Somerville Voices

Folks,

This unfortunate series of events was extremely complicated and will be impossible to unravel and understand. This concert could have been a very positive event and the intentions of Centro Presente — to promote support for immigrants and peace among youth — are exemplary.

I should probably not say anything, but since I called the Superintendent and the Mayor on Friday when I first heard about the cancellation of the concert and asked a lot of tough questions about what happened, I have learned some things that might be useful information.

I am not interested in taking sides but I do believe that continuing analysis of who did what wrong and when is unlikely to benefit anyone. So my intent is to try to get everyone to move on and hopefully try again and not try to point fingers or find a villian in this unfortunate story. Everyone involved meant well and was concerned about the well-being of young people. Things got mixed up and messed up because the communication was poor.

The fact that the City and the Mayor enthusiastically hosted and supported the Teen Empowerment youth summit a few weeks ago should tell us that they do not want to prevent large number of young people from getting together.

Centro Presente is an outstanding organization which I hope will be more involved in Somerville in the future. We need the kind of activism and leadership they provide, especially on issues relating to immigrants and youth.

In this case, I believe that a lot of the miscommunication and confusion was caused exactly because the permitting process was not followed, and the event was announced before the permit was secured. This was a mistake, and we all make mistakes. It happens. Alex Pirie wrote yesterday about what is involved in gettting a permit for an event in Somerville. It is an onerous process. I am going through this process myself right now, as I am part of a group of neighbors planning a block party. I had to get the same four department sign-offs and have our little block party approved by the Board of Alderman — just for a block party!

The permit process provides the opportunity for an event to be vetted and for information to be shared with the City officials responsible for making sure that events are safe and not disruptive. Because Centro Presente did not follow the process, the Mayor and other City officials did not have an opportunity to do their due diligence on the event .

Whether the hip hop concert was likely to be safe or not, the Mayor and others responsible for public safety can’t take a chance. In this case, they did not have the time to do a reasonable evaluation of the event, and there were concerns expressed by the Boston Police Dept. Hence, with the event imminant and the permit process not having been followed, they had no choice but to follow the legal process and not allow the concert. If the permitting process had been followed and there had been more time to understand the event and there had been more clarity about it, perhaps the result would have been different.

The Mayor wrote a letter to Centro Presente explaining the decision. I have copied it below. I think it is a respectful and reasonable response to this unfortunate situation.

As to Somerville Police officers talking to Cambridge Police officers — this is America, a free country, where people can share their concerns with each other. I have been told that there was no official communication between the SPD and the CPD, but there are lots of relationships between officers in the two departments. This is Somerville, after all, and people will talk….and talk….and talk. Besides, we want our police officers to communicate their concerns to each other….whether they work for the same department or not.

I don’t know why Cambridge cancelled the concert, but I would guess it was for the same reasons Somerville did — not enough time to evaluate the possible risks.

So I would encourage everyone to just let this one go, back up, and let’s try again for the future.

Yours,

Mark Niedergang
School Committee, Ward 5
m.niedergang@comcast.net
617-629-8033
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May 2, 2008

Ms. Maria Elena Letona
Executive Director, Centro Presente
54 Essex Street
Cambridge, MA 02139

Dear Ms. Letona,

I wanted to reach out to you following the media reports surrounding tonight’s Hip Hop event. I certainly admire and appreciate your organization’s efforts on behalf of young people and, more specifically, your attention to the challenges faced by immigrant youth. The work of Centro Presente and similar organizations is essential to our mission of providing our youth the resources needed to meet their incredible potential in our communities. I am both proud and thankful that our city has hosted many of Centro’s events and programs over the course of my administration.

However, the City of Somerville cannot make our facilities available for events unless our permitting process is completed in its entirety. The process is in place to ensure the safety of those attending an event as well as the broader community. Centro Presente had not provided the necessary information to the city in order to obtain a permit for the event scheduled to take place Friday, May 2nd. Therefore, no permit was ever issued for the event. Additionally, the concert evolved from a ticketed event with an admission fee to a free event for all youths ages 12 to 18. If Centro Presente had completed the permitting process the city would have raised and addressed any safety and security concerns through additional staff or ticketing.

The City of Somerville has a well-regarded history of working closely with the youth groups in the area and has hosted numerous similar events. We have a close and successful relationship with Teen Empowerment and we were recently named one of the nation’s 100 Best Communities for Youth by the America’s Promise Alliance. We would be happy to work with Centro Presente to schedule future events and to partner with your organization to support future programming. As I stated above, the safety of our residents and guests is our top priority and we have a time-tested permitting process in place to ensure that safety and security.

Thank you for your time and I hope that this evening’s event is a success. I look forward to working with your organization on future projects.

Sincerely,

Joseph A. Curtatone
Mayor

Editor’s Note : Read Centro Presente’s letter about this event in Lack of Transparency Surrounds Hip-Hop Concert Cancellation