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If there’s one thing that most of us agree on, it’s that there’s a dire need for more affordable housing for those with low to moderate incomes.
And speaking of incomes, there are many in the city who are working hard yet barely making ends meet. There is an obvious need for better paying jobs as well.
Enter Somerville Stands Together, a newly formed coalition of residents, activists and labor union members, hoping to hold sway over the city’s administration in hopes of changing policies in favor of the small fry, the regular people who – to steal a reference from the great Capra film It’s A Wonderful Life – do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.
The group wants the city to curtail all the house flipping and big developer favors, asking instead for programs to be put in place to help accelerate the expansion of more affordable housing units as quickly as possible.
They also expect city worker contracts and long overdue wage increases to be taken seriously in their efforts to better their lives here in the city they call their home.
Practically all of us yearn to better our circumstances. Very often the question of how best to accomplish this is left unanswered and the way ahead unclear.
One thing is certain, a good number of residents have made their wishes heard.
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It’s about time that something like this has come about.
It’s been too easy in the midst of the gentrification of this city to forget that it’s not all populated by yuppies and higher-income professionals. Many of us are older people and long-standing families who would like to be able to continue to afford living here.
I have lived here my whole life, and as a child the city seemed to be about the working class, people who weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and who all seemed to know one another. There were a lot of small businesses that were friendly and not focused solely on making money.
I still remember as a little girl in East Somerville, we lived near the Princess Bakery on Washington Street, which was a bakery that made donuts and other treats for distribution to stores. My mother would take me around to the back door, where she could buy donuts fresh off the line for a reasonable price. Those are the kinds of memories that are becoming extinct today.
These days it seems that people barely know anyone, either because they are too busy with their work or simply not interested in being social. All the family-owned businesses have faded away to make room for either trendy shops or expensive apartments and condos.
Every city evolves and changes, but Somerville is becoming unrecognizable from what it used to be. There’s no reason to have to grow at the expense of losing what made it special.
I hope that the voices of those who find themselves being drowned out by “progress” will finally be able to be heard. We’re not about being down on Somerville’s evolution. We just don’t want to be left out of it.
The really sad part is the size of the mayor’s salary in creases during all of this. His raise alone is equal to what I make in a year. And how many of those has he got before the workers did. The boa works part time and look at the raises they got also. The workers get put last here. The ones who actually do the work. We are also hiring more chiefs in this city when the money could be used for the working people. I may not like Trump or Romney but they do not take a paycheck for their position in public service. This city has certainly gone downhill in many respects.
Well, passing the new zoning would be a start, but I do not see that happening with this BOA, they are more concerned with being called counselors or what ever than actually improving anything.
I’m with DatGruntled, the BOA best pass the new zoning or I don’t want to hear how “progressive” they are. Time to walk the walk.
As for the union stuff, I’ve got some neighbors in those unions and they’ve told me money isn’t the hang up. They’re frustrated because they see how the teachers always manage to get their contract done. They just want to get paid and don’t care about this power struggle game that’s getting played behind closed doors.