By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

On Monday night, this city did something big.

When the Board of Aldermen voted for the $25.75 million bond to fund infrastructure improvements in Assembly Square, it culminated almost two decades of work. All it took was the efforts of everyone who has served on the Board during that time, three past mayors, our Congressman Michael Capuano (who was also one of those past mayors) , Senator John Kerry, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, all of our state representatives during that time, all of the Somerville residents who have spoken up about Assembly Square over the years, Governor Deval Patrick and a list too long to mention from his administration, the people at Federal Realty Investment Trust, all of the city business leaders who have been staunch supporters of redeveloping Assembly Square, federal officials who approved key funding for portions of the project, and the tireless efforts of the staff here at City Hall (past and present).

Government often gets criticized for not being able to do the big things. Well, I think we just proved it can do the big things. All it takes is an armada of people willing to work something through to the end.

I long ago lost count of all the twists and turns we took in getting here. We’ve been through two major recessions. Consultants and potential developers have come and gone. We’ve seen multiple changes in Governors and Presidents since we first looked to redevelop Assembly Square. Yet Somerville stayed on task no matter how what kind of obstacle got thrown in the way.

I suspect we did that because we knew how much this mattered. I don’t care who you are, you can’t look at the No Man’s Land that is Assembly Square at this moment and not think something needs to be done. Ultimately our choice was to build something in line with the values that guide us in all of our other endeavors.

We will see 2,100 new housing units built in Assembly Square, making it a true neighborhood. We will see thousands of new jobs, giving many in Somerville the opportunity to work closer to home. We will see waterfront parkland, bike lanes, broad sidewalks, a cinema, and new shops and restaurants, giving the people of Somerville new places to play.

And whether you live in Assembly Square, close to Assembly Square or anywhere else in the city, the $17 million a year in new tax revenues will be a major boost for our schools, public safety, affordable housing programs, public works and recreational department, helping to make Somerville a better place to raise a family.

For most of my life we have been talking about transforming the industrial areas of this city into something new and vibrant. It is a gigantic undertaking. Yet we have crossed the dividing line between talking about transforming Assembly Square and actually transforming Assembly Square. Everything is now in place to make this happen.

So when someone tells you the Green Line extension will never happen or that the Inner Belt cannot possibly be redeveloped or that Somerville will never have a school system that is the envy of the rest of this state, I encourage you to look at what we’ve accomplished in Assembly Square. We can do the big things and we will do even bigger things in the future.

And along the way, Somerville will become known as the city that gets the big things right.