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There will be a Public Hearing before the Board of Aldermen’s Committee on Finance on Monday, October 22, 2018, at 7:00 PM, in the Aldermanic Chambers, 2nd Floor, City Hall, 93 Highland Avenue, on the Order of Alderman William White, Jr., Chair of the Committee, for public input related to the transfer of a city-owned parcel in the North Prospect Block to the Somerville Redevelopment Authority (#204755).
You and other members of the public are invited to attend and be heard at the Hearing. If you are unable to attend, you may send your comments by US mail or by email to the City Clerk, at 93 Highland Avenue, Somerville, MA, 02143, or at cityclerk@somervillema.gov, but they must arrive no later than 12 Noon on the day of the hearing, in order to be sure they are conveyed to the Board.
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Can someone tell me who runs Somerville Stands Together (SST)? I still don’t know who they really are. Their website doesn’t say who runs it, just all the regional union groups that support it. Why is SST focused on the Union Square development so much? When SST demands that Community Benefits go to union labor for the US2 Union Square development, how much of that actually benefits Somerville residents?
I would like SST to tell the community how many people at their rallies live in Somerville. What percent of the union laborers for the US2 development will be from Somerville if a project labor agreement is reached? I honestly want to know.
If most of these union workers are from out of town, then they are almost the equivalent of astroturfing our community.
I want community benefits to go to Somerville residents and Somerville small businesses. Green and open space, affordable housing, well-designed developments, money and grants to small businesses and creative spaces, job training for Somerville residents, etc! Many union laborers make a lot of money, and a lot of them are quite well to-do. Whereas other Somerville residents may be barely getting by paycheck to paycheck.
If you haven’t, please look at what is currently happening with the Clarendon Hills Redevelopment. Housing for low-income residents there is falling apart and the developer was reading to build new low-income housing that would hold even more residents, in addition to a market-rate project. Union laborers swooped into the state legislature to ensure that the developer was forced to pay a certain wage on the entire project. The developer said this might stop the project. The project is currently on hold for who knows how long, probably until the State just gives them more money to pay that wage to the union laborers. Meanwhile, the Clarendon Hills Residents continue to live in falling apart housing.
If the Union Square Neighborhood Council (USNC) is negotiating a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with US2 that gives most of the benefits for union labor, then they are selling out the community. If so, the USNC should not be recognized as representing the Union Square community. Our Revolution Somerville and Somerville Stands Together currently seem to be mostly controlled by regional union organizers (some of whom do live in Somerville of course) and both groups seem to be trying to control the USNC. I have heard they said as much at the Our Revolution Somerville City-Wide meeting recently. I implore all USNC Board members to state their independence from these groups and that they will put Somerville residents first!
Also, anyone else who feels moved should email their opinions to the Board of Aldermen by noon Monday and/or attend the meeting Monday evening.