The Ras na hEireann U.S.A takes over the city
Sunday, as thousands of runners and their fans come to Somerville to celebrate Irish culture and good-natured competition.

Boston Marathon hero Bill Rogers will run the course and will be available Saturday afternoon for a special meet and greet at Davis Square’s George Dilboy VFW Post. Later, Rogers will be the featured speaker at the Taste of Ireland dinner that night.

The race’s official start time is 11 a.m. in Davis Square

More information is available at the race Web site: www.baevents.com/DAV

by Julia C. Reischel

Citing concerns over ride safety and gang violence, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone rejected a $100,000 offer by an amusement company to bring the first carnival to the city in 16 years.

"It’s really a constriction of business," said Lawrence Joseph Patrick Carr III, owner of Lawrence Carr Amusement Co., which offered the city a carnival contract last year. The carnival would have been at the Assembly Square Mall.

"Somerville hasn’t allowed a carnival in recent years. I think it’s a mistake. They are cutting our ability to raise money for the city,” he said.

We were skeptical about the Green Line and all the hubbub. In a city where politics is not determined by right and wrong, but by who you are with and who you are not, it did not make sense to us that the state would honor its commitments to a city.

After all, in an era of fiscal restraint, why would a Republican administration spend $750 million on Somerville, when there are plenty of cities and towns that actually vote for them?

Add to that the fact that our mayor, for reasons known only to him and his praetorian guard, has gone out of his way to annoy and befuddle Gov. Mitt Romney.

Yet, Monday night we felt the plates shift, and now we believe.

The crowd that showed up at the high school’s Brune Auditorium was a diverse mix of the city’s interests and factions, and testament to Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone’s efforts to unify the city behind the Green Line extension.

When this unified front is combined with the firepower commanded by our man in Washington, Rep. Michael E. Capuano, the city’s push to compel the state to honor its agreements is suddenly in the realm of the possible.

After the meeting, when the MBTA and state officials got in their cars for the long drive to the countryside, imagine the reports they cell phoned to their masters.

Something like: Let’s pick on someone else; we don’t want to tangle with Somerville.

Maurice Bishop, the late great leader of the New Jewel Movement, chanted to his supporters, “A people united will never be defeated!” If we hold on to that ideal, the new F line will be running through Somerville long after this crop of state officials are collecting retirement checks.

Now, just so we understand, nobody is going to cut a deal with the T and settle for a Union Square terminus and screw the rest of the city—right?

The once and future public hearing with the MBTA and city officials to discuss plans to extend the Green Line to and through the city is tonight at the high school’s Eugene C. Brune auditorium starting at 6:30 p.m.

Somerville businessman and former mayoral candidate Tony Lafuente is joining friends of William C. Shelton, who is charged with assaulting Ward 1 community leader Joan Guarino, to raise money for Shelton’s defense fund.

The event is scheduled for March 23 at Union Square’s Independent restaurant. The suggested donation is $100, but any amount is welcome. For more information or to R.S.V.P. call Marjie Polster at (617) 625-8558.

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