By Eugene C. Brune
Mayor Emeritus      

Finally. After more than 50 years of expectation., long-awaited and promised Green Line is now serving the city of Somerville. The promise of this public transportation expansion was made after a major battle was launched by those neighborhoods that felt the noise, the disruption, the displacement, and the ill health effects, when I 93 ripped through Somerville, the densest city in the state. In the process, several lawsuits were filed which demonstrated the cumulative environmental problems which the new highway brought to town. Public transportation was seen as a mitigation for the environmental problems caused by the highway.

— Photos by Bobbie Toner

On Thursday, December 8, Somerville kicked off the holiday celebrations with the Holiday Lighting on the City Hall Concourse. Santa Claus was escorted by the Somerville Fire and Police Departments making his grand entrance atop a shiny red fire truck. Santa met with children in the Somerville High School Cafeteria where all children who attend received a special gift from Santa and had the opportunity to take a photo with Old St. Nick.

After many delays, the Green Line Extension to Medford is completed and up and running. Many came out in the early hour morning on Monday to celebrate the opening. The main event is the Saturday, December 17, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Go Green Line! Community Celebration at Somerville High School, 81 Highland Avenue. Event attendees will be close enough to walk down and check out the new Gilman Square T stop behind the high school before or after the event.

With all the news of the new Green Line Station opening in Ball Sq., Wayne Daley, who grew up on Rogers Ave. in Somerville, shared this photo of North Somerville Station in that area. It was taken on October 21, 1957. The station sat beside the new station in Ball Sq. Bob Carol was the station manager for decades and Wayne worked there from 1953 to 1958. He remembers the train wreck on the Harvard St. bridge in November of 1957, and how active that area was with this station located there.

After so many years of wishing and hoping, fighting for funding then finally ponying up the fare, the mighty behemoth known as the Green Line Extension project has finally come to completion and has begun rendering service to the residents of our city and its neighboring environs.

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Recently, I was contacted by Rachel Ranie Taube about a project she is working on. She has created a website https://somervillewrites.wixsite.com/place that collects comments from Somerville writers about how they view Somerville as a ‘place’ to write. After she contributed her article about the project to Off the Shelf, I decided to interview her about her own writing life.

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Lynne Viti’s fourth poetry collection is The Walk to Cefalù (Cornerstone Press, 2022). A faculty emerita in the Writing Program at Wellesley College, she serves on the Board of the New England Poetry Club and facilitates a poets-in-the schools program in Westwood, Massachusetts.

Arrests:
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 Stephen Bolton, of Stoneham, December 7, 3:45 p.m., arrested at Mystic Ave. on warrant charges of unregistered motor vehicle, uninsured motor vehicle or trailer, improper turn, state highway traffic violation, speeding, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, failure to signal, failure to stop for police, number plate violation, attaching wrong motor vehicle, marked lanes violation, and failure to stop or yield.

Xuan Xin, December 9, 12:23 p.m., arrested at Alston St. on a warrant charge of larceny under $250 by false pretenses.

Kiwanis President Haley Adams, Private Matthew Rankey Gunnery Sergeant Curtis Dunham, and Distinguished Past President James A. Lynch, present the check from Middlesex Federal Savings Bank to the Marine Corps Toys For Tots program.

On Thursday, December 8, the Kiwanis Club of Somerville, along with their friends from the Somerville Lions Club and Somerville Rotary Club hosted their annual Toys For Tots luncheon at the Mount Vernon Restaurant. Gunnery Sergeant Curtis Dunham and Private Matthew Rankey of the United States Marine Corps, joined them as they collected toys donated by members of the three clubs for the Toys For Tots campaign.