Through Somervision, the mayor and his office have worked in tandem with committed Somerville residents and workers over the past year and a ahlf to develop a plan for the city's future.

By Carrie Stanziola

Change is constant in Somerville, as evidenced by the Somervision process, an idea of what Somerville will be in the years to come. As mayoral staff Keith Craig commented regarding Somervision, “Is three quarters of the way through comprehensive planning process…that’s trying to document and provide an action plan for how Somerville wants to capture its future.  We know we have a lot of change coming with the green line extension and orange line station.”

Currently, the infrastructure is old and ill-equipped for these technological advances.  Moreover, as Somerville changes, there must be job growth. “In order to do all that, we need to figure out how to do it,” Craig continues, “This plan, guided by state law, will effectively help us do that.”

As Mayor Joseph Curtatone says, “Led by OSPCD, the SomerVision process has garnered some tremendous community input that will, ultimately, provide the basis for our Comprehensive Strategic Plan, which will be released later this year.  As residents will, hopefully see through these upcoming events, this is a Plan that the entire community can be proud of, and excited about, and I look forward to hearing the reactions and feedback from these events.”

Through Somervision, the mayor and his office have worked in tandem with committed  Somerville residents and workers over the past year and a half to, in the words of Craig “really flush out elements of this plan so part of this is doing these community events so we’ve done a couple open houses in the past year and a half.”

The Somervision Showcase was preceded by smaller, similar events in November 2009 and January 2010. Back then, Somervision was creating a vision statement for the committee and a comprehensive plan, and a similar technique will be used to run events in March.

The meetings will examine goals Somervision has introduced along with Somerville residents and workers, so there will be a greater level of detail of what is important to them, and establish goals to parse out the vision statement. Examination is being given to the steps needed to implement the goal. The focus of the March meetings will be to examine established goals and discuss how these impact people’s lives, either positively or negatively. Perhaps most importantly, “Are we capturing things that are important to people?” as Craig asks.

According to Mayor Curtatone, “Public input and consultation is key to a long-term strategic plan that will benefit the entire Somerville community, and through this SomerVision process we have worked with residents and stakeholders from many different demographics to develop a working plan that community can be proud of, and excited about.”

All Somerville residents are invited to attend one of a series of events in a “SomerVision Showcase” to become involved in the process of transforming their community.  The events will be held throughout the month of March, and will give community members an opportunity to discuss elements of the Plan and learn about the next steps in the SomerVision Process.

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Community Events are as Follows:
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Tuesday, March 1^st: Argenziana School, 290 Washington Street

Tuesday March 15^th: Holiday Inn, 30 Washington Street

Monday, March 28^th: TAB Building, 167 Holland Street

Thursday, March 31^st: Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave.

For more information, or to RSVP, please e-mail somervision@somervillema.gov, or call the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development at 617-625-6600 ext. 2500.