By  Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

I’m very, very happy to live in Ten Hills but – especially at this time of year – I always find myself thinking about Prospect Hill.

It’s the neighborhood where I grew up and went to grade school (in the building that until recently housed the Boys and Girls Club), and it’s the neighborhood where Nancy and I first settled down and began our family.  During the week between Christmas and New Year’s, it’s only natural to think about where you spent your traditional family holidays.  For me, Prospect Hill was the backdrop for all those memories: the kitchens; the Christmas trees; the lit-up houses; the caroling; the snowball fights; the parties; the midnight masses, the giving and receiving of presents – and, years later, the births of my four sons.

But I have another reason for thinking about Prospect Hill at this time of year – and it’s a reason that all of us here in Somerville can share. On New Year’s Day, our city celebrates the 1776 raising of the first recognizably American flag over George Washington’s continental army, which was then encamped in rough fortifications on Prospect Hill.

Six months earlier, the decision of the Continental Congress to appoint George Washington as head of all colonial military forces had provided a much-needed boost in morale to the troops on Prospect Hill.  But by year’s end, the patriot army was hungry, cold and sick – and immediate military action was still out of the question.  To encourage his soldiers and to send a message of defiance to the British, Washington decided to commission a new flag for the new year.  Called the “Flag of Grand Union,” it bore the old British union jack in its upper left corner (the colonies still thought of themselves as part of the empire) but also had thirteen alternating red and white stripes to symbolize the joining together of the thirteen colonies in a common government.

That flag held a lot of meaning for the colonials.  To this day, it remains an important symbol of Somerville’s revolutionary past. For me, and for generations of Somerville residents, it is also a symbol of our hope for the future, and our confidence that we can change the world when we work and sacrifice together to achieve a common purpose.

In recent years, under a series of reform-minded city administrations, Somerville has shown what we can accomplish when we decide to create a common vision of the future, and then work to make that future a reality.  It’s a never-ending task – a journey, not a destination – but our city has done much to renew itself over the past quarter century.  Our city is cleaner, better educated, more prosperous, safer, more walkable and more bike-able.  We enjoy better municipal services, more and better parks and open space, and – despite national recession and stagnation – a brighter economic future than at any time in living memory.

Does that mean things were so bad in the past?  Of course not: the same qualities that make Somerville a wonderful community today – our diversity, our creativity, our energy, our abiding sense of neighborhood – have always made it a great place to live.

Does that mean things are perfect today?  Absolutely not:  we have an enormous amount to do and our future success is by no means guaranteed.

But what it does mean is that we have been able to pull together a broadly diverse group of residents across a range of ethnicities, professions, ages, incomes and educational levels – and to hammer out a shared vision of a future that includes everybody.

In the coming year, we will be rolling out our city’s new comprehensive development plan, which was hammered out over the past two years with the active engagement and participation of residents in every neighborhood – another example of a “Grand Union” in action.  It’s a plan in which every square and neighborhood has a stake, and where the success of new development at Assembly Square or Brickbottom serves to complement the continued development of the city as a whole.  It’s a plan in which Magoun Square, East Somerville, Ball Square, Winter Hill and Teele Square feature as prominently as Davis and Union Squares do.

It’s a plan that reminds us that a shared purpose – a grand union – gives us more strength and more options than we could ever hope to have as individuals.

On behalf of all your elected officials and everyone here at City Hall, I wish you a joyful, rewarding and peaceful New Year. Thank you, as always, for the incredible privilege of serving as your Mayor.  I cannot tell you how fortunate I feel to be a part of Somerville’s current grand union.

I hope you will join us on Prospect Hill this New Year’s Day.  In addition to the actual flag-raising ceremony, there will be a procession from City Hall (starting at 11:30 a.m.).  Music and refreshments will also be provided.

And, weather permitting, we’ll open up the Prospect Hill Tower to let folks climb to the top deck.  The view is pretty amazing.  On a clear day, you can even glimpse our city’s revolutionary past – and its exciting future.