Community members are invited to a neighborhood meeting on October 9, to discuss public safety and homelessness in the broader Seven Hills/Davis Square area. Join Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, Police Chief Shumeane Benford, Health and Human Services staff and more for an update and discussion on these issues. All members of the community including individuals and businesses are invited.

The HONK! Festival 19th Annual Festival of Activist Street Bands kicks off on Thursday, October 3, with the Pre-HONK! Brass Band Blowout in Union Square.

The HONK! Festival 19th Annual Festival of Activist Street Bands takes place October 4–6, throughout Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston neighborhoods. Outdoors rain or shine.

HONK! Festival 2024 has revealed their participating bands roster for this year’s 19th annual gathering of activist street musicians.

Somerville City Councilors are asking the Police Department to write more tickets to traffic violators instead of merely issuing warnings. — Photo by Bobbie Toner

By Harry Kane

City Councilors want drivers to obey traffic laws and regulations, so they have asked the Somerville Police Department to issue more tickets and fewer warnings.

An order was put forward by President and Ward 3 City Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen that the Chief of Police resume the practice of issuing tickets rather than warnings for serious moving violations that endanger public safety, including speeding and running red lights.

(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)

There is no question, if you ask anyone who’s lived in or visited Somerville, that none of our squares are actually shaped like squares. Most of them represent some other shape and sometimes, not familiar ones (think of Davis Square’s main area with 7 streets)! Well, the City of Somerville’s Economic Development Division is using a play on geometry to promote the “It Takes All Shapes to Make a Square” campaign. The campaign asks folks to visit explore.somervillema.gov or scan a QR code on MBTA buses or at Logan Airport to sign up for forthcoming informational emails that will include local events, features about squares and neighborhoods in Somerville, resources for business owners, and more. Advertisements can be seen on area MBTA buses and at Logan Airport. The website can be viewed in 5 languages, including Spanish and Nepali, which is excellent to see.

Community members are invited to a neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, October 9, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., to discuss public safety and homelessness in the broader Seven Hills/Davis Square area. Join Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, Police Chief Shumeane Benford, Health and Human Services staff and more for an update and discussion on these issues. All members of the community including individuals and businesses are invited. The meeting will take place at: Somerville Community Baptist Church, 31 College Ave.

Eagle Feathers #314 – Second In Command

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

This article first appeared in the June 10,2015 edition of The Somerville Times

After the battle of April 19, 1775, which began in Lexington and ended in what is now Somerville, the budding country needed leaders. Out of the thirty-five American generals who served in the Revolutionary War, Rhode Island’s 33 year-old Nathanael Greene was the youngest.   He was born in 1742, exactly one hundred years before Somerville’s birth in 1842.

Whether it be homegrown or imported, we have at our fingertips an incredibly diverse and nearly exhaustive supply of mellifluous entertainment to keep us amused and amazed as we watch it pass through our community.

The same goes for commitment to political and social issues. It’s natural for the HONK! Festival organizers to choose our community in which to hold this event. Activism thrives here, driven by a long tradition of dialog on important issues of the day and a genuine concern for the betterment of our own community as well as that of the world at large.

#3 Mateus Fernandes extends the ball over the goal line for a two point conversion. — Photos by Lisa Sotir

By Harry Kane and Dave Pereira

Somerville’s big win over Malden on September 20 gave their team a boost in morale. The Highlanders defeated the Malden Golden Tornados in a double overtime game.

“I was extremely impressed with our team’s resilience and perseverance,” said Head Coach Dave Pereira. “There were multiple moments they could have folded, but they believed in each other, and were able to overcome together.”