Cambridge and Somerville shared issues around the MBTA and homeless populations in 2024, as well as a happier story about growth in bookstores, festivals and the comedy scene.
The MBTA green line was extended to Union Square and through Somerville in 2022 – in time for a safety slowdown that began in early 2023. (Photo: Marc Levy)
We waited for the MBTA to get back its subway lines on track. Our rail is supposed to travel 40 mph, but safety restrictions imposed March 9, 2023, meant going as slow as 10 mph and all-too frequent shutdowns for track repairs. The final one of those – for the green line between Park Street and Union Square and Medford/Tufts – was supposed to take 15 days from Dec. 6 to Friday; the red line saw its last closing of the year in November. The entire system is “completely free of all slow zones for the first time in at least 20 years,” the MBTA said.
The homeless made themselves at home. Each city has been grappling with a population of unhoused people. Just as Cambridge blamed its influx of unhoused on Boston breaking up its “Mass and Cass” homeless encampment, people sleeping outside in Somerville this year said they came after being uprooted from Cambridge’s Central Square, where Carl Barron Plaza is being renovated and “they’ve started to, as defined by some people, crack down on homelessness,” an official said. It’s one reason a Cambridge-funded medical outreach van unveiled Nov. 8 will serve across borders. “The distance between Central Square and Boston or Somerville is a very short walk,” City Manager Yi-An Huang said. “The people we’re serving don’t stop at the border.”
Bookstores made their case. No less than three women-owned bookstores opened here this year – Narrative in Davis Square, Side Quest in Union Square and Lovestruck in Harvard Square – and Porter Square Books relocated from a shopping plaza to Lesley’s University Hall, close enough it could ceremonially move books from one space to the other via a human chain. Meanwhile, Harvard Book Store scuttled an expansion to Boston’s Prudential Center in favor of an expected reinvestment in its flagship space. Bryn Mawr Bookstore, a nonprofit in Cambridge’s Huron Village, celebrated its 50th in February.
Our parties proliferated: The cities’ slate of festivals, from Cambridge’s Dance Party to Somerville’s Honk!, are growing in size – bread competition Le Grand Prix Elmendorf du Pain swelled to 6,000 people in June, with 20 percent more vendors on an extra block in East Cambridge, while Somerville’s Porchfest saw crowds to the horizon in May when Guster played a set – and number. This year greeted a Rhythm N’ Spice Hot Sauce Festival in May and news Cambridge would get its own Porchfest in July and a returned World’s Fair in September. Somerville debuts the area’s first Fringe arts festival May 6-11.
Comedy got serious. The reopening of The Comedy Studio in Cambridge’s Harvard Square came in September after two and a half-plus years of relocation from Somerville, fundraising and construction. Amazingly, Goofs followed with an opening in Somerville’s Prospect Hill area just the next month, with a path nearly as tortured, and Union Comedy trumped that with news that it had secured a lease for its own 90-seat permanent space. The Nova Comedy Collective, founded this year on a mission to diversify the scene, is at least “leaning into the flexibility of not being tied to a single location,” team member Shiyanbade Animashaun says.
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Stories Cambridge and Somerville shared in 2024
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We waited for the MBTA to get back its subway lines on track. Our rail is supposed to travel 40 mph, but safety restrictions imposed March 9, 2023, meant going as slow as 10 mph and all-too frequent shutdowns for track repairs. The final one of those – for the green line between Park Street and Union Square and Medford/Tufts – was supposed to take 15 days from Dec. 6 to Friday; the red line saw its last closing of the year in November. The entire system is “completely free of all slow zones for the first time in at least 20 years,” the MBTA said.
The homeless made themselves at home. Each city has been grappling with a population of unhoused people. Just as Cambridge blamed its influx of unhoused on Boston breaking up its “Mass and Cass” homeless encampment, people sleeping outside in Somerville this year said they came after being uprooted from Cambridge’s Central Square, where Carl Barron Plaza is being renovated and “they’ve started to, as defined by some people, crack down on homelessness,” an official said. It’s one reason a Cambridge-funded medical outreach van unveiled Nov. 8 will serve across borders. “The distance between Central Square and Boston or Somerville is a very short walk,” City Manager Yi-An Huang said. “The people we’re serving don’t stop at the border.”
Bookstores made their case. No less than three women-owned bookstores opened here this year – Narrative in Davis Square, Side Quest in Union Square and Lovestruck in Harvard Square – and Porter Square Books relocated from a shopping plaza to Lesley’s University Hall, close enough it could ceremonially move books from one space to the other via a human chain. Meanwhile, Harvard Book Store scuttled an expansion to Boston’s Prudential Center in favor of an expected reinvestment in its flagship space. Bryn Mawr Bookstore, a nonprofit in Cambridge’s Huron Village, celebrated its 50th in February.
Our parties proliferated: The cities’ slate of festivals, from Cambridge’s Dance Party to Somerville’s Honk!, are growing in size – bread competition Le Grand Prix Elmendorf du Pain swelled to 6,000 people in June, with 20 percent more vendors on an extra block in East Cambridge, while Somerville’s Porchfest saw crowds to the horizon in May when Guster played a set – and number. This year greeted a Rhythm N’ Spice Hot Sauce Festival in May and news Cambridge would get its own Porchfest in July and a returned World’s Fair in September. Somerville debuts the area’s first Fringe arts festival May 6-11.
Comedy got serious. The reopening of The Comedy Studio in Cambridge’s Harvard Square came in September after two and a half-plus years of relocation from Somerville, fundraising and construction. Amazingly, Goofs followed with an opening in Somerville’s Prospect Hill area just the next month, with a path nearly as tortured, and Union Comedy trumped that with news that it had secured a lease for its own 90-seat permanent space. The Nova Comedy Collective, founded this year on a mission to diversify the scene, is at least “leaning into the flexibility of not being tied to a single location,” team member Shiyanbade Animashaun says.
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.