The games people play never change—just the players. At a recent public hearing regarding the Conwell School site development, it was interesting to sit in the audience and listen to the various committee members discuss not just the amount of money needed by the City in the short run, but also how this project would impact the school system. When did this become an anti-family community? It became apparent that night that certain elected officials and committee members are very antifamily from the questions they were posing and the comments they made. Mark our words—a developer that won’t be selling to families will be chosen for this project—and we will enjoy taking those to task for their comments that night and their subsequent actions. We have heard of anti-family residents filtering into the community over the years, which is fine—but our elected officials now too? The first project to be rejected was probably the most family-oriented one, put forth by the Somerville Community Corp. With three proposals left, who wants to wager that the VNA project is the one picked? Create more brand new elderly complexes—don’t encourage young families to move here—nice work!

Tony, can you please call us and put an end to the rumors? All we have heard in the past couple of weeks is how former Mayoral candidate Tony LaFuente is seriously considering running for Mayor again in two years, or maybe he will run for Alderman at Large. His home was recently on the market for a whopping 31 days at $1,600,000 before it was withdrawn from MLS. Some people have said he’s looking to buy closer to Davis Square (Ward Six) so he can have a stronger voter base in the next election. At this point, we wouldn’t be surprised if he picked somewhere in Ward Three to live closer to Mayor Joe or maybe Ward Two so he can be closer to Cambridge—who knows? Who really cares?

The city streets look nice and clean—and before April 1st. According to Commissioner Koty, the city has picked up nearly 144 tons of debris from this city’s streets so far this year and no cars were towed in the process. Congrats to Stan and Mayor Joe on getting a jump start on Spring cleaning.

The political pundits, pod people and hangers-on all over the city are still buzzing with who is staying on with the city and who might be leaving. It’s an insane cycle that never quits. We heard that Mike Foley was told he was being replaced as the head of ISD. Mike has done a good job for the city and he’s a life-long resident working in a department full of out-of-towners We hope that if he’s really replaced that it’s by someone from here—who will genuinely care about this city.

We hear that former Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay is seriously considering a run against the popular Secretary of State—Bill Galvin. Wouldn’t she do better to run against our favorite “video boy” Register of Probate—formerly of Somerville and now from the greener pastures in Newton. They’re two peas in a pod. One needs to stay out now that he’s moved out and the other needs to learn how to lose graciously.

This paper has made some serious changes over the past year—and it seems that there are those who are clearly excited about this— and we are happy to hear from them every other week with their compliments. There are also those who are clearly disgusted with us. We are happy to make you —our beloved reader— happy or angry with each issue. The funniest two not singing our praises to date that we have heard about are a former city employee (and staunch LaFuente supporter), supposedly riding around the city gathering up every copy of the paper he can get his hands on (and destroying them?) and the official who works in Mayor Joe’s administration who, when asked if it was true that he has “no use” for our paper, denied it and then proceeded to brag about how he just received a call from the “Farm Team” paper and had to call them back right away. Makes you wonder how many others out there feel the same way—well we have a news flash for pundits, all—we are here to stay and will be growing even bigger over time—deal with it.

We heard that there is an Alderman at Large who is involved in a proposal/plan to get the state to build a ramp onto Lowell Street so that his friends—the developers on Clyde Street— can avoid the neighbors objections to a proposed 270 unit complex? We seriously hope that this proposal/plan isn’t holding up the work on the bridge—it’s been out long enough.

Did you get the same flyer we got from the Mystic View Task Force this past weekend? It was interesting reading about the Assembly Square project that they have managed to stall—of course, read the flyer and they’ll tell you that they’ve been championing the cause of development and increase tax revenues and increased jobs that “wise development” (of course only their definition of development is wise…) would produce. They conveniently place the blame on the stalled development on the Board of Aldermen and now are trying to include that there will be no extended mass transit in Somerville until the “wise development” is implemented. Nice inclusion to the fray—now everyone in the city will have yet another topic of misinformation to add to the mix. Do yourself a favor—go to the Public Hearing this Thursday evening at City Hall and let the city officials know you want to end this deadlock and move forward—before we end up with a $20 tax rate. Don’t be fooled—the Mystic View Task Force is nothing but a small group of self-serving individuals who are so blinded by their own righteousness that they will try to block anything and everything they can at Assembly Square— or anything else that will improve this city.

Another hearing to watch out for will be on March 29th by the Board of Health. This hearing is to let there be a temporary lifting of the smoking ban, which has caused many restaurants to loose money to neighboring communities that don’t have a smoking ban. Remember, neither the Director or the Chairman of the Board of Health live in this city, so they probably don’t care about the local businesses like we do—I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Tell us the truth—if you had a lot of disposable income, would you hire pollsters to figure out what city to move to. Then when you lose, hire the same jokers to tell you where in that city you should live so you can create a better “vote base” for yourself in the next election? Is that what running for office all about? Is that running for “the people” or for your own ego? How about when you don’t get your way at Assembly Square? Should we all run to the courthouse and block development because we didn’t get our way? How about the person who proudly announces that she is NOT a life-long resident of the city, but is there to get elected to the Democratic Ward Committee? What about the politician who made friends and loyal supporters over the years, only to spurn them when they didn’t drink the Cool-Aid? What is wrong with all this? We plan on helping the people of this city—the people we care about—to make informed decisions when it comes time to enter the voting booth. Come on and enjoy the ride with us.

Congratulations to Janice Healey Carey for turning 40 this past Sunday. A couple of us were at her surprise birthday party put on by her husband—former City Water Commissioner and local Attorney Kevin F. Carey. It was a fabulous surprise party attended by all of Janice’s family and close friends and we all had a great time!