By 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.)

This past weekend, the Boston Globe began a series of editorials on how to rebuild the cities and towns that provide the foundation for the state’s economic, social and environmental performance. It is a crucial topic, and I am glad that they have taken it on.

Last Sunday, they started with an overview of Lawrence, which has long ranked as the poorest city (by per capita income) in Massachusetts. Lawrence is working hard to create economic development, improve its schools, rebuild its infrastructure, enlarge and enhance its parks and expand its stock of affordable housing. They’ve made progress, but they face serious challenges from a shaky economy that has created a sharp rise in foreclosures and a retreat from commercial investment in at least one key redevelopment project.

I don‚Äôt know whether the Globe plans to include Somerville in the series, but we welcome the scrutiny. Like every other Massachusetts municipality ‚Äì and like the rest of our state and our nation ‚Äì we face some big challenges, including a changing economic and environmental reality, and soaring energy and healthcare costs.  Perhaps hardest of all, we have had to find a way to live with a set of national fiscal and regulatory policies that are squeezing the middle class and pushing the whole country toward a level of income inequality that we haven‚Äôt seen in nearly a century. We live in a world were middle and working class communities like Somerville must make do with significantly less state aid than we received in the past, even at a time when our infrastructure is aging and our basic costs are going up.

When I took office back in January of 2004, I said that Somerville faced ‚Äúa ‚Äòperfect storm‚Äô of fiscal problems.‚Äù   And I said the cure for that was ‚Äúto pull together, face our problems squarely, and, above all, commit to vigorous action‚Äù so that we might overcome ‚Äúthe difficulties we face and make this city a showplace for the rest of the state.‚Äù

In the nearly four years since I said those words, we have grown our economy, improved the city‚Äôs fiscal management and put the city on a much stronger financial footing. And,  after years of planning, negotiation, hard work and, yes, ‚Äúvigorous action,‚Äù our community has ‚Äì against the odds ‚Äì emerged as a leader in adopting best practices, creative solutions, and far-reaching strategies. So, as the Globe asks the larger question about what ‚Äúcreative steps are communities taking – or failing to take – to prepare for future needs,‚Äù I hope they‚Äôll want to take a closer look at Somerville.  We have a lot of work yet to do, but we also have some lessons that may be useful elsewhere. 

Somerville is leading the way with a comprehensive development vision that includes transit, open space, housing, business growth, education and quality of life in a coherent and coordinated plan. And to make that plan a reality, we are implementing a whole host of best practices, including a “smart growth” approach to economic development, a relentless commitment to expanding public transportation, the adoption of an ambitious Environmental Strategic Plan, the creation of a business development program that is designed to help both small, neighborhood-based businesses and the so-called “clean-tech” industries that will provide the jobs of the future. We’re also making major progress in improving our city’s quality of life through efforts to expand and refurbish our parks, playgrounds and community gardens – and by reorganizing, reequipping and redeploying our police force so that, for the first time, every patrol officer can be a “community-based” officer with intimate, day-to-day knowledge of the neighborhood, businesses and people they serve.

As I went door to door in the recent campaign, I got an earful about how to make our city even better. But I was also delighted to learn that many of our residents already have a solid understanding of our strategic agenda for the future. That is, perhaps, the big reason I did so well on Nov. 6:  The voters of this city both grasp and endorse the way all of our initiatives come together in a coordinated vision.  They get it ‚Äì and they want to be part of it.

I should hasten to add that we‚Äôre not doing it on our own. One of the biggest reasons we‚Äôre making progress is that we work in close collaboration with the state, with the Metro Mayors, with the Boston Metro Area Planning Council, the Mass Mayors Association, the Mass Municipal Association and the National League of Cities.  (In fact, I was in Washington at an NLC conference last week ‚Äì where I was elected to the League‚Äôs Board of Directors. It‚Äôs a honor, and a responsibility, but it pays off for Somerville by keeping us at the center of the action when it comes to municipal strategies and best practice ‚Äì and gives us a stronger voice in policy debates at the federal level.)

In the end, we don’t care where the good ideas come from and we don’t care who gets the credit. We are always interested in finding a better way, a new source of funding or a more coordinated regional approach.

In 2004, when I said “showplace,” I was thinking about a more distant future: despite our progress over the past four years, we still have a lot of work to do. But I think it’s fair to say that Somerville is already a “showcase” of best practices and cutting-edge development strategies.

So, if the Globe is interested, we‚Äôre ready for our close-up.