Somerville residents of all ages are invited to share in the spirit of service this winter by donating to the MLK Day Community Donation Drive. Donated items will help support our unhoused and displaced neighbors.

Don’t miss the fifth annual face-off between the Medford High School Mustangs and Somerville High School Highlanders girls’ and boys’ basketball teams at the Tufts Classic on Sunday, January 14 at the Cousens Gymnasium (161 College Avenue, Medford) on Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus. Admission is free but fans are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to donate.

Families who enroll by the February 23, 2024 deadline are eligible for the first round of school assignments.

The Somerville Public Schools’ (SPS) annual school enrollment period for prekindergarten and kindergarten students opened on January 3, 2024, and SPS staff are ready to support families through the process of enrolling their student(s). All students who will be 4 years old by August 31, 2024 are eligible for the district’s PK program. All students who will be 5 years old by August 31, 2024 are eligible for Kindergarten. 189 Somerville families enrolled a student on the first day of the enrollment period on January 3, 2024. 

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Saturday, 6:00 p.m. Here we are expecting our first significant snowstorm in two years and everybody’s parked on the even side of the street. I don’t know where people find parking spaces during snow emergencies but they do. Too bad they have the old Star Market on Broadway all fenced in because that would’ve been a good place to park during the storm.

Members of the Groundwork Somerville Green Team program. ~ Photo courtesy of Kenzie Ballard

By Bridget Frawley

Groundwork Somerville is a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating environmental sustainability and food justice in the Somerville community. It approaches this goal through the avenues of youth education, community engagement and urban farming.

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

By Chris Dwan

I have written previously about Rafi Properties’ proposal to demolish the buildings at the old Ames Safety Envelope site between Park and Dane streets, the campus that they call “Somernova.” They want to replace the century-old one- and two-story fabrication buildings with sleek modern towers up to 16 stories tall and provide expansion space for their major tenants – mostly technology companies like Form Energy.

CultureHouse and the Union Square Neighborhood Council (USNC) announced today that CultureHouse Union Square, a large-scale pop-up community center created by and for the community, will open on January 10 in what was originally a vacant storefront at 64 Union Square.