“As a Black and queer person, I know that when a person’s very existence is criminalized it inevitably results in fear, hate crimes, and death.” The rain poured down on me and a cadre of queer and trans youth in front of the bricked facade of Somerville’s City Hall. The Progressive Pride Flag rose as […]
OPINION: TYING UP SOME LOOSE ENDS
Reflecting on the “Curtatone era” and Mayor Katjana Ballantyne’s time, so far While I realize that it’s possible that no one thought twice about something I wrote about Joe Curtatone in my last column, I regretted it immediately after seeing it in print on December 22. And I am not referring to an overly harsh […]
OPINION: SOME HOPES AND WISHES FOR 2022 AND BEYOND
Photo by Eric Kilby, Flickr “I hope and trust that our city will continue to thrive as it has for the last 18 years.” May the coming year (or two) be the last ones in which this damn pandemic hangs over the entire world like a never-ending plague. I hope that in the next few […]
OPINION: THE ‘TAKEOVER’ OF SOMERVILLE FALLS FLAT
“Vows to ‘takeover’ our city’s political agenda clearly backfired.” The Boston chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America had a rude awakening on election day. The city of Somerville wasn’t ready to be taken over by a Boston-based group that backed a slate of candidates who did their best to conceal their support for the […]
OPINION: GIVE US 100 DAYS TO PLAN FOR 100 YEARS
“Last month, the Planning Division released a 138-page plan, nominally produced by consultants, but heavily influenced by planning staff, that was somehow worse than the draft they had been entrusted with eleven months earlier.” By Mystic View Task Force, Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership, Green and Open Somerville, and Union Square Neighborhood Council Twenty-three years ago, […]