By Erin Souza

Walking into the newest addition to Davis Square, the scent of warm home-baked goodness wafts throughout the small but sleek bakery’s fire red walls and tantalizes customers of all ages. Dorchester resident and southern California native Sara Ross came to the East Coast four years ago with her husband to live the city life and to continue to do what she has been doing for the past ten years – bake some kickass cupcakes.

Kickass Cupcakes has been open at 378 Highland Avenue for just over two weeks and for proprietor and pastry chef Ross, business appears to be booming.

By Erin Souza

Heroin use is on the rise in Somerville because it is stronger, less expensive and easily available compared to other substances, said Cambridge and Somerville Program for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Rehabilitation (CASPAR) Executive Director Gail Enman at the Somerville News contributors meeting on Sept. 20.

“[Heroin] is cheaper than a pack of cigarettes,” she said. “It’s cheaper than a six-pack of beer.”

Heroin addiction was the second most abused substance of the 2,800 people admitted to abuse treatment facilities in Cambridge and Somerville in 2004, the most recent year for which data is available, according to statistics produced by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Off The Shelf by Doug Holder

Sidewalk Sam is a Boston-based street artist, who often uses sidewalks of the Hub as a canvas for his work. Sam believes in bringing art to the people through his sidewalk paintings, outreach, and through his organization “Art Street.” So it seemed natural for Sam to be organizing a 70th birthday party for Boston’s poet of the people and founder of the venerable Stone Soup Poets.

Photographers with city perspectives

By Pam Rosenblatt

Urban Interpretations, a photography exhibit exploring the human behavior, diversity, spirit, rhythms and patterns of everyday life in a densely populated urban environment is in its final week at the Nave Gallery, ending on Sept. 28. But the show does not end there as it moves on to the Mayor’s Office in City Hall from Oct. 4 through Dec. 6.

Curator Michelle Fiorenza said the relationship between people and their physical urban surroundings and the ensuing impact is reflected throughout the show.

On The Silly Side 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.)

(Editor‚Äôs Note:  For those who missed his debut here last week, Jimmy DelPonte is a well-known local radio personality and Somerville native who has a seemingly endless supply of stories and anecdotes and we are lucky to have him as a regular guest commentator. We know you will enjoy his writings about living in this great city of ours. Enjoy.)

Welcome all you new Somervillians. I am glad that you are enjoying all the new restaurants, coffee shops and stores in Davis Square, but for those of us who have been here for our entire lives, the memories of the old stores and landmarks still have a place in our hearts.

Another local primary election come and gone, can you believe it? The election results weren’t surprising to anyone, but it would seem that some of the events leading up to and including Tuesday were.

Considering there were no ward races except in Ward 6, the turnout was higher than expected for such a snooze fest citywide. We have seen a few colorful moments here and there and without Rick Scirocco in the final, it will most likely return to the land of yawn.

It wasn’t as much of a surprise to see the mayor get as many votes as he did in Ward 6, even though he didn’t concentrate much of his overall effort there and left the vote pulling to the primary race contenders there. Had he not won by more than 75 percent of the vote against his two opponents, it would have been much less impressive.

By George P. Hassett

It has been a long time since Somerville was known for vast open spaces and green grass. But Mayor  Joseph A. Curtatone and his administration say they are pushing a number of initiatives that will revitalize and expand the city‚Äôs parks, gardens and fields.

On Sept. 18 and 19, city officials opened two new community gardens, the Durrell Garden on Beacon Street and the Allen Street Garden. Thursday Curtatone requested that aldermen allocate $1.575 million to renovate and design Hodgkins Playground and Grimmons and Albion Parks. The Hodgkins Playground renovation is expected to cost the city $785,000 while Albion and Grimmons Parks are each slated for $395,000. Curtatone is also applying for a $495,000 state grant to repair Central Hill Park, the first city-owned park opened in 1895.

By George P. Hassett

Somerville police patrolled the world of cyberspace this week, investigating Craigslist ads and MySpace pages to catch a man allegedly responsible for an armed robbery on the city’s bike path.

The stick-up victim monitored Craigslist postings looking for the cell phone that had been stolen from him Sunday Sept. 16 as he passed Lexington Park and was robbed by two young black men, police said. He came across a phone just like his and the location was in Somerville, police said. Police regularly monitor Web sites such as Craigslist, hoping to find items taken in recent thefts and robberies, according to Somerville investigators.

Somerville police arrested a Fitchburg man and a Randolph man for a daytime incident Wednesday in which gunshots were allegedly fired. Police said no one was injured in the shooting which took place at Pearl and Walnut Streets at 4:09 p.m. yesterday.

The Primary is over and with just over 6,000 votes citywide cast, turnout was slightly higher than expected with results we honestly weren‚Äôt surprised with ‚Äì Mayor Joe with over 75% of the vote, facing Ms. Bremer in November. 

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We saw shades of former Senator Sal Albano when we read the Herald article (see Herald September 22nd online ‚Äì ‚ÄúJehlen story‚Äù) imagine that – our own Senator Jehlen missing votes and being ranked by the Herald as missing more votes then almost all the other Senators since being elected. Senator Albano lost to Senator Shannon (a Republican at the time) when he refused to be inclusive and represent our entire district. Maybe the Queen of the Progressives/Liberals is marching down that road as well – we hope not, but maybe the Herald article didn‚Äôt go deep enough?