Vol. 3, No. 7
April 28, 2003
Contents
1) IMPORTANT NEWSLETTER NEWS
A) To Keep Receiving SOMERVILLE AT LARGE
My e.mail provider has recently made some service policy changes that make the sending of this
newsletter cumbersome and inconvenient. In consultation with my IT team, I've decided to
switch distribution of SOMERVILLE AT LARGE to Topica.com. Topica will be sending you
an e.mail asking you if you want to continue receiving this newsletter; if you do want to
continue, you MUST respond in the affirmative, or you will be taken from the list.
If you respond using the “one click confirmation”, you are taken to the Topica site and
automatically added. Topica will also give you the option to register for a "My Topica" account
by filling out the fields on an on-line application form. It is NOT NECESSARY to register with
Topica to receive the newsletter; registration will just give you a way to manage your all your
Topica groups, if you have them.
B) Please Spread the Word...
Do you have a new neighbor who wants to figure out what's going on in Somerville? An elderly
neighbor who likes to read the Somerville Journal and follow local news, but doesn't have a
computer? A friend who thinks that politics is a lost cause, and isn't even registered to vote?
Here's a suggestion: PRINT a copy of Somerville at Large. Pass it on to someone who might
be interested in the news and views it contains. POST a copy in your building, in the
laundromat, on a bulletin board some place that you regularly visit. We won't always agree on
issues or positions, but we all need informed and lively public discourse to keep our democracy
healthy.
2) PUBLIC HEARING ON ASSEMBLY SQUARE ZONING - AGAIN
On Thursday, May 1, at 6:00 p.m., in the Aldermen's Chamber at City Hall, there will be a
public hearing on the new zoning that is being proposed for Assembly Square. The text of the
new zoning can be viewed on the
city's web site
While I've not had the time to do a deep analysis of the proposed zoning, on first review it looks
rather odd. It is very different from the existing zoning for Assembly Square, and the zoning
for the entire rest of the city. I hope to learn a great deal more about it on Thursday, and
encourage others in the community to do the same.
3) PUBLIC HEARING ON CITY BUDGET CUTS, PRIORITIES
A public hearing on handling the city's budget crisis will be held by the Committee on Finance
on Tuesday, May 13, in the Aldermen's Chambers. Call City Clerk John Long at 617-625-6600
to verify the time, which has not yet been published.
4) SCHOOL BUDGET WOES LARGE AND SMALL -WHY THE SILENCE?
One interesting aspect of the city's move to sell the Conwell (described in
item 8, at the end of
this newsletter) is that I received not one communication about it from any constituent. This
silence makes me wonder what level of public awareness exists about the plan to sell the school.
Last week, responding to a communication from the Mayor requesting budget cuts for all city
departments, the aldermanic Finance Committee voted to cut from $300,000 from this year's
school budget.
Again, I heard not one word from any constituent - not even school committee members - about
the proposal. Oddly, I later read in an old Somerville Journal that the School Committee had
earlier debated whether the $300,000 cut was 'definite,' and that the Mayor had 'promised' an
aldermanic vote on the question. Ironically, the day after the vote was taken, I received a global
e.mail from constituents urging all readers to "advocate at the city level with the Mayor and
Aldermen to well-fund the schools."
This newsletter contains a notice about a public hearing of the aldermanic Finance Committee
on the budget and funding priorities. Our fiscal situation is at least as dire as it looks. We may
be numb with shock, but the truism about squeaky wheels remains true. Everyone in Somerville
who cares where the city spends its diminished resources should be prepared to advocate for
these opinions.
5) SSTP BENEFIT: HEAR MUSIC TOO HOT FOR HAVANA!
Next Saturday, May 3, the Somerville Summer Theater Project is holding an event that none will
want to miss. This evening of food, fun, and music will feature the Somerville trio Lenguaviva,
recently profiled in the Somerville Journal (April 3, 2003, page 26). The group's original songs
of social and political satire continue the legacy of a famous comedy group founded by members
Mario Barros and Mayda Dedieu in Havana, Cuba in 1987.
The event, which starts at 7:00 p.m., will be held at Christ Episcopal Church, 66 Fellsway
West, across from Foss Park (Fellsway West runs one way, south, from Mystic Avenue). The
cover charge is $10 per family, and covers refreshments, entertainment and a silent auction. For
more information, call 617-776-6871.
6) MAGOUN SQUARE DEMOLITION PARTY
On Tuesday morning, April 29, at 9:00 a.m., there will be a "demolish ceremony" in Magoun
Square, to begin site preparation for the construction of the new CVS. All are invited. Call SF
Properties at 617-277-0400, ext 117 with any questions.
7) GET A STREET CLEANING CALENDAR FOR YOUR CAR
Realizing the existence of a market niche, an enterprising group of parents has printed street
cleaning calendars for us to keep in our cars. All sales benefit the Healey School. For
purchasing information, contact
baldwinbeckmann@MINDSPRING.COM
8) CONWELL SCHOOL SALE IMMINENT - BUT WHY?
The piece that follows is very long, but also very important and time critical. The Mayor has
called a Special Meeting of the Board of Aldermen for Monday, April 28 (today), at 7:00 p.m.
to make this vote. I hope that you will read what follows and consider calling your
alderman/men about the impending vote, and/or attending the Special Meeting.
The Budget Crisis
Somerville is in a dire fiscal situation. The city has a longstanding, structural dependence on
state aid. With the state legislature making cuts even deeper than those proposed by the
Governor, Somerville must work hard to balance a budget from which revenues are increasingly
sliced.
The magnitude of these cuts cannot be a surprise to city officials, however. Over a year ago,
when Alderman Bill White was incoming President of the Board of Aldermen, he was invited
to speak at the Chamber of Commerce Governmental Affairs Breakfast about the year ahead.
Having looked at state revenue projections, Alderman White predicted a budget cut in the $9 -
$15 million range.
Selling Real Estate to Raise Revenue
The administration has clearly been planning measures to balance the budget, but the Mayor's
request that the School Committee turn the Conwell School over to the city did not get public
mention until February of 2003, to my knowledge. On March 24, 2003, the Somerville School
Committee voted to turn the management and control of the Conwell over to the City of
Somerville, with little fanfare. On April 10, the Mayor asked the Aldermen to declare the school
"surplus" and free it for sale, and that request came through committee this week with very little
discussion.
The notion of selling city real estate to raise revenue to meet the budget shortfall is obviously
a tempting one. Yet to liquidate irreplaceable assets in the absence of a rational long range plan
for all city facilities - including schools - strikes me as folly.
The administration has promised to undertake a long term facilities plan for the future - indeed,
I said that my vote to approve Homans was conditional on such an undertaking - but it is unwise
to remove the Conwell site from the city's range of planning options.
Short Term Solutions Cause Long Term Problems
I voted to bond the renovation of the Homans Building because it is good long term planning
to consolidate city operations in a city-owned building, and stop renting space from Tufts and
the Boys and Girls Club at a cost of over $600,000 a year. Yet we must consider how we got
in the position of paying ruinous rents to house city programs. The truth is, we got there by
selling schools to raise revenues.
Twenty-odd years ago, Somerville sold the Pope School in Union Square to the Boys and Girls
Club for around $60,000; this year we're paying $145,168 to rent space there for central school
administration offices. We sold the Western Junior High School to Tufts in the mid-80s for just
over $1 million; this year, we'll pay $460,767 for space rented there. These building sales,
prompted by the exigencies of the moment, were clearly made without sufficient thought to
future space needs of the city.
Neither the city administration nor the school department has undertaken a long-range facilities
plan. The touted NESDEC study completed this winter was billed as a such a plan, but
demonstrably was not, as I remarked at the time. NESDEC evaluated and commented on some
facilities and programs, and made some suggestions. NESDEC made no consideration of needs
attendant on future population growth, and the Conwell site was not in its scope of service.
Why Somerville's Long Term Plan Should Include the Conwell
The Conwell has not been in use as a "neighborhood" school for a number of years, and so it
may have fallen out of view for some in the community. I became familiar with the site during
the '97-'98 and '98-'99 school years, when it was known as "Healey West," and was one of
two facilities (the other being St. Polycarp's School) that provided "swing space" for the Healey
School during its demolition and reconstruction. Since then, the site has been leased by the city
to the Shore Collaborative for special needs programming.
Had NESDEC considered the Conwell, it would have found that this publicly-owned site offers
more amenities to school age children in Somerville than any other site in the city. This 84,901
square foot parcel has enough land for parking, landscaping, and for a garden which has
historically been cultivated by school children as part of their curriculum. Behind it, on the low-traffic,
dead-end portion of Capen Street, is a large, safe, beautiful playground, renovated in
1999 by the City of Medford, and maintained by that city.
Just across Alewife Brook Parkway from the site are the largest open fields accessible anywhere
in Somerville, the ample park lands maintained by the MDC along Alewife Brook. Also just
over the road are the vast and beautiful tracts of the Mystic Valley Parkway, extending up into
the Mystic Lakes. Dilboy Park, with its stadium and playing fields, is down just across the road.
What school site in the city can boast such amenities? The only way to provide school yards and
playing fields elsewhere in the city is to locate school buildings in existing parks. The resulting
school yards are not so bountiful as these, and risk subtracting rare park space from Somerville's
small inventory. The Conwell site provides open space and playing fields in abundance - and
ones which Somerville need not pay to acquire or maintain. This site is in many ways the best
piece of real estate owned by the city, certainly the best for school use.
Some have characterized the Conwell's location as "remote." In a city of four square miles,
"remote" is quite a relative term. Admittedly, it is near Somerville's municipal boundaries; by
that measure, Davis Square and Powderhouse Park are "remote." Actually, the Conwell is
remarkably accessible - the #80 bus, the same route that creates vaunted 'accessibility' to the
Homans Building, runs up Cross Street in East Somerville, to Pearl Street, to Medford Street,
to Boston Avenue, just a block up behind the Conwell.
Sale of the Conwell Could Jeopardize State Grants
Alderman White points out that Somerville has moved from a "neighborhood" school system to
a "magnet" school system, and that the existing Conwell School building is a "neighborhood"
size school, unsuited to serve as a "magnet." Given its magnificent location, however, it is
especially well-suited to be developed into a "magnet" school in future, whether by adding
additional stories to the present single story building, or by reconstruction. The state's
regulations for funding proposed school construction projects require that:
"[p]roximity to other facilities such as libraries, museums, parks, natural resources, nature study areas, and business,
which would enhance the proposed educational program shall be carefully studied and strongly encouraged." 603 Code of Mass. Regulations
38.04(4)(emphasis added)
Moreover, premature disposition of the Conwell could jeopardize the city's eligibility for school
funding from the state for a long time to come. The law also provides that:
"Any city... which applies for a [school building assistance] grant... and which has, prior to application, sold, leased, or
otherwise removed from service any schoolhouse operated by said city... shall be eligible for such grant only if the
Commissioner either determines that the grant is not for the purpose of replacing a schoolhouse sold, leased,
or otherwise removed from service in the past ten years or that the need for the project
covered by the grant could not reasonably have been anticipated at the time that such schoolhouse was sold,
leased or otherwise removed from service." 603 Code of Mass.
Regulations 38.03(11)(emphasis added)
It is a fact that the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's population projections, based on the
2000 federal census, predict a significant population increase for Somerville in the decade ahead.
Somerville's own Office of Housing and Community Development has publicly characterized
the MAPC projections as "conservative," and asked that the official projections be revised
upward. If we fail to consider that overall population increase could increase the public school
population, then shame on us.
Given the above facts, it would seem most prudent for Somerville to use the Conwell site for
existing Somerville programs. If the city presently has no program which could appropriately
be housed there short term, then we could lease it for the short term for educational purposes -
to a private or charter school, or to another municipality seeking "swing" or programming space
- so that we can later reclaim the site. The Conwell belongs, after all, not to its neighborhood,
or to Ward 7, or to the city or its school department, but to all its taxpayers, as a public trust.
The Conwell: If not a Somerville School, then Whose Sweet Deal?
If Somerville will not consider the Conwell site as a site for a Somerville public school facility,
then what will become of it? There were some clues suggested by the City Solicitor at the April
22 Finance Committee Meeting. For instance, having been informed at the previous Board of
Aldermen's meeting by the Chief Assessor that Somerville's total taxable land had shrunk from
56.33% to 55.28% in the last 15 months, I proposed an amendment to the proposed "Declaration
of Surplus" that the Conwell not be sold to a tax exempt entity.
City Solicitor Lisa Mead responded by saying that such a condition could not be added, as it
would be "discriminatory." She said that, if a church, for instance, wanted to bid on the site,
we could not preclude it from doing so by making the site unavailable to tax exempt entities. I
pointed out that the draft Declaration of Surplus which she had prepared contained the language
"[t]he property shall be used for residential purposes only," and suggested that we should strike
this clause if we wanted to be "non-discriminatory." Ms. Mead raised objections to striking the
"residential purposes only" language.
So, legally or not, Somerville's official "declaration" that this superb piece of real estate "is no
longer needed by the city," states that it shall be used "for residential purposes only." The
Solicitor says that it must be available for purchase by tax exempt entities. This leads me to
wonder, whose residences are going to be built so close to all this magnificent park land? Tufts
students? There's nothing right now to prevent Tufts from purchasing the site for student housing
- the language of the Declaration, the speed with which it is going through its "process" make
me wonder whether a deal might not already have been struck for sale of the Conwell.
Let's Reconsider
Various Aldermen have in recent months decried the selling of the Western Junior High School
to Tufts in the 1980s. Before we risk replicating that decision, let's slow down, do some more
thinking, do some long-term planning. Once we sell it, it's gone forever - the City of Somerville
will never again be able to afford to buy real estate in West Somerville.
copyright 2003 Denise Provost
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