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Part 5: Union Square
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By William Shelton
(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.)
Union Square is a classic example of how a neighborhood commercial center declined, and how a determined group of partners can bring it back.
The Square got its name by being a Civil War recruiting center for the Union Army. Adjacent to the Boynton Yards meatpacking district and a short distance to Assembly-Square and Brickbottom factories, it thrived as Somerville industrialized.
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The process to pick Somerville’s next police chief is nearing its final stage.
Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and other city officials last week began the first of four visits to the police departments and agencies of the final candidates with a trip to Washington, D.C., where candidate Thomas Pasquarello works as special agent in charge and area police director of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
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By Tom Nash
The Somerville Housing Authority recently received State Legislature approval to turn an unused state-owned building into a senior housing center.
The SHA estimates the Mystic Water Works building, which dates back to 1864, can be converted into as many as 26 one-bedroom apartments. A bill filed by State Sen. Pat Jehlen and State Rep. Carl Sciortino asking for permission to buy the building from the state was approved before the legislative session ended on July 31.
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- Photo by William Tauro
By William Tauro
A bicyclist fell off his bicycle and sustained a severe injury Thursday morning at the intersection of Washington and Joy Street in Somerville.
Emergency crews treated him at the scene and later transported him to an area hospital.
Heroin, crack arrests in busy plaza
By George P. Hassett
Some longtime Davis Square residents recognized the old faces, others overheard brazen talk of drugs and money. Restaurant employees complained of finding needles in their bathrooms.
As summer began, the crowd – usually about a dozen or so men and women in their 20s, 30s and 40s, attracted further attention: citizens and business owners complained to police that they were selling drugs in the square’s busy center plaza, Statue Park.
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- Photo by Andrew Firestone
By Rose Scherlis
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Moroccan rap is growing in Somerville.
In front of curtains bearing red, orange, and brown stripes, and between detailed Moroccan lanterns, a young Moroccan rapper took the stage July 27 in Union Square. The audience watched from rows of chairs as rapper Would Capital performed four songs, switching between French, English, Spanish, and Arabic as he sang.
The show was a local display of a modern North African art. It was also an opportunity for fans of Moroccan music, including six Moroccan artists who now live in Somerville, to come together. A Fez City Clan music video was premiered, and Would Capital performed live.
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By George P. Hassett
A criminal couple was arrested July 27 after they allegedly stole four tire rims from a pick-up truck.
Sherri Goode, 28, and Francois St. Brice, 30, both of 8 Vermont Ave., were seen driving slowly down Somerville Avenue as Goode leaned out the passenger window and looked into parked vehicles , police said.
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Fourth annual Ibbetson Street Poetry contest deadline Sept. 15
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Ibbetson Street Press is pleased to announce the 4th annual Ibbetson Street Poetry Contest.
The winner of the Ibbetson Street Press Poetry Contest award (must be a Massachusetts resident) will receive a $100 cash award, a framed certificate, publication in the literary journal “Ibbetson Street” http://ibbetsonpress.com/ and a poetry feature in the “Lyrical Somerville,” in The Somerville News. The award will be presented at the Somerville News Writers Festival: November 13, 2010. The Somerville News Writers Festival is in its eight year and has hosted such writers and poets as: Rick Moody, Franz Wright, Robert Olen Butler, Sue Miller, Tom Perrotta, Steve Almond, Sam Cornish, Margot Livesey, Robert Pinsky, and many others. The Festival was founded by Timothy Gager and Doug Holder in 2003, and has been sponsored by The Somerville News, GRUB STREET, Porter Square Books and others.
To enter send 3 to 5 poems, any genre, length, to the Ibbetson Street Press 25 School St. Somerville, Mass. 02143. Entry fee is $10. Cash or check only. Make payable to “Ibbetson Street Press.” Deadline: Sept 15, 2010.
The contest will be judged by The Somerville News Arts Editor and founder of the Ibbetson Street Press, Doug Holder http://dougholderresume.blogspot.com.
The winners will be announced at the Somerville News Writer’s festival, where they will receive his or her award. A runner up will be announced as well.
Bagel Bard Ruth Kramer Baden has a new book out with the Ibbetson Street Press of Somerville. “East of the Moon.” Richard Hoffman, poet in residence at Emerson College in Boston, wrote of Baden’s poetry: “These are poems of a woman who has let wonder ripen into wisdom… With these poems as our guides,… our appreciation of our own lives is thereby deepened.” I decided to use a poem from this collection.
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Under The East River
What would you give to ride again
to Flatbush Avenue in the front subway car
wondering about the rails, why they meet
in the distance of the dark tunnel?
to climb the stairs up to the ozone-scented morning
holding your schoolbooks tight against your blue-sweatered
chest
and stride under the arch of Erasmus Hall High School
where Desiderius, the bronzed Dutch scholar stands
with his tome eternally open to the same two pages
to throw a Lincoln penny into his book for luck
in passing all your tests, and you do
to have your luck follow you out into the copper afternoon
and to never doubt it will be with you forever?
What will you do when your luck slips clinking onto the
rails
somewhere between Times Square and Coney Island
and you ride to and fro under the East River
while your reflection watches you from the soot-smeared
window?
you know now you will never get off at the right stop
you will fail all your tests year after year
the rails will never meet.
What would you give to ride to Herald Square and see luck
get on
wearing a faded Dodgers cap and his back-pack of tricks?
when he moves to the strap-hanger next to yours
when he sways with you
will you dare look straight into his cobalt eyes
and invite him to come home in the lowering afternoon
to lie with you, to love each other’s bones
until they meet in the tunnel of light?
– Ruth Kramer Baden
* To order Baden’s new collection go to http://ibbetsonpress.com
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To have your work considered for the Lyrical send it to:
Doug Holder, 25 School St.; Somerville, MA 02143.
dougholder@post.harvard.edu
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