It's
hot. No surprises there: after some of the coolest, dampest summer
weather in years, it's finally, brutally hot. But do you know what has
become one of the "hottest" spots in town this week? It's our cooling
center at the Council on Aging: Channel 5, Channel 7. WBZ radio and our
local media have all shown up for pictures and interviews. Council
Director Cindy Hickey is getting a lot more than fifteen minutes of
fame – and she deserves it. Of course, if I got to pick what she should
be famous for, I would have chosen all of the wonderful programs she
runs for seniors, but she's also a great spokesperson to advise the
public on keeping cool and watching out for friends and family members
who might show signs of heat-related problems. So I have no complaints.

But
this latest episode of media attention reminded me of one of the
unavoidable realities of city government: no matter how hard you try,
you can't always pick what the media decides is news. Overall, we've
been lucky here in Somerville that some of our biggest successes –
SomerStat, Shape Up Somerville and Assembly Square – have gotten so
much media attention both locally and nationally. We have also been
lucky that some of our quirkier local stories – the "What the Fluff"
festival, U2 dropping in on the Somerville Theatre, and even that piece
on NPR about the resident who created a techno-pop remix out of one of
our snow alert calls – have helped build the image of Somerville as a
fun and exciting place to live, work and raise a family.

We
haven't always been so lucky: when our Police Department accidentally
and uncharacteristically threw out an old desk that still had some
stored evidence inside, the story traveled far and wide almost
instantaneously, and a lot of people had a good laugh at our expense.
And it turns out that, despite five press releases and multiple
handouts, folks are just beginning to focus on changes to our parking
policies – and much of the information they've picked up is either
outdated or just plain wrong. (Please visit the city's website, www.somervillema.gov, for the latest and most accurate information.)

So
what I'd like to do in the balance of this column is talk about a
program that I really hope will get a lot more publicity and
participation. It's the comprehensive community planning effort that
we're calling "SomerVision." We kicked off this effort back in April
with an open house at the Argenziano School in which we highlighted the
resources available for the public, and asked them to join us in
developing a shared vision of our city's future, along with the many
aspects of future development that we need to address.

Some of
the topics we touched on that day, and which continue to shape our
discussions, include the Green Line Extension, the status of the
Assembly Square Development, the future of Union Square, Broadway
rezoning, the Community Path, the hotel project in Davis Square, and
our long-term efforts to build a sustainable community and economy
built on Smart Growth principles.

Throughout the summer, our
Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development has gone on to
sponsor a series of public "trends meetings" to cover individual topics
that include current and projected changes in demographics, housing,
employment industries, transportation, infrastructure, and land use
patterns. Six of these meetings have already been held (and the News
has done a good job of covering them), but there are four more left:
August 25, 2009 at the TAB Building, 167 Holland Street; September 14,
2009 at Capuano Early Education Center, 150 Glen Street; September 22,
2009, also at Capuano; and September 28, 2009 back at the TAB Building.
(All meetings start at 6:30; for more information, please check the
website or call 311.)

We would truly welcome the public's full
participation in these events. The whole point is to tap into the
creativity, energy and knowledge of our residents to come up with a
comprehensive plan that represents all of us and can inform our
development decisions and initiatives for the next 20 years.

And,
speaking of planning and development policy, it was an eye-opening
experience to visit California last month to look at development
programs and strategies in Oakland, Redwood City and San Jose. I led a
delegation there for two reasons. The first reason was that we wanted
to learn from California communities about their experience with that
state's successful, 40-year-old Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program,
which is designed to spur economic development in targeted areas. The
second was that our OSPCD Director Monica Lamboy is a former City of
Oakland official with good contacts in the region.

We ended up
with a packed program of meetings and tours that was both intense and
fascinating. We learned a tremendous amount about how to get state
dollars to underwrite local projects, even in tough economic times.
(Massachusetts adopted a similar program called District Improvement
Financing – DIF – in 2003, and it's something we want to tap into.) I
was therefore very grateful not only to the organizers of the trip but
to Thomas Bent of the Somerville Chamber of Commerce, transit advocate
Wig Zamore and Aldermen Jack Connolly, Bruce Desmond, Sean O'Donovan,
Walter Perot, and Dennis Sullivan for joining me.

Come to think
of it, we put out a press release on that trip, too – but what the
media most wanted to know was how much it cost ($18,000) and who paid
for it (business-donated community benefits funds, a federal grant; we
all paid for our meals and incidentals; no local tax dollars were used
to finance the trip).

Like I said, you don't always get to pick what the "news" will be.