News Talk for the week of October 25

Last Wednesday, for the first time that we can remember, two major unions picketed City Hall with around 130 to 140 picketers altogether – mostly from the Fire Department. You could see the camera up on the 2nd floor making sure everyone could be identified later.  Now it‚Äôs true the City is trying to negotiate contracts, even Thursday morning the Fire Departments Union was meeting about their contract.  So the Mayor is probably upset about these unions doing this to him and we also heard that it‚Äôs supposed to be illegal to picket when you‚Äôre negotiating.  Some fallout from the picket has already happened ‚Äì Officer Bruce Campbell, who had the coveted job of being assigned to the Licensing Board, was removed the next day and another officer was asked to do it –  one who wasn‚Äôt there picketing.    
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Now we all heard about the Abington School that cancelled ‚ÄúTag‚Äù in the schoolyard. Well, we have it on reliable sources that our new Superintendent of Schools has managed to tick off a lot of parents.  He‚Äôs apparently cancelled all ‚Äúbake sales‚Äù – last week the students at the Winter Hill School were stunned when he put a stop to ‚Äúarts & crafts sales‚Äù that the children and parents hand made to sell in the school store.  Also, it is an unfortunate fact of life, but every year there are students who are found to have lice in their hair and they‚Äôre supposed to be sent home‚Ķnow this practice is being stopped – as well as not notifying other students parents.  We have a feeling ‚ÄúTag‚Äù and just plain old running around in the schoolyard will be done away with as well for the kids‚Ķwe hope this isn‚Äôt true.

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Did anyone notice the so-called d√©cor on the island at the intersection of Bow & Summer Street?  There are all sorts of plastic bags hanging from all the trees there.  Someone actually pulled a permit to have this done and called it ‚ÄúART‚Äù.  Well apparently the DPW Foreman himself couldn‚Äôt tell the difference either. He and his crew were about to take it all down and dispose of it thinking, it was graffiti, someone had to let them know a local artist did it and thankfully it was done in time to save it.
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The former Principal of Saint Anthony‚Äôs School, Sister Margaret, died this past Friday at her Ipswich residence.  Sister Margaret had retired in June of 2005 after almost a lifetime teaching.  Shortly after her retirement, Saint Anthony‚Äôs School closed their doors for good last June.  Those of us who attended school there, had our children attend there or knew her personally, will sadly miss Sister Margaret. Another Somerville icon has passed on.
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The Real Estate business has been tough these past few months and all sorts of rumors are flying around. One interesting one is that a long time family owned company is having some problems within.  Seems the siblings are fighting amongst themselves and rumor has it they‚Äôre in financial difficulty with all the properties they bought to convert into condominiums and are asking huge prices and not being sold.  But you know how rumors go‚Ķespecially when business gets tough‚Ķwe hope everything works out — they have been around almost 40 plus years – sort of like the grandfather of the Real Estate business here in Somerville.    
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We heard Mayor Joe’s condo conversion ordinance is “dead and gone” from somebody inside City Hall. Word is, Joe’s closest advisors begged him to let it fade away, and not to rile up all those angry homeowners who filled the Aldermanic Chambers at City Hall last Spring. Apparently, Joe listened. Do you think his friend Todd Kaplan will be mad? The Somerville Community Corporation will now actually have to face competition from other developers – what a shame. Of course, a couple weeks ago Mayor Joe’s spokesperson was in this very paper talking about how the ordinance is not gone and will soon return. Let’s wait a year and see if it does. Of course this is the guy who said he didn’t know anything about an Assembly Square deal being reached, only to send out a full press release detailing an “important press conference” a couple of hours later. Yeah sure, we believe you pal. We think Mayor Joe should remind him that keeping the public’s trust is a very important thing.
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Is someone trying to sabotage the KSS development at the old Max Pak site? We heard a DPW truck ran over and destroyed the traffic counter KSS had set up on Lowell Street to well, count the traffic on Lowell Street. Is it a big conspiracy against KSS? Probably not.
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