By Camille Andersen

The city of Somerville held a virtual panel on June 29 about keeping our kids safe and the COVID vaccine. The panel was moderated by Felice Freyer, a health policy and public health reporter at the Boston Globe, and featured three doctors, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, Dr. Julia Koehler, Dr. Treniece Lewis Harris, and one parent, Vanessa Meneses.

— Photo by Bobbie Toner

By Fernando Cervantes Jr.

On Wednesday of last week, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation in conjunction with the OSPCD Mobility Division held a virtual meeting concerning the preservation of a bridge in the Somerville area.

By Joe Creason

The City Council Building Committee held a meeting regarding progress for the long-planned public safety project set to be constructed at 90 Washington Street. The City acquired the property on the corner of Washington Street and New Washington St in order to create an improved operations center for Somerville Police and Fire Departments.

Somerville Arts Council’s ArtBeat is back in person this summer to celebrate pop art! This year’s theme is “Pop!” so expect to see pops of color, eyepopping art installations, and a whole lot of surprises popping up all over Davis Square. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, July 10 (rain date July 11) from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. throughout Davis Square, with a kickoff parade featuring the School of HONK starting at 10:30 a.m. ArtBeat is free, but with a suggested donation of $3 you will get an ArtBeat dog tag. Please see the attached PDF for a full schedule of events or visit www.somervilleartscouncil.org.

By Bella Levavi

The Somerville Land Use Committee held their final meeting before their summer recess on Tuesday, July 29. They approved four zoning amendments, and discussed four larger amendments the committee has been working on.

It seems as though we cannot get enough of the farmers market scene in Somerville. They have become time-honored traditions and perennial mainstays of alternative commerce in the city.

There is something special about shopping for fresh produce, discovering unique arts and crafts vendors, and enjoying live entertainment in the open air. We feel a sense of camaraderie, too, as we gather to take in the sights, sounds, flavors and aromas that permeate each market site.

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Review by Off the Shelf Correspondent Denise Provost

US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo has said that “grief is a lifelong lesson.” Poet Eileen Cleary, in her arresting collection 2 a.m. with Keats, writes of her own lessons in grief to notable effect. With lush imagery and restrained but powerful incantation, Cleary pays tribute to her friend and teacher, the late Lucie Brock-Broido, to whom this volume is dedicated, as well as to John Keats, who is explicitly invoked.

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Carolynn Kingyens’ debut book of poetry, Before the Big Bang Makes a Sound (Kelsay Books. 2020), can be ordered through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, McNally Jackson and a few independent bookstores in NYC. In addition to poetry, she writes essays, book and film reviews, flash and short fiction. Carolynn resides in New York with her husband and two amazing daughters.

MassDOT, the MBTA, the City of Boston, the City of Somerville, the City of Malden, the Town of Brookline, the City of Revere, and the City of Lynn  announced a series of bus priority projects that will construct up to 4.8 miles of bus lanes and other pro-transit infrastructure upgrades across Metro Boston this summer to improve bus speed and reliability as the region re-opens from COVID-19-related regulations. These quick-build projects aim to address transit delay on some of the region’s most congested roadways in order to improve bus travel time and reliability, and move more people more efficiently to support economic recovery and public health.