Join city staff on Wednesday, December 12, at 6:00 p.m. at the Central Library, 79 Highland Ave. for the fourth in a series of public quarterly meetings where updates about parking changes, new data collection, and strategies for impact mitigation will be discussed. All interested persons are encouraged to come including residents and local business owners, as well as city and school staff. 2019 meeting dates will be announced soon.

Rebecca Kopycinski is a multimedia and performance artist.

By JT Thompson

Rebecca Kopycinski grew up in Lowell, MA, runs a video making business, and is a multimedia and performance artist. She speaks with the calm reflectiveness of someone skilled at introspection.

“I’m very fortunate with my business, I have a lot of flexibility and freedom, and I have many clients with missions I believe in. Of course, there’s also work for tech companies that offsets the non-profits, but I feel fortunate I have the talent to help promote missions I believe in.”

Somerville has been a hotbed for small press publications for decades. From indie comics, to poetry chapbooks, to zines, to left-wing political publications – our 4 square miles have produced far more than what you’d expect.

The Somerville Public Library is proud to partner with the Somerville Media Center to create a display of some of these works. Come to the Media Center, and you’ll see some of what SPL has in its Local History and Local Small Press and Zine collections.

The 4th Annual Union Square Holiday Stroll takes place on December 8 in Union Sq.  An afternoon of Union Square discovery filled with festive happenings and holiday delight: rad retail, unique eats, music from around the world, visits with Santa, creative crafts, sparkly lights and more. Bundle up and come on down to unwrap Union Square in all its wintry wonderment! Union Square’s local businesses will have festive offerings all day long.

Community-Driven Process to update and extend current 2030 plan;  SomerVision 2040 Kick-Off Meeting Jan. 15  

Mayor Joseph A Curtatone is pleased to announce the launch of a new community process to update SomerVision: Somerville’s Comprehensive Plan 2010-2030 and create SomerVision 2040.

Nearly ten years ago in 2009, the Somerville community came together over the course of more than 50 meetings, visioning sessions, and workshops to hammer out a guiding document for the city. The resulting SomerVision plan includes more than 584 values-driven goals, policies, and actions ranging from housing, job, and open space creation to neighborhood preservation, transformational development, and transportation advances, and more.

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

The holiday season means family, festivities, and lots of food. It seems like a good time to look at some of my Somerville friends’ (strange to us, but delicious to others) food favorites. I did a survey of kooky eats that current and former Somerville residents enjoyed as kids. Some of us still enjoy our odd sounding but delectable treats today.

Join Mayor Curtatone and City staff for Somerville’s annual holiday celebrations, kicking off on Thursday, December 6, with the Christmas Tree Lighting and visit from Santa Claus, on the City Hall Concourse. Also part of the 2018 events are a ceremonial lighting of a Menorah on the City Hall Concourse on Sunday, December 9, and the Somerville Arts Council’s Illuminations Tour on December 15.

~Photos by Claudia Ferro

Plenty of volunteers showed up last week to help with the unloading of Christmas trees delivered by Wilson Farms to be sold at the Next Wave/Full Circle Tree Lot which opened on Friday and will operate through December 19.