The View From Prospect Hill for the week of June 7

Other cities and towns fine the holy crap out of big retail businesses when they contribute to trash in the streets and traffic congestion. Why is it we can’t do the same?
  Other cities and towns have their city vehicles piloted by city workers in the Memorial Day Parade and at other community-based functions on THEIR own time not ours to show their community pride. Why is it we can’t do the same?

SHS graduation a scream
By Benjamin Witte

Cheering hysterically for their favorite teachers, administrators and peers, a revved up Class of 2006 set a high-energy tone early during Monday’s Somerville High School commencement ceremony, held on the Tufts University campus.

Reality Bites by James Norton for the week of June 7

It’s not about rent as much as it is about control

Just when you thought it was bad enough that people in city government recently appear to be asleep at the wheel, someone whispers in the right ear, and WHAMMO ‚Äì another ‚Äúfast track‚Äù proposal for the Board of Aldermen.  That worked real well with that whole ‚ÄúDivestiture‚Äù thing last year, didn‚Äôt it?

Condo conundrum creates controversy, concerns community
By George P. Hassett

The tenants of 111 Woodstock St.
   Eugene Kwasniewski enjoys living at 111 Woodstock St. He likes the nearby stream and the trees that surround his West Somerville neighborhood. He likes the easy access to public transportation. And he likes the neighbors he has lived next to for the past 3 years.

Lyrical Somerville

One way to deal with the past is to write about it. Poet Susan B. Weiner writes about the baggage of her earlier years, and how she handled it later on in her life. To have your work considered for the Lyrical send it to: Doug Holder 25 School St. Somerville, Mass. 02143 dougholder@post.harvard.edu

Off the Shelf by Doug Holder

Fox’ memoir takes us outside

Way, Way Off the Road. The Memoirs of the Invisible Man. Hugh Fox. Edited by S.R. Glines. $15. ( Ibbetson Street Press 25 School St. Somerville, Mass. 02143)

Hugh Fox, in his memoir of the small press movement, “Way, Way off the Road,” quotes the poet Charles Plymell:

“…the generation that came after the Beats, was overpowered by the Beats themselves. All that media hype. My god, the media fell in love with them. They were practically rock stars. And the post-Beats, the Hippie-Yippies, whatever you want to call them, were lost in the Beat’s shadow. They were and still are invisible!”

Assembly Square, the Back Story
Part 8: Loss of Trust

A commentary by William C. Shelton

It‚Äôs hard to know whether Dorothy Kelly Gay‚Äôs administration and Mystic View could have found a compromise on Assembly Square Redevelopment.  It would have required sufficient mutual trust for all parties to take two risks:  exploring innovative but unfamiliar solutions, and estranging some portion of their constituencies.  Today, both parties say that they took both risks.  But before they did so to the extent needed to craft a real solution, mutual missteps and a lack of communication undermined the trust necessary to support further risk taking.

City loses discrimination lawsuit to Army veteran
By George P. Hassett

    On the eve of Memorial Day, the city of Somerville lost a lawsuit brought forth by a veteran who said he was refused a job as a police officer because he was unavailable for training due to Army obligations.
     The plaintiff, Thomas McLain, claimed he was protected under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act and Judge Reginald C. Lindsay agreed.

Public hearing scheduled to discuss budget proposal

Alderman-at-Large and Chair of the FInance Committee William A. White has ordered a public hearing to be held on the proposed fiscal year 2007 budget June 20 at 7:00 p.m. at City Hall.