The City of Somerville is convening a Participatory Budgeting Working Group to help plan what participatory budgeting will look like in Somerville, and all residents are invited to apply. “Participatory budgeting” means members of the public decide how to spend money in a public budget.

— Photo courtesy of Seth Brown

Somerville firefighters responded to a reported fire at Caffè Nero in Assembly Row on Saturday afternoon. The firefighters battled large flames rising from the roof of the café, eventually extinguishing the blaze and preventing it from spreading to other nearby businesses.

Mayor Ballantyne, Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen Campen and members of the Somerville Community Land Trust celebrate the first property acquisition of SCLT, located at 7 Summer Street.

Watch video here

Updated August 19

Orange Line service is being suspended from August 19 through September 18. This shutdown will give crews full, uninterrupted access to the tracks, allowing them to complete multiple projects more than five years faster than originally planned.

The Orange Line shutdown will overlap with diversions on the Green Line E Branch and the Green Line Union Branch. Learn more about how to navigate your trip during these shutdowns here.

This  Saturday, August 20, the 8th Annual Evolution of Hip Hop Festival takes place  from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. (rain date August 21) in Union Square Plaza. This event will feature rappers, singers, spoken word poets, dancers, and visual artists from the Somerville community and surrounding cities.

Somerville tech startup Rendever is providing quality of life enhancement to area seniors with its virtual reality systems. — Photos courtesy of Rendever

By Michael McHugh

Virtual reality, while many may dismiss it as a fad, is an ever-expanding field in the tech world. With this technology being almost forced into such a broad range of applications, from education to social interaction, it can often feel that VR is not all it’s chalked up to be.

By Jim Clark

Somerville Police officers were dispatched to the area of Broadway and Lombardi last Friday evening on reports of a motor vehicle accident.

Upon arrival, officers engaged with a man, later identified as Daniel Herrera, who had been involved in the accident. He had reportedly rear ended another motorist.