Meet Jeffrey Shwom, whose efforts to further a sense of community to the Ball Square area has culminated in the creation of the ballsquaresomerville.com website.

By NaBeela Washington

The need for community has never been more critical. With COVID-19 continuing to dismantle daily routines and shift how individuals are able to engage and interact with one another, community has come to mean and look like something very unorthodox; something critical for making sense of and navigating current events. 

This interview with Jeffrey Shwom illustrates how one small neighborhood of Somerville, known as Ball Square, is banding together to redefine community and overcome the odds:

NaBeela Washington: What’s the story behind ballsquaresomerville.com?

Jeffrey Shwom: Before Ball Square District Association name was used, Laura Pitone (Ward 5 School Committee member), Mark Niedergang (Ward 5 Councilor), and others like Jennifer Dorsen (GLX working group member) and South Medford Together’s Jim Silva had gotten together and organized. They had talked about organizing better, the importance of the “Broadway corridor” that connects Winter Hill to Ball Square to Teele Square, and more. I started to get involved in October 2019 after my wife and I moved into a place along the green line extension. I spoke with all of these founding members and one thing that they all said was that there needed to be a leader to step in and further organize us. So I stepped up and have been happy to organize since.

NW: How do you promote the website? Any goals you’d like to accomplish?

JS: Local business owner Lori Pino, the owner of Amal Niccoli, started the website a few years back. There was a business directory, a Back in the Day section (which still exists), Ball Square Festival 2018 photos, and some business specials. She, along with Lindsay Griffin (Lindsay Griffin + Co), Jo-Ann Smith (Stinky Kittens and Doggies Too) continue to make important contributions to our social media game to promote Ball Square.

They are in charge of the Ball Square Instagram account (@ball.square) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Ball-Square-Somerville-443181106094388). I do what I can as well to promote the square from my personal account (Instagram @jeffshwom)

These our goals that have been spelled out in our mission statement:

• Organizes social activities and events in and around Ball Square for residents and visitors
• Encourages involvement of businesses, residents, and the city in the planning process
• Strives for equity by creating a more lively business district and spaces that bring all city folk together, regardless of income or background
• Promotes and creates art and culture events in businesses
• Has an easy-to-access central information site for the District that can be shared amongst all forms of media (social, person-to-person, etc.)

At our big meeting, back in February at Sound Bites, all of these ideas were suggested above. Someone there made the keen suggestion that the website should be a central place for information. Another suggested an updated business directory, and another a place for historical preservation. That’s what we strive to do. We have three different areas of the website dedicated to these ideas and they came directly from the neighbors, businesses, and elected officials.

NW: Why do you feel “building a happier, more connected community” is important? How has this model impacted the Ball Square community?

JS: Building a place for everyone to hang out, to connect with others, and to advocate for ourselves and others, to me, is the essence of a happier urban life. If we create a place that makes Somerville (and parts of South Medford) feel even smaller and more local, more people can enjoy it. More importantly, the smaller and more personal we make our place, the more we are in tune with the needs of what is important to our community. Ultimate happiness is being a part of any organization and neighborhood that is here to ask: how do we welcome others from within or outside Somerville to our square? How do we placemake, how do we help others in our neighborhood, in Somerville, in Massachusetts and beyond? Susie Husted and neighbors on Josephine Ave have created a sister neighborhood relationship with the Eagle Hill neighborhood in East Boston. They have organized a food drive for 120 families there every month and recently we have raised over $6,000 to provide food for that community in need for a month. That is happiness!

The model of the association is framed around Jane Jacobs’s ideas about districts, which are composed of many groups doing community work. There are quite a number of organizations doing awesome work in our neighborhood, including South Medford Residents Together, the Josephine Avenue Mailing List, Eco-Parents of Camberville, Somerville Bicycle Safety, Mutual Aid Medford & Somerville, Somerville YIMBY, and the Somerville Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee, to name a few. Whenever we can, we try to spread the word about what they are doing, work together to hear more about their needs, and try to stay in touch with the issues that are important.

NW: What’s your favorite aspect of Ball Square?

JS: My favorite aspect is the physical urban diversity. The Ball Square area goes from the Somerville Community Path to the south, Liberty Ave/College Ave on the west up to Dearborn in the north, and parts of South Medford down along Cedar Street, Somerville on the east. Sure, we don’t have mountains or rivers or wild animals running around (we do have a lot of bunnies, squirrels, and birds though!). Within the boundaries of the Ball Square area, we have the Somerville Community Path, Powderhouse/Nathan Tufts Park, Curtis Tufts Park (S. Medford), The Brown School playground, and Lexington Park. We have an urban district on Broadway, which features at least 6 minority-owned businesses, 4 women-owned businesses, a longtime hardware store, and a 132-year-old bakery. We have the triple-deckers, single-family homes, one-way streets, and now Shared Streets. We have gridded neighborhoods. We are a part of Somerville and part of South Medford. As Jim Silva has pointed out, the future Ball Square station will be in Medford! We have trains coming by, planes overhead, bikes cruising over the bridge, and pedestrian foot traffic.

NW: How might ballsquaresomerville.com help someone new to Ball Square get acquainted with the community?

JS: We have an up-to-date business directory to help people shop and patronize local places. We have the Ball Square District Association mission statement and email sign up (already over 120 folks on the email list, including 35 business members). The news and event page is updated every one to two weeks and the community bulletin is just getting started.

Another program that is to begin is the Ball Square Welcome Wagon, another neighbor organized venture. This will be a welcome packet to new homeowners that move in. It will include some information about the Association, about some restaurants, and a personal visit from volunteers who will greet the new neighbors. Another way to make things feel smaller and more personal.

NW: How does the Community Bulletin board work?

JS: The bulletin is the brainchild of a neighbor on Boston Ave. It works much like the corkboard at the local coffee shop. We aim to support community artists, entrepreneurs, and more. If you have an artistic skill or hobby that you want to share with the neighborhood (for a fee or free), this is the venue to post it. If you are looking for ways to support the neighborhood economy, entertain your family off-screen safely, or sponsor some creative joy as winter approaches.

Examples include: musical/theatrical street performance, porch family photo session, links to your Etsy shop, leaf raking or sidewalk snow removal, dog walking, helping the elder with tasks, and over-the-phone IT support on how to use video calls.

If people want to put items up, they can email jshwom@gmail.com with the following information: 1. Title and a short description (include fee or free), 2. Photo or link (if appropriate), and; 3. How people can get in touch with you?

NW: Can you share one fun fact or secret about Ball Square that others may not know?

JS: Ball Square is really half in Somerville and half in Medford. This was the case at the old Ball Square Bowling alley (future location of the Ball Square station). When my friends and I briefly joined the Thursday night league a few years back and someone was having a medical emergency, we were patched to both town’s police and fire departments. Haha.

There are 70 businesses in our area, from health, fitness, real estate, legal services, food and wine, and more!

NW: How are you hoping http://www.ballsquaresomerville.com will preserve the history and charm of Ball Square?

JS: To understand Ball Square is to understand the history from which we came and the future we strive for when the Green Line station is finally opened sometime in 2022. Brandon Wilson has a great walking tour video featured on our website that was conducted in 2019. We have eager neighbors like Kate on Josephine Ave who will help any homeowner or renter do historical investigations into your house!

We have often been labeled the place with the best brunch in town (Sound Bites, Ball Square Cafe, Kellys, and Avenue Kitchen + Bar). The place that had Victor’s, Pescatores, the Willow Jazz club, and the old movie theatre way back. This website and our organization are trying to show that we appreciate what has put us on the map and look to what will ultimately bring us forward to the future.

The present and future are where we really fit in. The first question I asked Mark Niedergang and Laura Pitone when I met them at True Grounds last fall was “how are we going to welcome people into our neighborhood when the train station opens?” What I meant was really how will we strive to be equitable for all residents, visitors, artists, organizations, businesses, and more? The website and the organization are here to represent all of these items.