- Photo by Andrew Firestone

By Andrew Firestone

Mayor Joe Curtatone laid out his plan for the business community Wednesday, and answered questions from several dozen members of the  business community.

“What, if anything, can the city do to help businesses generate jobs?” was the first question, posed to Curtatone.

“Well, we’re taking suggestions on that,” said Curtatone. “We have to give industry a reason to come here.”

Curtatone said that the stagnant job growth the city sustained throughout the last two decades was largely due to inefficient street access, such as the continued plight of the Inner Belt, and the raw deal Somerville has received in the overall highway network of the region.

“We see a profound mismatch between our city and the competitors,” Curtatone said, adding that they had been leapfrogged by the other suburbs on highways 28 and 495, sending the commuter flow away from the city. “No disrespect to our friends out on those suburbs, I was at a hockey game in Marlborough, and I was looking at some tech companies out there on 495,” he said. “It really baffles me why anyone would want to work out there. I mean can we not figure this out? I mean you get to an off ramp, at an office park, that’s all you have. We have so much more to offer here.”

Joel Nitzberg of the Somerville Community Corporation asked, “Given that Assembly Square is a huge development area, what’s the possibility of leveraging that area in terms of…job guarantees for local residents?

“There’s been comments and questions, that we want these jobs just to be for Somerville people. Let me say, that that’s just inequitable,” Curtatone said.

“This project is funded by Somerville tax dollars, private development money, state tax dollars and federal tax dollars. It’s not going to happen that way.”

He said that Assembly Square developer FRIT would allow Somerville residents to apply to the jobs first, and also would help set up a job training fund, but he could not legally force them or their successors to exclusively hire Somerville workers.

“You can’t just put a universal tag on anything that comes in. You’re not going to tell a law office that comes in, that we lure in for the sector, that you’re going to hire all your staff from Somerville,” he said. “It’s not going to work that way.”

Curtatone also answered questions regarding the problems with valet parking in smaller squares, such as Ball, Magoun and Union, as posed by Joe Lynch.

“Parking is a premium. If I had three issues that people wanted to talk about, two of them would be parking. It is what it is,” he said. “You’ll be hearing more on that.”

He also called for the end of state limits imposed on liquor licenses in lieu of the larger entertainment oriented developments planned for the city. He recommended special legislation to remove the limits, taking a cue from state Senator Jamie Eldridge of Acton. “We should be able to decide our own destiny.”

Curtatone called upon the businessmen assembled to actively support development. “I need you to get more engaged,” he said, asking for support on the Assembly Square project. “You can’t just think of things in a vacuum like the city did for years. I can’t just hear from you when you think ‘that Mayor is a real pain in our backsides, the meter’s going up another 25 cents, 15 minutes.”