Vol. 2, No. 10
December 10, 2002
Greetings readers. November 26 marked the first anniversary of SOMERVILLE AT LARGE.
Events in the last few months have developed so quickly that draft newsletters have become
outdated or irrelevant before they could be sent. This issue contains updates on longstanding and
relatively new matters, with some thoughts on how public input did or did not shape their
outcomes.
Contents
1) MUSIC! DANCING! RE-ELECTION SUPPORT! COME ALL!
Because 2003 is once again a city election year, the Committee to Elect Denise Provost invites
you and your friends to a campaign fundraiser dance party this Saturday. The band Calypso
Invaders will play several sets of irresistible, dance-able tunes. The event will be held at the
George Dilboy VFW Post, 371 Summer Street (the south wing of the Winter Hill Bank building
at the corner of Summer Street and Cutter Avenue, in Davis Square).
The party, on December 14, will run from 7:00 until 11:00 p.m., and will also offer
refreshments and a cash bar. The hall is wheelchair accessible, has ample free parking, and is
a short walk from the Davis Square Red Line, and the number 87, 88, 90, 94, and 96 buses.
Stop by after the illuminations tour for food and fun! If you haven't received our beautiful
printed information in the mail, it's probably because I don't have your snail mail address - send
it to me, and I'll add you to the list for next time.
2) GANGS, CRIME, AND LAWS TO CONTROL THEM
A. Part One - Some East Somerville History
Over the last couple of years, there have been neighborhood meetings in East Somerville
concerning aggressive activities, mainly assaults, committed by young men believed to be
involved in gang activity. At a meeting last May at the East Somerville Community School,
Police Chief George McLean informed the assembly that there were fifty to eighty young men
living in East Somerville who were self-identified members of a gang called MS-13.
Chief McLean stated that members of this gang were being "monitored," and that the city was
exchanging information about MS-13 with police from gang units in East Boston and elsewhere.
He said that the police were not particularly alarmed about the residence of these young men in
the city, as their aggression seemed to be mainly directed at "each other," and their criminal
activities, if any, taking place outside of Somerville. The reaction to this information seemed to
be somewhat reassured, but wary.
On October 24, it was reported that two teenage girls, both hearing-impaired, and one confined
to a wheelchair, had been raped by at least three men in Foss Park. The three men arrested for
this crime were all allegedly members of the MS-13 gang. On November 9, a ten-year-old East
Somerville girl with impaired hearing was allegedly raped by her next-door neighbor. Although
this suspect was not identified by police as a gang member, the District Attorney's office was
reported to be looking into rumors that the man had ties to that gang.
A proposed ordinance against "gang loitering" was already under discussion by two aldermanic
committees on the night of November 21, when Chief McLean was telephoned during the
meeting by his department to inform him of yet another incident. A fourteen-year-old girl was
reportedly raped by at least four men on a walkway between two houses on Walnut Street, north
of Pearl and south of Broadway. Although the police apparently do not believe these suspects
to be MS-13 members, fears have been elevated, and the outcry for more enforcement against
"gang" activities heightened.
B. Part Two - The Ordinance
The controversial "gang loitering" ordinance introduced into the Somerville Board of Alderman
by Ward 1 Alderman Bill Roche has some history of its own. It is based on an ordinance
developed by the City of Chicago in response to its own gang problems. That ordinance was
partly re-written after the United States Supreme Court found fault with parts of the ordinance
that were challenged in the courts as Morales v. City of Chicago. The City Council of Lynn,
Massachusetts, adopted a version of this ordinance in response to gang problems there, but the
Mayor of Lynn would not sign the ordinance, stating that he believed it to be unconstitutional.
The Mayor's signature is an important element in Massachusetts, because no vote to override
a Mayor's veto could effectuate such an ordinance in this state. Under the "Home Rule"
amendments to the Massachusetts constitution, no municipality can adopt criminal laws without
state approval. Laws that are punishable by imprisonment can be enacted if the majority of the
local legislative body and the mayor, in a city, sign on to a Home Rule Petition which is then
passed by both houses of the legislature. Such is the posture of the Somerville Gang Loitering
Ordinance.
The draft Ordinance initially submitted to the Board was nine pages of single-spaced text. I was
amazed at the number of people who considered that such a document was suitable for a simple
thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote. If analyzing it had been a question on the Bar Exam, any
competent law student could have written a lengthy, if inconclusive, essay.
As it was, the City Solicitor excised some of the more obvious constitutional problems, reducing
the text to five single-spaced pages. The Board ultimately amended the ordinance to create an
objective, intent-based standard for enforcement, in place of the subjective 'what a reasonable
person would believe' standard of the original ordinance. This change should curb much of the
danger of over-zealous enforcement, in law if not in fact.
After the public hearing, I conceived of a way to re-work the ordinance so that its focus was on
aggressive or menacing behavior by any groups, regardless of whether such groups fit the profile
of a "gang" set forth in the ordinance. Since my colleagues had determined to vote on the
ordinance less than 24 hours after the hearing, there wasn't time to make the case for an
ordinance based on behavior rather than group identity. I still have problems with the ordinance
we adopted, and voted against it in committee.
Ultimately, I joined my colleagues to vote to send the ordinance to the state legislature, because
I agree that discussion should go on in that forum. The legislature will hold its own public
hearings, have its own lawyers review the ordinance, and bring it under another kind of
scrutiny. This is not just Somerville's debate now. The process goes on. More people can be
part of it.
3) LOWELL STREET BRIDGE UPDATE
In early October, I attended a meeting with Somerville Public Works Commissioner David Dow
and several representatives from the Massachusetts Highway Department concerning the status
of the Lowell Street Bridge reconstruction project. I learned that one reason for the project's
delay was that it was being entirely re-designed. Originally, Mass. Highway had planned to build
a single, very long span that would have extended over both the Lowell Line Commuter Rail
right of way and that of the abandoned Arlington and Lexington Branch Line, where it is hoped
that the Bike path will soon be extended.
Fortunately, Mass. Highway made a site visit, and discovered the Visiting Nurses Association
Assisted Living Facility on Lowell Street, which had not been developed when Mass. Highway
came up with its original bridge plan. An abutment of the single-span bridge would have partly
obstructed the driveway of the VNA facility - not a land taking that anyone was interested in
making.
Consequently, the bridge was re-designed as two separate spans, each requiring smaller
abutments, and no permanent land takings. The delay this time: the need to get design approval
from Guilford Transportation, which still has rights to a now-inactive freight spur on the old
branch line. I pointed out that Guilford Transportation would need many city approvals to go
forward with its ambitious project at North Point, which extends from Cambridge into
Somerville. Moreover, the North Point project stands to benefit from the very bike path
extension to which the freight easement has long been an impediment.
Dave Dow and the Mass. Highway officials expressed optimism that approaching Guilford from
this perspective would persuade them to speedily review and approve the bridge reconstruction.
All progress along those lines will be reported here.
4) SCHOOL COMMITTEE VOTES TO COMMISSION PLANNING STUDY
A. The Issue
As with many urban school systems, Somerville's public schools are encountering flat or
decreasing revenues, declining enrollments, many aging buildings, and an uncertain level of
public confidence. Boston and Cambridge are two other cities looking at restructuring their school systems.
Somerville's future will be greatly affected by commitments to use, maintain, repair, renovate
or rebuild its various schools. Decisions made now about the programming that will take place
in those buildings could be even more significant in determining the prospects of this
community.
"School" issues occasionally erupt into neighborhood controversies. The proposal a few years
back to demolish homes to expand the Brown School caused much turmoil, as did the more
recent plan to build a new Lincoln Park Community School in the middle of Lincoln Park. The
potential building or closing of schools, the subsequent sale and availability for redevelopment
of school sites has important implications for every neighborhood concerned and for the city as
a whole.
B. School Committee Response
On Wednesday, October 23, I attended a meeting of the Somerville School Committee devoted
to Long Range Planning. A letter sent before the meeting by Superintendent Albert Argenziano,
stated that the "topics discussed will focus around the future direction and space issues for the
Somerville Public Schools." Much of the meeting itself was devoted to a presentation by the
Superintendent of his own plan for reorganization of the schools, based entirely on the
reassignment of existing programs among existing and planned buildings.
Dr. Argenziano stated that his plan called for no school closings, because the School Committee
had instructed him to keep all existing schools open. Questioned by Ward 5 School Committee
person Kate Murray, as to what were the principles underlying his reorganization plan, Dr.
Argenziano stated that his guiding principal was to save the $2 million that he thought would be
cut from next fiscal year's school budget. The School Committee ultimately adopted a motion
to hire a consultant to make recommendations regarding long-term plans for the schools.
C. Wider Implications
As was demonstrated with the new Capuano School in East Somerville (15 residential properties
bought and demolished, building sited in the middle of Glen Park) and with Lincoln Park, the
city itself is a big landowner and developer. This summer our Superintendent of Schools, Dr.
Albert Argenziano, told the Committee on Local Affairs of the Massachusetts Legislature that
he thought he might "have to" close two city schools this year. Though he wouldn't name them,
these schools are widely speculated to be the Brown and the Cummings. Sale of the Conwell
School has already been publicly discussed by the Superintendent and the Mayor as a possible
strategy for addressing this year's city budget crisis.
A consultant who was the only bidder on the School Department RFP has now been hired to
study the system's buildings and make recommendations. Even if you have children in the
Somerville schools, you will be unlikely to hear much about this major undertaking. I'm going
to stay in touch with my School Committee person about the progress of the study and the
broader question of future planning for the city's schools. We should each of us be having these
discussions with our School Committee people, regardless of whether we have children in the
schools now, or ever expect to do so.
5) IKEA CHAPTER 91 HEARING SET
Chapter 91 of the Massachusetts General Laws deals with the protection of public rights on
seashores, riverbanks, and historic tidelands. A mandatory public hearing on the impacts on the
proposed IKEA to be built on the Mystic River shoreline will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday,
January 7, at Somerville City Hall. Public testimony will be taken.
IKEA Update
The Executive Office of Environmental Affairs has issued its certificate approving IKEA's Final
Environmental Impact Report. Since my copy of the FEIR was sent to the wrong address, I've
only just received it, and have not yet reviewed it. Also, the Somerville Planning Board has
approved IKEA's Special Permit and Master Plan applications with very minor conditions.
A number of interesting points came out in the hearing and comment process. For instance, at
the October 17 hearing, Bill Lyons, the city's Director of Traffic and Parking, stated that Mass.
Highway and the MDC had shown "no interest" in the IKEA proposal, and had made no
comment to the state's Office of Environmental Affairs in response to IKEA's MEPA filings.
Lyons added that he had enough to do evaluating impacts on city streets, and that he "relied"
upon state agencies to take care of roadways under their jurisdiction, which they simply had not
done in this case. Given IKEA's own estimates of increased traffic volumes generated by the
project, one wonders at the state's omission, and what consequences will ensue.
6) UPDATE ON MAGOUN SQUARE CVS
On December 4, the Board of Aldermen's Committees on Finance and on Legislative Matters
voted to approve, subject to two additional conditions, the sixth draft of the ground lease for the
Magoun Square municipal parking lot and adjacent lands. One amendment was to make the
project conditions imposed by the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) conditions of the lease as
well. Steps were taken to ensure public use of the parking lot and the new plaza for the duration
of the lease.
Many neighbors and merchants from the square persevered through hours of neighborhood
meetings, Planning Board meetings, ZBA meeting, Aldermen's meetings, and committee
meetings. The final product is far, far, better than the usual city project, and far better than this
project would have been without such a wealth of public input. The neighbors, city, and
developers have worked hard on this project, and have much to be proud of.
copyright 2002 Denise Provost
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