By George P. Hassett

The American flag that flies 25 feet above Fremont and Main streets may soon be looking down on a corner named after a former alderman known for his personal responses to neighborhood problems.

At this week’s Board of Aldermen meeting, Ward 4 Alderman Walter Pero proposed the corner be named after former alderman, school committee member and World War II veteran Vito Vaccaro.

The afternoon of the meeting, Vaccaro was perusing through the night’s agenda when he learned of Pero’s tribute.

“I didn’t know they did such things for people who were still alive, I thought they waited until people died to honor them like this,” Vaccaro said. “Tell you the truth I got a little nervous.”

However, Pero said communities should honor their veterans and heroes of the past while they are still with us.  ‚ÄúWe have a lot of WWII veterans leaving us and we should honor people like Vito who have fought for the country and served the community while we still have them,‚Äù he said.

Vaccaro moved to Somerville 55 years ago and quickly became a part of his new community. In 1972 he ran for an open school committee seat in Ward 4. 

“I thought it would be a nice project the family could work on together,” Vaccaro said.

Vaccaro won and although the position was not paid, he said he enjoyed devoting his energy to the city and its schools.  ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs just a part of life, you‚Äôre supposed to do what you‚Äôre supposed to do for other people, almost like the Boy Scouts,‚Äù he said.

Vaccaro said his proudest accomplishments on the School Committee was building three schools, including the old Lincoln Park Community School, and creating the Full Circle School, the city’s alternative and moderate special needs school.

In 1978, Vaccaro became the Ward 4 alderman. At the time he was paid $3,500 a year for the job. Pero said he remembers Vaccaro as an alderman who always returned phone calls, walked the streets and responded to constituents.

“I remember Vito sitting in my living room, listening to my concerns when he was an alderman, that was the type of personal touch he had,” Pero said.

Vaccaro said he saw his role as an “ombudsmen for the people.”

“Nobody walked the streets like me, I knew about the smallest potholes in my ward,” Vaccaro said.

During Vaccaro’s tenure as alderman, city politics were marked by scandal and indictments, he said. It was an era when elected officials too often faced trouble with the law, he said. But he never got involved because he was too concerned about “staying square,” for his kids, he said.

“I was never privy to the nonsense. It was more important that my kids think their dad was an honest guy,” he said. “Of course, that didn’t make me the most popular guy on the board.”

One of Vaccaro‚Äôs accomplishments as alderman addressed a problem that is as timely today as it ever was — reducing traffic resulting from Assembly Square development. Vaccaro negotiated with developers of the original Assembly Square mall so that Temple Street and Shore Drive would be closed to the mall and not bear the brunt of traffic, he said.

The only vote he regrets was his vote to keep rent control in the city, he said.  ‚ÄúI was softhearted then, but today I see {the elimination of rent control} sparked a real renaissance in the city and physically cleaned up a lot of the homes here,‚Äù he said.

In 1979, Vaccaro lost his alderman‚Äôs seat to Joseph K. Mackey.  ‚ÄúJoe was better looking than me, taller than me, he had gone to Harvard and played football, I‚Äôve never been to college or played football,‚Äù Vaccaro said. ‚ÄúSo I told him, ‚Äòif I wasn‚Äôt me, I probably would have voted for you too.‚Äù

Although he stays involved in Somerville politics — Vacarro is a member of the licensing commission and proudly boasts, ‚ÄúI never voted for a 2 a.m. license — today, he said he spends most days at home with his beloved American flag.

‚ÄúI love flying that flag.  A lot of the people in our neighborhood come here from all over the world. Whether they‚Äôre Haitian, Portuguese, or Brazilian, I like to put the flag up as a way to welcome them and let them know how proud we are of our country,‚Äù he said.

Pero said his resolution to name the corner after Vaccaro will next go to a five person commission before it can become official.