Newstalk for November 16th 2005

A new item starting this week ‚Äì we‚Äôre going to ask questions about what‚Äôs going on in the city and we‚Äôre going to ask you – the reader – to go online to our weblog and tell us what you think of the question‚Ķplease keep in mind that the ‚Äúquestion‚Äù will be based hearsay/rumor only‚Ķof course no swearing or tearing someone a new one will be allowed, as it will be just speculation.  We‚Äôre just going to ask a series of questions every week and the readers can tune in and give it your best shot for the answer.

First question for the readers/weblog visitors:  There has been some talk lately regarding a City of Somerville Official who has been observed by a few people going in and out of eating establishments and bars without paying his/her bill.  It kind of reminds us of ‚ÄúWimpy‚Äù from the Popeye comics way back, who often said, ‚ÄúFor a hamburger today I‚Äôd gladly pay you next Tuesday‚Äù.  Our question is ‚Äì who do YOU think it is?

Don‚Äôt forget to vote in the ‚ÄúBest of Somerville‚Äù contest this week and next – some of the categories are normal and some are just off the wall.  Categories like Best Rumor, Best Comb-Over, Best Dye Job, Best Politician and lots more.  Voting will take place the entire month of November and the winners will be announced in the December 7th issue of the paper.  Vote online through our email, mail in your ballot or phone in and leave your ballot‚Äôs choices on the Newstalk extension at 617-666-4010.

Now that the city elections are over, we won‚Äôt rehash old stuff here, but we can say we were not surprised as to the outcome in the Alderman-at-Large race and the Ward 6 Alderman race was hard to figure coming down to the wire.  We really thought Jack was picking up steam and going to be reelected.  At the end of the day, it can be said that there certainly have been more exciting years in local elections, but one thing that will never change is the old adage that no matter what, you should be a good winner or a good loser ‚Äì because you never know what might happen in the future.

Now we move onto the special election for the vacant State Representative seat in January with the final election in February.  Already in the race are Denise (topped the Alderman at Large race again) Provost and her neighbor Liz Moroney, who serves on the notorious Zoning Board of Appeals (we‚Äôll get to that one later).  Liz was seen on Election Day last week passing out literature in Ward 6 and her handy-dandy ice scraper (is she trying remind us about the harsh winter ahead?).  We heard that John Roderick, unsuccessful candidate for Ward 3 Alderman, is also running.  Ward 4 Alderman Walter Pero is said to be considering a move since he just got reelected hands down over his recent opponent.  Matt Capobianco of Cambria street is also said to be considering a run for the seat.

We hear through the wireless underground that Ward 5 Alderman Sean O‚ÄôDonovan might be thinking about it, as well as Dot Gay – the former mayor.  Even a well-known family from Ward 3 might have a member pull papers ‚Äì no, not the Mackey‚Äôs.  Then there‚Äôs Kevin Tarpley – former Ward 2 Alderman ‚Äì who left his seat vacant then came back and couldn‚Äôt decide what to run for, now we hear he‚Äôs thinking he has a shot at this seat.  We think the best question to date is which one of them will have Cathy O‚ÄôDea working for them?

Here‚Äôs an interesting set of statistics for you to chew on‚Ķon Election Day, www.thesomervillenews.com 1,723 separate visitors who looked at 4,200 pages and spent an average of 22 minutes online.  Pretty impressive numbers, don‚Äôt you think?  Speaking of weblogs/websites ‚Äì the Farm Team must have a little ‚Äúweblog envy‚Äù ‚Äì they now have a weblog on their site as well.  It took us some time to find it ‚Äì it isn‚Äôt like ours.  We know for a fact that the Farm Team constantly visits our weblog to check out the latest stories, as we try to update it everyday with local news, not re-written press releases like they do.

Ok, so Mayor Joe had  ‚ÄúNobody‚Äù running against him this year and ‚ÄúNobody‚Äù ended up with 23.6% of the vote in an Election Year that saw very little citywide voting.  Did you see the full-page ad taken out by the Police?  Hey, in our paper at least we put a nice picture of Mayor Joe ‚Äì not like the Farm Team did, that one was brutal.  But hey, they‚Äôll tell their friend the Mayor that it was an accident, we know better though.  We‚Äôd also like to know what‚Äôs up with the writing style change for the endorsements at the Farm Team?  Trying to be a little like some of the writers we have here looked a little cheesy and fake to us, but that‚Äôs up to you to decide which is more readable and more locally oriented.

We suspect that Mayor Joe‚Äôs total of 7,840 votes (don‚Äôt forget the 3,095 for blanks and write-ins) was probably one of the smallest regular City Election results in at least the last 50 years.  Some of us can remember when 20,000 plus voters would turn out on Election Day.  How sad.

Apparently when attempting to make the jail cells a little more appealing at the Police Station, a painter, who was using oil-based paint, forgot to properly ventilate the area, causing one of the operators to go home sick… they think a lot of people were happy for awhile afterwards…until someone opened the doors for ventilation.

Finally, the Third Annual Somerville News Writers festival – headed by our own Arts Editor Doug Holder and our own Tim Gager was a complete success again.  The crowd is getting larger and larger every year, and yes we have already started making plans for the Fourth Annual Writers Festival next year.  Both Doug and Tim are to be congratulated –  they did a wonderful job and the show was great ‚Äì everyone enjoyed themselves.