Somerville High loses first game of 2008

By Jack Nicas

A 3-0 start, something the Somerville football team has yet to achieve this century, will have to wait. Somerville committed too many costly penalties in an 18-6 defeat at the hands of Malden Catholic Friday.

A day of rain left the artificial turf soaked by game time, but as senior linebacker Kervin Edouard said, “You play in the rain, you play in the snow, you play in any weather; you just have to play football.”

With former Somerville standout and current NFL rookie Gosder Cherilus watching from the sidelines (his team, the Detroit Lions, was on a bye week), the Somerville offense struggled in the first half. The team posted three short drives, never getting farther than 10 yards into Malden Catholic territory.

By George P. Hassett

Two men were convicted of first degree murder today for their role in the shooting of a Worcester man who had proposed to his girlfriend just hours earlier.

Valentino Facey, 22, of Cambridge, and Walter Norris, 23, of Dorchester, will be sentenced tomorrow morning. They face life in prison.

Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz has made the Davis Square Task Force her own personal fiefdom. She runs the meetings, sets the agenda, cancels meetings and reschedules them according to her availability and personal convenience. She brings development plans to the task force that she has already approved and only puts items on the agenda that fit her political philosophy.

In the past, the task force was a citizen’s forum. The Ward 6 alderman only had one section of the agenda, the alderman’s report. Non-elected people created the agenda, chaired the meetings and, in general, ran things.

By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

There’s a lot of good news about the MBTA’s Green Line Extension through Somerville to Medford. The state remains strongly committed to completing the project by 2014.  It’s going to open up access to Union Square, Brickbottom, Gilman Square, Ball Square and more. It will greatly expand economic activity while reducing car traffic and improving air quality.

New book collects best of “Biker Poetry”

Rubber Side Down. Edited by Joe Gouveia, Peddlar Bridges, and Susan Buck. (Archer Books PO BOX 1254 Santa Monica, CA. 93456) $16.

Did you know there is a Biker Poet movement? Bikers are not only Hell’s Angels with leather and nefarious intent, but poets, on the road, burning rubber, and spouting odes to the endless highway. Joe Gouveia, poet, motorcycle enthusiast, and new head of the ‚ÄúHighway Poets Motor Cycle Club‚Äù had the good sense to edit an anthology of Biker bards. The poetry club, founded by Colorado T. Sky, boasts many fine poets in their ranks.  Allen Ginsberg commented on the concept of ‚ÄúBiker Poets‚Äù(according to a history included in the anthology):

“The Highway Poets could be, for their generation, what the Beat Poets were for ours.” And for this lively subculture of poets this could indeed be the case.

Positions had been unfilled since 1980s

By George P. Hassett

Captains Paul Upton and Michael Cabral were promoted to two new leadership positions within the Somerville Police Department this week.

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone immediately approved Police Chief Anthony Holloway’s picks for the acting deputy chief jobs, a department post that has been left unfilled since the 1980s. The promotions are effective beginning Sunday, Sept. 28.

By Doug Holder

Most people in Somerville remember George McLean as the city’s police chief – a job that forced him into the middle of many local disputes and controversies.

But folks should also know that McLean, an affable, prosperous looking man in his late middle age, is a longtime member of the Kiwanis Club in Somerville, and is finishing up his term as president.

On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

As the ground breaking for the new IKEA store ushers in the new Assembly Square area and Somerville into a new and exciting era, let’s reflect back to great times gone by. 

The Assembly Square Mall opened in 1980 – the next thing you knew, things were in full swing. One of the hot spots in the mall was a trendy restaurant called Dapper Dan’s. On the site of the old Ford Motor plant, diners and revelers from the greater Boston area were gunning their engines at DD’s, in their Tello’s best.

The Urban Ring, from its inception, has been all about connecting people, businesses and areas together. The possibility of connecting the largest mixed-use development (Assembly Square) in the history of New England within this ring is vital to maximize the potential of the development – especially when considering the access to Logan Airport, biotech companies along the corridor and direct travel into the core of Downtown Boston.

There will be different ‚Äúoptions‚Äù offered by the Executive Office of Transportation – some we will like and others we won’t like at all. The latest iteration (option) presented, which would essentially terminate the Urban Ring at Sullivan Square, would be a huge loss for Assembly Square and for the City of Somerville as a whole.