Vol. 4, No. 12
August 30, 2004
Contents
1) URGENT! ADVOCATE FOR MASS TRANSIT TODAY!
What's going on?
Monday, August 30, at 5:00 pm is the deadline for public comment on
the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)'s 2005-2009
Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The TIP - the
funding/programming document for all federal transportation dollars
to be spent in our region, allocates NO funding to either the Green
Line extension through Somerville, or to the Assembly Square Orange
Line stop. Not even preliminary engineering or permitting work on
these projects is scheduled or budgeted.
Both transit projects (Green Line extension and Orange Line/Assembly
Square) are listed in other MPO planning documents. Until they are
funded in the TIP, however, these projects remain conceptual. Lack
of public outcry at their omission could easily be interpreted as
"lack of public support" for these projects, and made an excuse for
continued neglect by state government and the federally-mandated
MPO.
What can we do?
The deadline looms, but a paragraph or two of comment from a great
number of citizens would send a potent message indeed. To send
comments by FAX, dial 617-973-8855. To comment by email, address
your remarks to: tip@ctps.org
What should we say?
We should say what transit projects Somerville wants, needs, and
deserves. We can talk about the various burdens Somerville bears as
an over-utilized and underserved "transportation corridor" to Boston
and Cambridge. We can point out Somerville's desperate need for
economic development - the only recent example of which is the
little boom town of Davis Square, that grew up around a major mass
transit investment.
We could also say "thank you," acknowledging the Somerville projects
that are in the TIP: almost $4 million for Beacon Street, $10
million for Somerville Ave., almost $400,000 for Magoun Square
street and sidewalk improvements, about $500,000 programmed for 2007
to extend the Bike Path from Cedar Street to Central Street.
But if you look at this TIP, and value and distribution of regional
transportation investment over the last two decades, it's pretty
small potatoes - and mostly for roads, despite Somerville's extreme
density, and the very high MBTA assessment that we pay.
Just a paragraph or two - it will just take a few minutes. Please!
2) GANG ORDINANCE SIGNED INTO LAW
Last Thursday, Lt. Governor Kerry Healey signed the Gang Ordinance
into law, in Foss Park. Read objectively, the literal language of
the new law requires police officers to warn gang members and send
them away if they are observed committing certain arrestable
offenses (e.g., writing graffiti, threatening to commit a crime,
breaking the peace) in certain designated public areas of the city.
No one has explained to me why such a law is preferable to existing
laws, which allow police to arrest anyone committing these offenses
in public.
It will be very interesting to see how the Gang ordinance will be
interpreted - and applied -when read subjectively by individual
police officers.
3) SCHOOL NEWS
A) Meetings/Superintendent Search
The School Committee will be meeting three times this week, but only
one of those meetings will be devoted to the search for a new
Superintendent. There is a special meeting on Monday, August 30, at
7 pm, "for any and all business," so the subject could come up,
although the only related item on the printed agenda is a Report of
the Subcommittee on Personnel concerning the RFP for consulting
services for the search. This meeting will be held in the Aldermen's
Chambers in City Hall.
On Wednesday, Sept. 1, there is a Finance and Facilities
Subcommittee meeting scheduled for 6:15 to review billrolls,
with a "Special Meeting for Executive Session" to follow at 7:00. On
Thursday, Sept. 2, at 6:00 pm, there is a Personnel Committee
meeting to "Review proposals [for consulting services, presumably]
for Superintendent of Schools Search."
These latter meetings will be held in the 3rd floor conference room
at the Administration Building, 181 Washington Street Rear. This is
the Boys and Girls Club building, near the intersection with McGrath
Highway. There is limited parking in back, street parking on
Washington Street, and bus access on the 87 and 88 lines.
B. Thoughts on Public Process
The last time that Somerville hired a Superintendent of Schools, the
School Committee had no formal process for involving the community.
During that search, I was part of an ad hoc group of residents that
organized to monitor the process. We met among ourselves to discuss
our thoughts; we sat in on the candidate interviews that were
conducted in public, took and compared notes.
Ultimately, our only input into the decision-making process was for
each of us individually to lobby individual School Committee members
about their final votes. At the time, this limited "opportunity" for
the public to weigh in on the decision seemed frustrating and
unfair. For the same process to be replicated again ten years later
would be unpardonable.
I've had a number of calls and emails from people concerned about
how the community will be included in this decision. Some have
described search processes used in other communities. Most
extraordinary of all, I thought, featured a dispute among members of
the Arlington School Committee over whether one of that committee's
own members should be included on the Selection Committee, a body
made up of citizen volunteers appointed by School Committee members.
I've been thinking about what kind of community process would work
best for us in Somerville. A model that I keep coming back to is the
community charette, commonly used in land use planning. The
consultants who prepared the Union Square Master Plan last year were
very skilled at providing structure, posing questions, and
facilitating brainstorming, prioritizing, and creative thinking by
small and large groups of everyone who turned up for these sessions.
That is just one model, of course, and it has its limitations.
Still, I've yet to visualize any model that seems clearly to satisfy
all the principles that strike me as important to promote in this
process. These principles include:
i) Everyone who is interested in the Somerville schools should have
the opportunity to weigh in at some level; none should be excluded
from participation.
ii) There should be a real effort to reach out and invite
participation from persons belonging to linguistic and ethnic
minorities, to all present and anticipated users of the school
system.
iii) There is value in conversation about the Superintendent's
position among members of different groups - people from different
schools and interest groups should have the opportunity to talk
about the schools with people who may have had a different
experience or viewpoint.
iv) Whatever processes are created for community involvement need to
be genuinely connected to the process, not just be 'window
dressing." They must address issues of fairness and accountability,
but also the practical need to keep moving towards stated goals and
to reach closure.
v) People do not need the School Committee's structures or blessing
to organize, to talk about the search, and to devise their own
processes.
I was rather surprised and disappointed in the limited public
interest and light attendance at most of the School Committee's
'Community Forums' held this past year. There is a wealth of
knowledge and experience in Somerville that could contribute richly
to a profile of our school system, its strengths and its challenges,
its evolving identity, and the vision that we have for our own
future, and the kind of leader who best can take us there. Do you
know any good models that you could recommend to the School
Committee for such a community process?
C) Funding Scheduled for New Lincoln Park School
One of the things I was working on this year with the Massachusetts
Municipal Association and with the Local Government Advisory
Commission was reform of the School Building Assistance (SBA)
program. I was delighted to be informed this week by state Treasurer
Timothy Cahill that, under the successful SBA bill, the construction
of a new Lincoln Park School has been programmed for FY 2007. It
will provide 90% state reimbursement for an approved construction
cost of $21,168,598.
I am thrilled that Lincoln Park will have its new facility far
sooner than we previously had any cause to hope for.
4) CLYDE STREET MEETING SCHEDULED
Another neighborhood meeting regarding the redevelopment of the
former factory sites on Clyde Street has been announced for
Wednesday, September 8, 2004. It will be held in the Community Room
of the VNA Assisted Living Center on Lowell Street, at 6:30 pm.
Unlike the previous meeting, the developers will not be hosting this
discussion.
5) WANT ZONING AGENDAS?
Many readers have asked how they can get more timely notice of the
meeting dates and agendas of the Planning Board and Zoning Board of
Appeals. I am going to try to set up an email group to receive these
notices.
Contact me
if you would like to be included.
copyright 2004 Denise Provost
This file has been converted from WordPerfect
Using wp2html.exe by Andrew Scriven