborhood Police Station. He submitted the RFP to the Board of Aldermen for its approval. The RFP provides flexibility for the actual location but specifies a preference for a site on Broadway to the west of Teele Square, according to city officials.

By George P. Hassett

Teamsters faced off with a specially-trained police unit underneath McGrath Highway Thursday after union picketers padlocked the gate of F.W. Russell Disposal and parked a tractor trailer in front of the entrance of the waste business.

Good turnout of a crowd at the flag raising ceremony up on Prospect Hill Park on the 1st – as usual the Mayor was there to welcome everyone as they raised the flag. Lots of city officials were on hand as well. The ceremony marks the first flag raised by General George Washington.

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Acting Chief Bob Bradley had a nice send off party this past Friday evening at the Mt. Vernon/Wharf in Revere – the place was filled to standing room only with just about all the personnel from the station including all the high brass! One of our News Talkers just happened to be on the scene as well to wish the Chief farewell and to say thanks for a job well done! Good luck Chief!

                   The winners of The Somerville News Reader‚Äôs Choices/Election results for

                                                              THE BEST OF SOMERVILLE 2007

These are our choices for 2007:

  Best Idea in 2007

Everyone in Somerville working hard along with Mayor Joe Curtatone to get the Green Line extension to come into Somerville – this is one of the most important future projects this city will have in the next few years (not counting the development of Assembly Square)

Best All Around Somerville Citizen 2007:

Somerville Police Capt. Robert Bradley – Capt. Bradley served this city for 38 years – that’s a long time for anyone to devote to serving the public and he did it with skill and dedication all those years.

Crime was down in Somerville in 2007. But there was still plenty to keep the police busy. Here are the biggest crime stories in Somerville as we see it in 2007.

Women use 4-year-old to help steal
And the award for the worst parent of 2007 has to go to Tarshesha Ross, 26, of 96 Heath St. who allegedly used her four-year-old daughter to help steal $61 worth of items from Kmart in September. Ross was arrested and charged with shoplifting. Let’s hope Ross puts shoplifting behind her, or at the very least, leaves her toddler out of her future schemes.

By George P. Hassett

The past continued to slip away from Somerville in 2007 as the city lost many of the people and landmarks that until this year had helped shape its character and identity for decades.

The longest serving officer in the police department – Acting Chief Robert R. Bradley — resigned after 38 years. A coffee shop credited with jumpstarting the renaissance of Davis Square in the 1990s was replaced with a crepe shop. And history itself was lost when Isobel Cheney, the city’s unofficial historian and author of “A Brief History of Somerville” died at 99.

Off The Shelf by Doug Holder

I am not an academic poet. I am not a part of a faculty of a major university, nor on the board of a     prestigious literary organization. I always have been a part of that great eclectic sea of the small press. In fact my activities have mostly been outside of the gated communities of the academy. I started the Ibbetson Street Press with my wife Dianne Robitaille and my good friend Richard Wilhelm in 1998. For years I had been published in small presses, and I came to realize without a vibrant small press community talented poets would not see the light of day. A student of literary history will realize that many of our great poets from Whitman to Frost to Ginsberg got their start in little magazines and small presses.

Dear Santa Claus (or God, Abraham, Mohammed, Allah – whomever will listen) –
thank you for 2007 – a year that seemed to start slow, but picked up the pace as the months passed by.

For us at The Somerville News, it started off with the “excommunication” of a certain self-destructive former editor and rolled right into the Barack Obama “ticket-gate.”

In the middle part of the year, there seemed to be a bit of a lull, with only the “will he get it or won’t he get it” Bradley magical mystery tour keeping us entertained.