Today, Mayor Katjana Ballantyne will introduce a Home Rule Petition to City Council that seeks to make it easier for certified disadvantaged businesses to compete for City contracts, advancing Somerville’s commitment to equity and economic inclusion. This petition builds on a recommendation of the disparity study conducted in partnership with the City of Brookline and Griffin & Strong, P.C.

Welcoming Week in Somerville was recognized by official proclamation at the latest City Council meeting.

By The Times Staff

Anyone and everyone can belong in the City of Somerville. This week marks the beginning of what’s known as Welcoming Week. It’s a time to make everyone feel welcome and embrace the diversity in the community, and a way to remind residents that what unites us is greater than what divides us.

Annual ceremony to honor lives lost and those who served

To mark the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and the City of Somerville Department of Veterans’ Services invite all community members to a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony on Thursday, September 11, at 6 p.m. in Davis Square.   

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Today, bicycles are everywhere. They’re beside us, behind us, in front of us, and amongst us everywhere we go, even on the sidewalks. Bicycles have become a very serious, popular, and scary mode of transportation. But when I was a kid in the ’60s and ’70s, bicycles were just plain fun. If anyone over 25 rode a bike back then, they were probably called hippies. Growing up in 60’s Somerville, a bicycle was a very prized possession. Every kid got one sooner or later. It was a rite of youth. From our first tricycle to when the training wheels came off, we were off and rolling.

Three below-market price condos are available for sale to eligible households

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD) are pleased to announce the upcoming sale of three deed-restricted condominiums to eligible, first-time homebuyer households at a below-market price through the city’s Inclusionary Housing Program. The units will be offered to households with a yearly gross income at or below 80% Area Median Income (AMI) at price tier P1 and to households between 80% and 110% AMI at price tier P2.The deadline to apply is Monday, September 22, at noon. 

Fair Housing means no discrimination! Candidates for Mayor and City Council had the chance to present their views on non-discrimination in housing by answering a questionnaire from the Somerville Fair Housing Commission, a nonpartisan group of volunteers. We are sharing all the answers we received. The Commission hopes you, the voters, will use the candidates’ answers as you decide how to vote in the September 16 primary and the November general election.

Plans for a proposed 8-story hotel at 1154 Broadway in Teele Square are moving forward.

By Harry Kane

Plans for the proposed Teele Square eight-story hotel on Broadway may be moving forward if developers can cut through red tape that has prolonged the project.

On August 25, City Councilor At-Large Kristen Strezo sponsored a required neighborhood public meeting to discuss plans for the application to redevelop the site at 1154 Broadway in Teele Square.

By Jordan Pagkalinawan

On September 4, the Somerville Land Use Committee heard from Land Use Analyst Samantha Carr on an upzoning proposal from the Gilman Square Neighborhood Council.

Gilman Square zoning proposal

The proposed changes include incrementally upzoning parcels along Medford and Pearl Street from Mid-Rise 4 to Mid-Rise 6, converting the Homan’s site designation from civic space to Mid-Rise 6, and expanding the pedestrian street designation beyond the current Medford and Pearl Street corridor.

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

By Jack Connolly
Jackconnolly422@gmail.com

Since 1918, Massachusetts voters have enjoyed the constitutional rights of initiative and referendum.  Because of this, voters have been able to propose new state laws they deem necessary and appropriate and challenge those laws they believe to be unworthy of their support.

To mark the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and the City of Somerville Department of Veterans’ Services invite all community members to a 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony on Thursday, September 11, at 6 p.m. in Davis Square. The observance will honor all victims of 9/11 as well as first responders, workers, and volunteers who rushed to the scene to save lives or to later help carry out the dangerous cleanup. It will include a moment of silence and feature an invocation and benediction by Father Paul Coughlin as well as remarks by Mayor Ballantyne and Veterans Director Jerome Thomas. For more information, please email veterans@somervillema.gov or contact 311 at 617-666-3311.