Community Musical Chairs at Somervision.~Photo by Sanjeev Selvarajah By Sanjeev Selvarajah The tables in the hall were full – residents and Somerville enthusiasts sat as representatives of their neighborhoods. Monica R. Lamboy, the Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development was gracious enough to find room for The Somerville News's reporting of the proceedings. "Would you like to sit at a table?" she asked. Somervision was open to all.

Maria lives in Framingham but she works in Somerville. "I love the way they do business" she said. Katrina, another member of the table's first round of discussions professed her own investment: "I do like the energy that the city has; I don't want too much to change." The consensus of this final Somervision meeting was to retain the city's character, particularly its penchant for diversity, but to also get the ball rolling on some possibilities for the future. There was room for change. The table in its first round was made up of half Somerville residents and the other half, Somerville admirers. The other members of the first phase were three Somerville High students, Kathleen, Jesse and Laxshita, and Susan, who teaches in Somerville. "I like that Somerville is not as snobby and pretentious," said Susan. Speaking of which, no one at the table seemed to care that a reporter had his ear to the discourse.

The group disbanded shortly thereafter and the three high schoolers who remained were joined by Tenzin, a classmate. Among the adults, came Ellen and David. Jesse from the first group recognized Ellen as the mother of a childhood friend. Ellen who has been living in Somerville for 28 years had sat a table full of women before joining this one and they all had the same response: "Diversity, diversity, diversity."

At that point, Jesse jumped in: "My Dad's quite old – he's from New York and he's amazed at the diversity in the city. "I expect Somerville to change and I don't think there's anything we can do about it," he said. "Union Square got a farmer's market pretty recently," chimed in Ellen. "Well, Davis Square had a farmer's market for a while," added David.

David Dahlbacka, a local community leader, tackled the fear of chain stores emerging head-on. "Whatever we develop has to have enough tax base to do well. Businesses are going to be coming with the tax base for the future," said Mr. Dahlbacka. When composing "bumper stickers" of Somerville possibilities Kathleen, the recorder, wrote down David's "balanced economic development." Kathleen herself laid down "continue to be youth friendly" and "there's not enough small businesses." Tenzin, who had joined the table for the second round, professed that there "weren't enough hospitals."

As the discussions continued, what was striking was that the Somerville high schoolers were letting people come to them, and all the adults who joined were enthusiastic to share their perspective. After each round the table was asked to disband and scatter but these Natives of Somerville, born and bred here, sat still like Shamans, engaging the environment and surroundings.

"We were really pleased to see the turnout of the young people," said Monica Lamboy, seeing the future in full force. "What we are working towards is having a city-wide comprehensive master plan; we wanted an opportunity for people to say what they were thinking about," concluded Ms. Lamboy. Somerville finished strong and if you lay an ear to the tracks, more meetings are on the horizon.