Emily Pauls

Cambridge Day •

Somerville could remove all parking minimums, a change in zoning liked by councilors and mayor

An end to parking minimums was embraced Thursday by most Somerville city councilors and staff for Mayor Katjana Ballantyne. The resolution presented at the council meeting calls for the two groups to draft a zoning ordinance to “remove the requirement to build unnecessary new parking spaces.”

“Any time that we bring up the words minimum parking requirements, it’s an incredibly hot-button issue,” said council president Ben Ewen-Campen, a co-sponsor of the resolution. “It is also an issue that is
Cambridge Day •

Invited speaker is cut off by Somerville councilors desperate for a solution to a rampant rat problem

A city councilor desperate to solve Somerville’s rat problem invited an environmental activist and expert to speak, then cut her off when her presentation didn’t seem to offer the desired answers – at least, not quickly.

The presentation about the dangers of rodenticides by Laura Kiesel to a Rodent Issues Special Committee on Feb. 29 was “repetitive” and “abused” the officials’ time, Ward 4 city councilor Jesse Clingan said at the time.

Toward the end of the meeting Clingan offered that “I did
Cambridge Day •

Construction at new Assembly Square fire station far enough along for the lease payments to begin

Funds for the lease of a new fire station – marking a milestone in its completion – was among the items handled Thursday at a quick meeting of Somerville’s City Council.

The council approved an appropriation of $171,969 from free cash – funds left over from previous fiscal years – for a new Assembly Fire Station’s first lease payment, due now that “the space is substantially complete,” staff said. No date was given for when the station goes into use.

Payments on the 30-year lease with Assembly
Cambridge Day •

Five Somerville celebrities from the White House to the big screen and across the restaurant scene

Local celebrities? Cambridge is too easy, with its Matt and Bens, Supreme Court justices and all the folks who’ve been through Harvard from Rashida Jones to Tommy Lee Jones. Somerville has celebrities of its own, though, folks who were born here, raised here or chose to live here for a while and have made their mark nationally and even globally, sometimes for the best of reasons and sometimes for the silliest. From the president of the United States to the founder of a New England restaurant cha
Cambridge Day •

Tobacco sellers making a mint from menthols get more regulation in Somerville as of March 1

Tobacco retailers have new regulations to follow as of March 1 after the Board of Health voted to pass changes around nicotine products at a meeting on Feb. 15. The sweeping changes range from e-cigarette flavors to requiring ID checks and limiting how many sales permits to issue.

“These proposed changes are in line with the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program and best practice. They are evidence-based initiatives that will reduce smoking in youth,” said Karin Carroll, director of Health and
Cambridge Day •

End of subsidized Covid tests came too early, Somerville councilors say in a pair of orders

Somerville resident Margaret Hughes has had Covid five times over the past year.

“That means I’ve spent about two months of my life over the last year in quarantine in my apartment sick,” she said at a City Council meeting Thursday. “And it’s not because I haven’t been taking precautions, it’s not because I was high risk. I just got unlucky.”

Hughes spoke at the council meeting to support an order to allocate funding for the city to continue providing Covid rapid tests and masks at public libr
Cambridge Day •

Somerville Foundation, fresh from name change, expands mission without leaving youth behind

With a name change in December, the Somerville Education Foundation is now The Somerville Foundation and looking toward next steps.

The group’s mission, values and future was discussed Monday at a Union Square meeting of the advisory board made up of activists and members of other local organizations.

The name change had been in the works for eight months, foundation president Greg Nadeau said. Through attending meetings of other education foundations, the group realized its goals and work ali
Cambridge Day •

Somerville passes a call for cease-fire in Gaza after emotional votes by anxious councilors

A resolution of Somerville City Council support for a cease-fire in Gaza passed 9-2 at Thursday’s council meeting.

The resolution, which was brought forward by council President Ben Ewen-Campen, came on the 109th day of the Israel-Hamas war. According to the final resolution, since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, more than 24,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 60,000 wounded.

“My moral convictions compelled me to draft this resolution, pure and sim
Cambridge Day •

Somerville opens overnight warming center through March for up to 20 homeless adults

An overnight warming center opened Monday in Somerville on the second floor of its Armory arts building at 191 Highland Ave. The center, which opened as temperatures plunged and the first substantial snows of the winter lingered on streets, runs seven nights a week from 6:45 p.m. to 7 a.m and can service up to 20 adults a night.

“Somerville’s Overnight Warming Center is a safe space welcoming adult residents experiencing homelessness to spend the night safe from the environmental hazards of the
Cambridge Day •

Clarendon Hill project celebrates $2.4M funding secured by U.S. Rep. Pressley for housing revival

A visit Thursday by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley highlighted progress on the Clarendon Hill Redevelopment Project, which will upgrade 216 affordable homes and add 80 moderate-income units and 295 market-rate units – a total of 519 homes across three buildings and a set of townhomes that revives a project built in 1948 as housing for veterans.

Data shows that 92 percent of Clarendon Hill households now are women-led and 87 percent are led by women of color, Mayor Katjana Ballantyne said during
Cambridge Day •

Sworn-in Somerville leaders focus on science, looking to data over distractions of culture wars

Cheers erupted as Mayor Katjana Ballantyne was sworn in Tuesday for her second term as Somerville mayor – as noted in her speech, only the second woman mayor in the city’s history.

“I’m honored and humbled to serve you for another two years,” Ballantyne said in her speech during ceremonies in Somerville High School’s auditorium. “My promise to you is the city government that values the community’s voice, seeks out best practices and follows the data and science. I promise an administration that
Cambridge Day •

Passim builds a single-artist Gecko Fund grant into annual selection of Iguana Music winners

Noble Dust, a Boston-based band, has received the inaugural Gecko Fund grant from the Cambridge music nonprofit Passim, joining the news of the $41,350 granted this year to 23 artists through its Iguana Music Fund.

The Gecko Fund, a $5,000 grant to one artist annually, aims to support musicians early in their careers, according to Passim.

The band took to Instagram to announce the news of the grant and said they were “honored and excited.”

“This grant supports narrative works in the New Engla
Cambridge Day •

Water bill surge problem in Somerville is solved, but councilors want a path to payback eased too

A program to replace broken water meters in Somerville has been changed to avoid more residents seeing surging bills, said Demetrios Vidalis, director of Water and Sewer.

He spoke at the City Council’s Public Utilities and Public Works Committee on Monday in response to an order by council president Ben Ewen-Campen and Ward 5 councilor Beatriz Gomez Mouakad, who want the city to go further – including a forgiveness period for the unexpected surges resulting from inaccuracies.

The old meters, V
Cambridge Day •

Street cleaning without towing gets another year but with a request to double cost of tickets to $100

A popular but flawed test of ticketing instead of towing cars during Cambridge’s street-cleaning season will get a second year, but – with the permission of the state Legislature – adjusted to include higher fines.

City councillors approved language Monday for Beacon Hill asking to double the current cost of a ticket to $100. A repeat offender could wind up being charged a total of $250 in the proposed home-rule petition, and that could incentivize drivers to pay more attention to the need to m
Cambridge Day •

Somerville is 'taking a pause' on Homans site, looking to study and Winter Hill school team

Gilman Square residents rallied and marched to City Hall on Nov. 15 with demands for long-delayed action on the blank space in their neighborhood known as the Homans site, but city planners told them that the Economic Development Division would be “taking a pause” on development there.

Members of a team responding to the shutdown of the Winter Hill elementary school for safety issues will make a final decision on whether the Homans site “will be needed for a longer-term response,” Economic Deve
Cambridge Day •

Highland Avenue will be torn up through 2027; Teele Square fire station repairs are progressing

Highland Avenue is on track to be paved in June at the earliest, according to a memo from Somerville director of engineering Brian Postlewaite to the City Council’s Public Utilities and Public Works Committee.

The memo was written in response to two council orders asking Postlewaite if the paving could come this year and for the administration to speak on its ability to provide further repairs to the road – and if there are none, to say if it’s compliant with road engineering regulations.

Ever
Cambridge Day •

Somerville city councilors express frustration with surprise increases in some water billing

Water bills for some Somerville residents have seen increases since the installation of new meters, and city councilors are asking for Water and Sewer to better explain the increases and consider a forgiveness period for unexpected surges resulting from inaccuracies.

Ward 5 city councilor Beatriz Gomez Mouakad put forth the order at a City Council meeting Nov. 9.

“We need to think of a forgiveness period,” Gomez Mouakad said. “It’s just complete insanity. And this is going to be passed on to r
Cambridge Day •

Gilman Square residents want 'momentum' back as Somerville councilors bring in staff to update

Residents of Somerville’s Gilman Square have wanted to see development at the area’s Homans site for nearly a decade.“We want development, we want density near a train station, we want transit-oriented development,” residents told the city, according to Christine Carlino, board president of the Gilman Square Neighborhood Council.

“There’s just no motivation in the city to execute on it,” Carlino said.

The neighborhood council plans a 5:30 p.m. Wednesday rally at the Homans site to call for the
Cambridge Day •

Somerville positions unfilled, maintenance lags as city outsources during work on wage report

Seven months have passed since municipal workers were told the city would conduct a compensation study to “identify market inequities” in wages paid by the city. The study has yet to be completed, resulting in the halting of city employee contract negotiations, Somerville Municipal Employees Association President Ed Halloran said.

Union employees have now gone 16 months without a contract, and are frustrated and wanting to resign, Halloran said.

Halloran and fellow union members attended and s
Cambridge Day •

Questions on how Linear Park plan affects trees means digging deeper into details in committee

Plans for a redesign of Linear Park in North Cambridge are based partly on faulty information that risks destroying tree canopy, city councillors said Monday in passing a policy order for the path’s restoration.

The order asks the city manager and Department of Public Works to consider reusing the existing design for the 30-year-old walk-run-ride path from Alewife Station to the Somerville line, keeping natural materials by not paving them over, implementing a climate resilience maintenance pla
Cambridge Day •

With needs for municipal buildings piling up, Somerville councilors support state fund plan

Somerville’s City Hall has not had significant renovation since 1924, according to Ward 5 city councilor Beatriz Gomez Mouakad, making it just one of many buildings in the city that need upgrading.

“Our municipal infrastructure just hasn’t seen renovations for decades,” Gomez Mouakad said Thursday at a meeting where councilors approved a resolution supporting a state Municipal and Public Safety Building Authority. It would release funds to cities and towns for building construction and improvem
Cambridge Day •

BU Bridge would see quick-build bicycle lanes and other changes in group's plan to add safety

Changes to the BU Bridge and its intersections, including protected bike lanes, a dedicated bus lane and better-coordinated signals were presented Thursday at Boston University by a group called The BU Bridge Safety Alliance that hopes to make the area safer and more efficient.

Eighty-seven crashes were reported on the bridge and in the intersections at each end between the years 2018 and 2022, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The alliance, formed in January, has co
Cambridge Day •

Somerville releases initial Union Square redesign, with next steps following 'before the end of 2024'

Initial plans for a “Union Square Plaza and Streetscape Redesign” project were released Wednesday by Mayor Katjana Ballantyne. The “25% Design Ideas & Vision Plan” is the project’s first major design milestone after around five years of public engagement, Ballantyne said.

The street-by-street strategy plan would add more than 1.3 acres of open space, doubling the amount of open space in that area from 0.56 acres, the press release said, and include mobility improvements, preparation for climate

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