Somerville library workers had a tough year, an Armory arts building situation came to a head, the city’s more fortunate flexed their muscles and more in 2024.
The Somerville Foundation meets Feb. 5 in Union Square. Seen at center is the board’s Greg Nadeau. (Photo: Hui-En Lin)
Library workers had a tough year. Only shortly after crises at the Central Library had faded, another emerged at the West Branch near Davis Square.The city announced Aug. 27 that the main library, next to the high school, would close during certain hours to avoid some of the students they were set up to serve, the result of escalating bad teen behavior including fights and attacks on adult patrons that led librarians to fear for their own safety. The Mayor’s Office revived efforts to look for city-owned spaces that could be developed into a teen center and returned library hours by bringing in private security guards for the hours after teens are let out of school. Nerves were rattled on Central Hill again Oct. 5, when a drag queen story hour was disrupted by protesters (signs read “How about Trump story hour?” and claimed such events desensitize children to “preditory [sic] behavior”) and then canceled by a bomb threat. Finally, West Branch workers learned in November that a co-worker would return after an investigation into bad behavior that had “found sufficient evidence of violation/s under the City’s Equal Opportunity Policy.” As staff quit, they expressed unhappiness at union and City Hall support for the accused co-worker but not for them and uncomfortable patrons – but the head of the Somerville Municipal Employees Association, president Ed Halloran, explained to city councillors Dec. 9 that “the decision to discipline an employee and the severity of that discipline is solely the city’s.”
The Armory arts building situation is coming to a head. Confidence has been in short supply since the city took the 27,000-square-foot Armory arts building at 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, through a $5 million eminent domain land seizure in May 2021. Tenants in place before the seizing, including the Arts at the Armory and Out of the Blue gallery nonprofits, have wanted assurances they’re not going to be squeezed out, as well as more maintenance, and have complained – with many members of the public and public officials – that wishes to keep the current setup in place are being ignored. The city presented a draft master plan Dec. 10 after an ultimatum by the heads of Arts at the Armory to leave if there weren’t solid steps toward a resolution. “Three and a half years is a very long time for anybody, and especially nonprofit arts organization, to withstand the type of uncertainty and instability that we’ve been experiencing,” said the nonprofit’s chief executive, Stephanie Scherpf.
Developments in Davis Square and Somernova get a residential switch. While Union Square gets a wholesale remaking under a sole developer building high-rises around a new green line T stop, changes in Davis have promised to be more piecemeal, with two commercially focused projects along a tight stretch of Elm Street by the companies Asana and Scape. Economic factors froze the work, though: No tenants, no projects. Scape North America pulled out and a company founded by its chief executive, called Copper Mill, reformulated the project for an apartment tower atop a“podium” of retail stores, with construction at least temporarily displacing all storefronts from The Burren pub to Dragon Pizza on Grove Street. The 500-unit size in 25 stories (with construction to begin by the end of 2025 and taking 18 to 25 months to finish) delights some and horrifies others, but is reflected in Ward 2, where a giant expansion of the Somernova tech and business campus – a $3.3 billion redevelopment over 10 years – was withdrawn in February and brought back in May scaled back to 1.6 million square feet from 1.9 million and adding 100 homes (including 20 affordable) that were not in the original. Dedicated arts and music space remained, but smaller, and some car parking and building height was subtracted too. Ten meetings and a culminating presentation were held Oct. 28 to Dec. 16 by the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning & Community Development to write zoning that could please all and get the project moving. Putting residential in a project is looking like good business as well as a good way to address a housing crisis.
Gilman Square gets left out. Gilman Square residents say they’ve waited a decade for development and protested last year when told that the city’s Economic Development Division would be “taking a pause” on the work, with director of Economic Development Rachel Nadkarni estimating a disposition study would be completed in eight months to a year – a period that ended in November. In October, with that study still undelivered, residents were back before the City Council asking for support in removing the city-owned Homans site from more disposition studies – it “has been continuously studied for 10 years,” said Matt Carlino, of the local neighborhood council – and to help start a formal urban renewal process for the area’s Mobil gas station, which most think must be included to create a parcel of significant developable size. At least the empty space got a temporary makeover this summer when the organization CultureHouse created a three-month “outdoor community space” called Gilman Park.
Somerville’s more fortunate flex their muscles. The Somerville Foundation began work early this year after changing its name from The Somerville Education Foundation in late 2023. The focus continued to be on what was considered the most vulnerable residents of Somerville with the least services – 14- to 30-year-olds – but with a broader focus then just education. It coincided with a less formal movement by approximately 20 families to direct their wealth into local investments, seeking to blunt some effects of gentrification and ensure that properties and businesses remain in community hands. Within the next half-dozen years it could emerge as a full-fledged “local venture capital” firm that expands beyond the original families to welcome all, said John Bonham-Carter, an organizer.
A police chief is hired, while other public safety initiatives are in limbo. A police chief was chosen for Somerville after a four-year search: Shumeane Benford, formerly chief of the Boston Housing Authority Police Department and Boston’s chief of emergency management. The hire was announced in August by the Office of Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and relieved Charles Femino, brought in “until a permanent chief is appointed” after the retirement of police chief David Fallon and deputy chief Stephen Carrabino in December 2020 and January 2021. Meanwhile, work establishing a Somerville civilian oversight system for police was supposed to culminate in recommendations released “by December”; and the 90 Washington St. site selected in 2018 for a combined fire and police headquarters and 911 dispatch center is stuck in a legal dispute, after the city paid $8.7 million for 4 acres there in a March 8, 2019, eminent domain land-taking. An appeals court decided in October the amount was too little. Siding with the former owners, it says the city and its Redevelopment Authority owes nearly $30 million more.
H Mart prepares an opening. After a bfresh grocery store closed at a prominent Davis Square location Oct. 12, 2023, Somervillians were excited to see the Asian grocery store chain H Mart – famous for its produce, hard-to-find ingredients and treats, and food courts – announce in April that a branch would move in. A dangled opening date of June was missed, though, and no visible work was being done at the site for months afterward, raising fears if it would languish like an announced branch on Middlesex Avenue, on the Medford-Malden line, a site has seen no progress for even longer. But there’s now another estimated opening date (Jan. 9) from a worker at 240 Elm St., and the location began advertising that it would devote part of its square footage to Artbox, a chain of cute and inexpensive Korean toys, tchotchkes, stationery and housewares.
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Somerville stories we shared in 2024
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Library workers had a tough year. Only shortly after crises at the Central Library had faded, another emerged at the West Branch near Davis Square. The city announced Aug. 27 that the main library, next to the high school, would close during certain hours to avoid some of the students they were set up to serve, the result of escalating bad teen behavior including fights and attacks on adult patrons that led librarians to fear for their own safety. The Mayor’s Office revived efforts to look for city-owned spaces that could be developed into a teen center and returned library hours by bringing in private security guards for the hours after teens are let out of school. Nerves were rattled on Central Hill again Oct. 5, when a drag queen story hour was disrupted by protesters (signs read “How about Trump story hour?” and claimed such events desensitize children to “preditory [sic] behavior”) and then canceled by a bomb threat. Finally, West Branch workers learned in November that a co-worker would return after an investigation into bad behavior that had “found sufficient evidence of violation/s under the City’s Equal Opportunity Policy.” As staff quit, they expressed unhappiness at union and City Hall support for the accused co-worker but not for them and uncomfortable patrons – but the head of the Somerville Municipal Employees Association, president Ed Halloran, explained to city councillors Dec. 9 that “the decision to discipline an employee and the severity of that discipline is solely the city’s.”
The Armory arts building situation is coming to a head. Confidence has been in short supply since the city took the 27,000-square-foot Armory arts building at 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, through a $5 million eminent domain land seizure in May 2021. Tenants in place before the seizing, including the Arts at the Armory and Out of the Blue gallery nonprofits, have wanted assurances they’re not going to be squeezed out, as well as more maintenance, and have complained – with many members of the public and public officials – that wishes to keep the current setup in place are being ignored. The city presented a draft master plan Dec. 10 after an ultimatum by the heads of Arts at the Armory to leave if there weren’t solid steps toward a resolution. “Three and a half years is a very long time for anybody, and especially nonprofit arts organization, to withstand the type of uncertainty and instability that we’ve been experiencing,” said the nonprofit’s chief executive, Stephanie Scherpf.
Developments in Davis Square and Somernova get a residential switch. While Union Square gets a wholesale remaking under a sole developer building high-rises around a new green line T stop, changes in Davis have promised to be more piecemeal, with two commercially focused projects along a tight stretch of Elm Street by the companies Asana and Scape. Economic factors froze the work, though: No tenants, no projects. Scape North America pulled out and a company founded by its chief executive, called Copper Mill, reformulated the project for an apartment tower atop a “podium” of retail stores, with construction at least temporarily displacing all storefronts from The Burren pub to Dragon Pizza on Grove Street. The 500-unit size in 25 stories (with construction to begin by the end of 2025 and taking 18 to 25 months to finish) delights some and horrifies others, but is reflected in Ward 2, where a giant expansion of the Somernova tech and business campus – a $3.3 billion redevelopment over 10 years – was withdrawn in February and brought back in May scaled back to 1.6 million square feet from 1.9 million and adding 100 homes (including 20 affordable) that were not in the original. Dedicated arts and music space remained, but smaller, and some car parking and building height was subtracted too. Ten meetings and a culminating presentation were held Oct. 28 to Dec. 16 by the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning & Community Development to write zoning that could please all and get the project moving. Putting residential in a project is looking like good business as well as a good way to address a housing crisis.
Gilman Square gets left out. Gilman Square residents say they’ve waited a decade for development and protested last year when told that the city’s Economic Development Division would be “taking a pause” on the work, with director of Economic Development Rachel Nadkarni estimating a disposition study would be completed in eight months to a year – a period that ended in November. In October, with that study still undelivered, residents were back before the City Council asking for support in removing the city-owned Homans site from more disposition studies – it “has been continuously studied for 10 years,” said Matt Carlino, of the local neighborhood council – and to help start a formal urban renewal process for the area’s Mobil gas station, which most think must be included to create a parcel of significant developable size. At least the empty space got a temporary makeover this summer when the organization CultureHouse created a three-month “outdoor community space” called Gilman Park.
Somerville’s more fortunate flex their muscles. The Somerville Foundation began work early this year after changing its name from The Somerville Education Foundation in late 2023. The focus continued to be on what was considered the most vulnerable residents of Somerville with the least services – 14- to 30-year-olds – but with a broader focus then just education. It coincided with a less formal movement by approximately 20 families to direct their wealth into local investments, seeking to blunt some effects of gentrification and ensure that properties and businesses remain in community hands. Within the next half-dozen years it could emerge as a full-fledged “local venture capital” firm that expands beyond the original families to welcome all, said John Bonham-Carter, an organizer.
A police chief is hired, while other public safety initiatives are in limbo. A police chief was chosen for Somerville after a four-year search: Shumeane Benford, formerly chief of the Boston Housing Authority Police Department and Boston’s chief of emergency management. The hire was announced in August by the Office of Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and relieved Charles Femino, brought in “until a permanent chief is appointed” after the retirement of police chief David Fallon and deputy chief Stephen Carrabino in December 2020 and January 2021. Meanwhile, work establishing a Somerville civilian oversight system for police was supposed to culminate in recommendations released “by December”; and the 90 Washington St. site selected in 2018 for a combined fire and police headquarters and 911 dispatch center is stuck in a legal dispute, after the city paid $8.7 million for 4 acres there in a March 8, 2019, eminent domain land-taking. An appeals court decided in October the amount was too little. Siding with the former owners, it says the city and its Redevelopment Authority owes nearly $30 million more.
H Mart prepares an opening. After a bfresh grocery store closed at a prominent Davis Square location Oct. 12, 2023, Somervillians were excited to see the Asian grocery store chain H Mart – famous for its produce, hard-to-find ingredients and treats, and food courts – announce in April that a branch would move in. A dangled opening date of June was missed, though, and no visible work was being done at the site for months afterward, raising fears if it would languish like an announced branch on Middlesex Avenue, on the Medford-Malden line, a site has seen no progress for even longer. But there’s now another estimated opening date (Jan. 9) from a worker at 240 Elm St., and the location began advertising that it would devote part of its square footage to Artbox, a chain of cute and inexpensive Korean toys, tchotchkes, stationery and housewares.
Like this:
Related Stories
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.