By Joe Creason

The City Council held a regular meeting on Thursday, March 10. The meeting began with City Council President Matthew McLaughlin tabling a substantial list of agenda items regarding the FY 2023 budget which are to be addressed during the finance committee meeting next week.

Aerial View of USQ, a $2 billion 2.4 million square foot development centered around the MBTA’s Union Square Station in Somerville, MA, Developed by US2. Rendering Credit: US2.

By Jim Clark

US2, the Designated Master Developer working in partnership with the community, the Somerville Redevelopment Authority and the City of Somerville to realize the shared vision for Union Square’s Revitalization recently issued a statement concerning the upcoming opening of the Union Square MBTA Green Line Extension (GLX) station. The statement reads in parts as follows:

Somerville’s indoor mask mandate ended Saturday, March 5. The City of Somerville will lift its mask requirement for city buildings and events starting Monday, March 21. This means all city-issued mask mandates are now either lifted or set to lift. Some federal and state mask requirements remain in effect. The Somerville School Committee voted to make masks optional in Somerville Public Schools as of Monday, March 14. The decisions to lift the local mask mandates follow current guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But businesses can still set their own mask policies, so make sure to check before heading in. More information, including where to find the latest health guidance can be found at somervillema.gov/maskmandateupdate.

Phillips Magre, Junior at Northeastern University.

The Men’s Division III New England Indoor Track and Field Championships were held at Middlebury (VT) College on February 26, and former class of 2019 Somerville High School standout Jackson Anderson, Williams College class of ’24, captured first place the Heptathlon (7 events).

Iku Oseki’s artwork is currently on display at The Inside-Out Gallery, located in the CVS Window in Davis Square in Somerville.

Works by Iku Oseki on display in Davis Square
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By Ryan DiLello

Local artist and art teacher, Iku Oseki paints without diverting her eyes from the subject. The technique is called blind contour drawing and it entails sketching an object without looking at one’s canvas.

It’s a tradition that most of us have a lot of fun with. Whether one is of Irish lineage or not, St. Patrick’s Day stands for a recognition of Irish and Irish American heritage, and in many ways its resulting fusion in the modern age.

The religious origins of the day have, for some, been obscured and often all but forgotten in favor of the prominent displays of the color green, eating and drinking, and numerous parades. The day has been celebrated on the North American continent since before the American Revolution, and is actually an official holiday in neighboring Suffolk County. Ask any of our Boston brethren and they would – to a single soul – be aware of this fact.

Eagle Feathers #249 – Don’t Spill Your Coffee

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Tradition has told us that a ninth century Ethiopian shepherd once observed that some of his goats were behaving erratically. They were happier and livelier than others because they ate the magenta berries on a dark green shrub.

Join in virtually on Zoom as members of the local Italian community tell their stories and talk about their work in Somerville’s neighborhoods and beyond.

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I was pleased to catch up with Raphael Matto, an accomplished, multi-talented man, not to mention a new resident of the “Paris of New England.”

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Poet Harris Gardner submitted a poem from his new collection, No Time for Death. The book was published by Somerville’s Cervena Barva Press.