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© 2021 The Somerville Times. All rights reserved.
(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)
By Jack Connolly
In the last few weeks, a handful of motivated concerned citizens got together, planned and held a meeting, with city engineers and elected officials agreeing to fix everything that was detailed in a powerful PowerPoint display of and what’s been termed the “disinvestment of Davis Square.”
Over 80 concerned citizens, Including both new and long-term residents of the Davis Sq. area. business owners, and employees of local shops, all showed up on February 13 to see and hear local resident Chris Iwerks of the DavisNow citizens’ action group, detail the disinvestment of infrastructure in Davis Square. In less than 15 minutes, Iwerks chronicled the loose bricks, bent sign poles, damaged and dangerous crosswalks, illegal signage, and poorly maintained Seven Hills Park (next to the Somerville Theatre).
City engineers, OSPCD Executive Director George Proakis, and elected officials Ward 6 Councilor Lance Davis and Councilors At-Large Bill White and Stephanie Hirsch couldn’t thank the DavisNow activists’ and local citizens enough (for doing the work of the city) and pledged to correct these Davis Sq. deficiencies and disinvestments in rapid-fire fashion, and promised to dedicate new city budget funds for ongoing maintenance in Davis Sq.
Isn’t it funny that in just a few months, “participatory democracy” worked. Nobody had to put themselves up for election to a be part of a “representative government” neighborhood council, meet detailed requirements to get voted in, or do anything but show up and be heard.
Conversely let’s take a look at Union Square, where the Green Line T station is planned to open in 2021. The Master developer, hand-picked by the City of Somerville, US2 (Union Square Station Associates) has been in town for almost 5 years, and already spent millions to re-develop upstart Union Sq.
City zoning for the re-development in Union Square is done, yet there are still unresolved problems. When will the D2 Block be transferred to the master developer US2, so that a possible life sciences office building and a 400-unit apartment complex with 20% affordable units be built?
The “representative government” group called Union Square Neighborhood Council has been slogging away, and after an impressive initial show up of 700 people to elect 15 neighborhood representatives to negotiate community benefits with US2, just had another election, and just 15 people showed up to run for the 15 neighborhood Council seats, and a grand total of 70 people showed up to elect them. What happened?
Certainly, the master developer US2 must be frustrated with the lack of progress, considering they’ve spent millions in almost 5 years, with barely any noticeable results. Anybody see the amount of construction going on in Boston, and how about in nearby Cambridge, where Google is building an addition to their complex in Kendall?
There’s 50 million reasons why development activity in Union Square must stop moving at glacial speed in order to take advantage of the soon to be constructed Green Line T station in Union Square. This City of Somerville is on the hook for that $50 million for the Union Sq. T station and additional T stops to be constructed in Somerville.
The Neighborhood Council in Union Square is supposed to negotiate community benefits with the master developer, but what happens when the mayor and the city council have issues with those negotiated benefits? Who is going to make the final call, without ticking one another off?
Must be difficult for the master developer US2 to talk to interested companies in locating their businesses near the Green Line T stop, with all kinds of hip and happening shops and neighborhoods nearby, yet no definitive space to offer for a buy or lease agreement as yet.
Take a look at what is happening in the state of New York right now, with everybody – including the Governor – begging Amazon to come back to NY, after their abrupt decision NOT to locate in Queens New York after a long nationwide search. And now about 27,000 jobs and commercial taxes are likely heading elsewhere, while Gov. Cuomo and other politicos grovel to get Amazon back.
A lot of people around Somerville and Greater Boston are very curious to see what the city is going to do to pick up the pace in Union Square to get it ready for the benefits of a T stop.
It looks like the Davisnow.org group, much like its predecessor, the Davis Sq Task Force, is up and running, engaging anyone interested in showing up and sharing ideas, and making rapid progress undoing the Davis Sq. disinvestment.
Certainly, it appears that Union Square neighbors and businesses are frustrated with the lack of progress in Union Square, especially now that major traffic headaches are affecting anyone traveling on Somerville Avenue, and/or Washington St. for months to come.
Looks like it is time for the mayor and his talented team of planners and economic development people to pick up the pace, together with not just neighborhood council folks and US2, but from any interested citizens in the Union Square neighborhood.
As Governor Cuomo in New York has said, “In order to be progressive, you must achieve progress.” Let’s not get ‘Amazoned’ in Union Square.
Born, raised, and lifetime resident of Somerville. St. Clement High School graduate; BA (Cum Laude) and M. Ed from Boston College; Attended Tufts Univ. and Harvard Univ. JFK School of Government; Licensed Insurance Broker and award-winning Small Business Owner (WCC Insurance Agency Inc.) 19 College Ave. Davis Sq. Somerville MA since 1996. Ward Six Alderman eleven terms 1984-2005, Alderman At-Large; 1 special election and five terms 2007-2017, and the distinction of being the longest serving Alderman in Somerville History.
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The guy does practically nothing for 20+ years on the BOA, and as soon as he’s voted out of office, he becomes an activist . .
The Union Square Neighborhood Council feels more concerned with process than results. It’s also exceedingly opaque to residents – unless you’re wiling to listen to hours of discussions at the police station (that you’re not allowed to participate in), their emails and online presence are lacking to the point that I have no idea what they’re doing on any given issue. Needing to read through pages and pages of minutes to get a clue means they’re essentially operating without public oversight.
How are the US2 negotiations going? Who knows? It’s all being done in executive session (who are they hiding it from?)
They also don’t do anything I expect from a neighborhood association – they haven’t taken the lead on working with the city during the current construction, there’s no community-building efforts via planning and hosting events.
While there was discussion of reducing the # of seats, it was shot down (and the sensible people who proposed it have understandably moved on). Now it’s an organization that has legal weight, but is just composed of whoever wanted to show up – the ‘election’ was a farce. We know that when you let decisions be made by whoever has the time and resources to attend these meetings, those decisions do not reflect the public.
At least there was that fun time when the co-chair threatened to call the cops to escort out a member of the public who disagreed with him.
“…let’s take a look at Union Square, where the Green Line T station is planned to open in 2021.”
2021? Has anyone taken a look at the square lately? Not a prayer of that happening. Behind schedule and over budget? I’m shocked I tell you, shocked.
“At least there was that fun time when the co-chair threatened to call the cops to escort out a member of the public who disagreed with him.”
That “member of the public” was disruptive that time, as he often is.
He frequently browbeats USNC members, and clogs up the
meetings with long-winded tirades.
How is it that this group made up of the public, not elected in any fair or democratic way from what I can tell, are being allowed to basically run the show?
Somerbreeze–aka Somerstink–is littering the street with its lies again, and obviously doesn’t go to USNC meetngs.
“Long-winded tirades” aren’t even possible when public members are limited to two ten minute comments periods in two hours, so at most you’ll get 2 comments of 2 minutes each. Many folks in Union Sq don’t go because their opinions aren’t valued–what little time they’d be given to express them. How is this a neighborhood anything? It’s too bad the City Council continues to recognize it because it has no representational validity. It’s a social experiment that didn’t work because it was hijacked by a few people. This is the lesson for other neighborhood councils if they emerge across Somerville–of how not to do it.
When a certain co-chair states in a public meeting setting–an ORS Citywide meeting–that all others outside of his few friends are “in the pockets of the Developer, the Mayor, USMS, and the Chamber of Commerce”, then reality has no meaning. And if asking this co-chair why he said such is ‘disruptive’, then that’s a compliment. Said co-chair lost his marbles almost immediately[ how dare another person even ask that question?] and started threatening police removal. So here’s the problem again: neighborhood members won’t go when the opinions of all but the few count for so little. And this particular co-chair wants to be elected co-chair for a second term next week. The USNC has become the standing joke of Union Sq, and it’s not difficult to see why.
So, Somerstink, you should come to meetings. You’d fit right in with some of the other crazy paranoid people in there. In the meantime you might take 1000 lines of “I promise not to tell lies anymore”. If you get tired you could get Katie to help you. Y’all should quit when you get behind the first time, or do you not learn anything? But it gets other people smiling, so there is that entertainment value. So thank you Somerstinky, and have a nice day.
The USNC has become a grandiose failure. As an area resident I have no earthly idea what they’re doing other than wasting time. We started this process with $5M for the T, a new park, desperately needed sewer upgrades, 20% affordable housing and linkage fees for job training all in hand. Figure out how to foster locally-owned retail, optimize the traffic pattern for those of us who live here and walk/bike through the square on a regular basis, and push for some more public/recreational space, then call it a day. I don’t understand why this isn’t done.
Instead we’ve got a group of fundamentally incapable people who’ve been hijacked by building trades folks who are trying to maximize their payday. Best of luck to them with that, but that is hardly a priority issue for the residents here. The Aldermen need to step in an set a deadline, and then take over if it’s not met. At some point the farce has to end.