Vol. 2, No. 1
January 7, 2002
Contents
1) BROADWAY THEATER TASK FORCE TO TALK
As I have said before, I believe that the best re-use plan for the Broadway Theater will come
from a process that is open to the public. An open process also increases public confidence
that the best proposal has been chosen. It is also my opinion that the deliberations of the
Broadway Theater Task Force are subject to the state's Open Meeting Laws (Mass. General
Laws, chapter 39, secs. 23A-24.)
I have consistently urged the administration to conduct the Task Force deliberations and vote
accordingly. We have had some differences of opinion in the past, resulting in the city's
cancellation of an unadvertised December 18, 2001 meeting of the Task Force. Since then,
another meeting of the Task Force has been publicly advertised for Tuesday, January 15,
2002, at 6:00 p.m., in the third-floor conference room in City Hall.
The stated purpose of the meeting is "to review proposals for the purchase and redevelopment of the Broadway Theater, and to discuss next steps in the process." I
understand that the city has prepared an executive summary of the three proposals which it has received. For more information, contact Project Manager Carrie Sousa at (617) 625-6600, ext. 2500, or e.mail her at csousa@ci.somerville.ma.us.
2) CVS SCHEDULES NEXT MEETING ON MAGOUN SQUARE STORE
CVS has tentatively scheduled another neighborhood meeting on their proposal to build a
store in Magoun Square. The date they have suggested is Thursday, January 31, in the third-floor meeting room of the Visiting Nurses Association Assisted Living Facility on Lowell
Street. The time is 7:00 p.m.
For anyone interested in this proposal, or in urban re-development generally, I heartily
recommend the short and clearly-written book BETTER MODELS FOR CHAIN
DRUGSTORES, by Anne Stillman. Published by the National Trust for Historic
Preservation, the book can be purchased at that organization's regional office at 7 Market
Place, at Fanueil Hall Market. They're on the fourth floor, open from nine to five. The
National Trust's local telephone number is: (617) 523-0885.
3) HEARING ON CITY'S "SECRET" BUDGET
Every year, the City of Somerville, through its Office of Housing and Community
Development (OHCD) receives and distributes millions of dollars in federal funds. This year
the sum involved is roughly $13 million. I refer to this revenue and its expenditure as
"secret" because the administration of OHCD and the grant monies it distributes are not
included as part of Somerville's annual budget, which is published by the city and reviewed
by the Board of Aldermen.
Even the visible part of OHCD's spending cycle has a plain-brown-wrapper quality. You
may have missed the terse little notice in the Somerville Journal that on Wednesday, January
16, at 7:00 p.m., OHCD will be holding the second of two public hearings to receive
comments on the city's One-Year Action plan for funds under the Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) Program, the HOME program, and the Emergency Shelter Grant
(ESG) Program. The hearing will be held in the auditorium of the Main Library on Highland
Avenue. Questions may be addressed to OHCD Director Steve Post at (617) 625-6600 ext.
2500.
4) INAUGURATION CEREMONIES TONIGHT
Somerville's inaugural ceremonies will take place this evening, Monday, January 7, starting
with the annual Organizational Meeting of the Board of Aldermen at 5:30 in the Aldermen's
Chamber at City Hall. The Inauguration Ceremony will follow at 7:00 p.m. in the
auditorium of Somerville High School. Immediately after this ceremony, there will be a
reception at the Somerville Holiday Inn. All these events are free and open to any and all
who might wish to attend.
5) REPORT ON LOWELL STREET BRIDGE HEARING
On December 6, 2001, I attended the public hearing held by the Massachusetts Highway
Department to get comments on its redesign of the Lowell Street Bridge. The hearing was
well attended, with people asking many good questions and offering much thoughtful
testimony. Unfortunately, the most common responses from the Mass. Highway Department
personnel were along the lines of "Don't expect us to give answers now" and "I'm not here
to make promises."
Flawed Process?
The hearing was held at the 25% of completion stage for the redesign plans. The good
feature of this timing is that, at least theoretically, public concerns can be reflected in the
final design, presently scheduled for completion in fall of 2002. The down side of the
arrangement is that the December 6th public hearing will be the only one held, unless the
design is changed.
Public Concerns
The bulk of the public comments concerned the importance of maintaining lighting on and
under the bridge, the need for pedestrian crosswalks over the right-of-way during
construction, and the strong feeling that the state should accelerate the design and
construction process for this bridge. Some attendants noted that the redesign called for a
wider roadbed and narrower sidewalks than presently exist, and recommended retaining the
current proportions. As Lynn McWhood testified, "walking is very important to Somerville."
Joe Lynch made the point that the bridge, though it has two separate parts, should be treated
as one bridge, and the work done concurrently on both parts to speed completion. Another
neighbor recommended the incorporation of traffic calming features into the design of the
bridge, to encourage speeding motorists to slow down. In the spirit of most of their retorts to
the comments on the bridge project, the responses from Mass. Highway were "we can't
dictate to contractors" and "we follow our guidelines."
Many speakers, myself included, stressed the importance of coordinating the design of the
bridge with the design of the Community Bike Path extension, in which the city has already
made a substantial investment. To ignore the importance of the bike path/Lowell Street
intersection would be a "waste of resources," testified Lynn Weissman. To the dismay of its
audience, the Mass. Highway personnel indicated that they were unaware of the bike path
extension project, and that it was not their concern.
What Next?
The public comment period for this project is officially over. An aide from Senator
Shannon's office named Adam attended the hearing, and stated that the Senator wanted to do
whatever he could to expedite the bridge reconstruction project; one could certainly contact
the Senator's office, at (617) 722-1578. As far as I know, Michael Bloukos is still the Mass.
Highway Project Manager for this project; he can be reached at (617) 973-7333.
6) HEARING ON SNOW AND STREET CLEANING - ALMOST
The Committee on Public Utilities and Public Works ended up holding an "informational
meeting" on the city's street cleaning and snow plowing policies, due to the lack of a quorum
which would have allowed the committee to convene officially. The Tuesday, December 18,
date was part of the problem. Between approaching holidays, and the concurrent public
presentation by IKEA of their current design proposal, there was a lot of competition for
public attention. I was strongly tempted by the IKEA event, but having called for the street
cleaning/snow removal hearing, I felt obliged to attend.
Snow, Ice, and Access
Some members of the public also chose to attend this meeting, as did David Dow, the city's
Commissioner of Public Works, Joe Foti, the DPW Director of Operations, and Dana Rudolph, the Director of the Disabilities Commission. In some ways, the relative informality
of the proceedings may have enhanced the quality of the dialogue that ensued. Ms. Rudolph expressed concern that the city not only fails to clear the wheelchair-access curb cuts in the
city's sidewalks, but tends to plow snow toward street corners, increasing accumulation in these areas.
Ms. Rudolph said that "federal law states clearly that features that are there for accessibility
have to be kept accessible." Commissioner Dow responded that, "no one ... is going to
dispute what it [the Americans with Disabilities Act] says. The legal reality is one thing. The
practical reality is that there's not enough time to do it." Dow estimated that there are
approximately 2,000 such sidewalk ramps in the city, and that each snow storm already
requires approximately 1,000 hours of human labor to clear.
What Next?
Although access is not the only issue raised by the city's street clearing policies, it was
brought to the forefront by those who attended the December 18 gathering. Other matters
were discussed, and Committee Chair James McCallum expressed his intention to advertise
another public hearing on these matters in January. No date was set, and aldermanic
committee assignments for 2002 have not yet been announced.
Making Your Comments Count
I received so many thoughtful responses to my announcement of this hearing and to my
reader's poll regarding towing that I wish I had asked you all for permission to forward your
remarks to the Committee Chair and/or the DPW Commissioner. As it is, I plan to compile a
summary of your remarks before the next hearing. Special thanks to the reader who
specifically asked that her testimony go to the hearing - its timeliness, and the valuable
observations it contained should help to reduce source pollution into Alewife Brook this
winter.
7) SOLICITOR CHANGES SNOW REMOVAL OPINION!
In February of 2000, City Solicitor Susan Callahan informed city officials of her opinion
that, "the City of Somerville is not responsible for maintaining M.B.T.A. bus stops in any
respect, including keeping them free of snow and ice or clearing pathways from the sidewalk
to the street. In my, opinion, this responsibility lies, if anywhere, with the M.B.T.A."
Last fall, I sponsored a Board Order asking the Solicitor to re-visit this baleful opinion, and
on December 13, 2001, she sent her reply. Her current opinion letter states that "where bus
stops and curb cuts lie upon public ways within the City, the city has the authority to clear
ice and snow from them. G.L. c. 84, secs. 1 and 7." Since a copy of this more recent
opinion letter was sent to the Commissioner of Public Works and the Superintendent of
Highways, I entertain great hopes for improved conditions in our bus stops this winter.
8) REPORT ON READER'S POLL ON POLLING HOURS
No contest on this one. Of the 19 readers who chose to respond to this poll, 17 were in favor, many strongly so, and two thought that increasing hours would not make a significant
difference to anyone. Interestingly, many of those who voiced support for the early morning hour stated that they would not personally go to the polls at that time of day, but felt sure
that others would.
One person said that, had the polls been open at 7:00 for this past municipal election, he would have been able to vote before being sent out of town
unexpectedly by his employer. One reader who works at the polls expressed the opinion that all polling places statewide should have uniform hours for all
elections, to cut down on voter confusion and inconvenience. Thanks for letting me know your opinions.
I thought I could get a clear idea of the cost of having the polls open that extra hour by comparing the city budgets for Fiscal Year '01 (state election
year, polls open 7:00 am to 8:00 pm) and FY '02 (municipal election year, polls open 8:00 am to 8:00 pm). Imagine my surprise at seeing that the same
amount was budgeted for temporary workers in both years! ($45,000.00, in case you're curious.) This matter will require closer scrutiny - so stay tuned.
copyright 2002 Denise Provost
This file has been converted from WordPerfect
Using wp2html.exe by Andrew Scriven