Somerville Voices

July 18, 2008

I certainly agree with Barry’s post of 7/15/08 in this SomervilleVoices blog entitled, “City’s Commission Staffing Plan Hurts Human Services.“

Three questions seem particularly germane to this issue:

1. Are Somerville’s municipal resources distributed equally and fairly to all residents?

2. Are all residents offered equal participation within public programs, without regard to differences in age, income, birth culture, abilities, religions, race, gender, job status, or city address?

3. Do certain Somerville residents experience social and economic inequities that would support the fuller engagement and investigation of the specialized Human Rights Commissions?

Across the country, fair housing issues often go unreported because of mutual lack of translation expertise and lack of awareness about reasonable accommodations rights. This is not limited to Somerville, yet it is important to know that both the Human Rights and Disabilities Commission leaders have been concerned about disparate housing opportunities for Somerville residents since at least 2005. Yet these important civil rights and survival issues are still kept under the fold.

Hate and bias crimes are not limited to Somerville, but it is important to remember that on October 24, 2002, 2 deaf girls were raped in Foss Park. One of these girls was a wheelchair user. Although Somerville police refused to call it a disAbilities-related hate crime, and the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office found one defendant not guilty, this incident led to the implementation of a gang ordinance - and nationwide anti-immigrant media seized upon it as exemplary of “illegal immigrant crime.”

Recently, the LGBTQ community suffered a similar indignity when Mayor Curtatone and the Somerville Police Department found the November 2007 lesbian-bashing victim’s hate crime allegations to be “without merit,” despite the proactive and expert influence of civil rights activist Representative Carl Sciortino.

Ongoing reluctance to prioritize the removal of architectural barriers in public municipal facilities (including sidewalks) is not limited to Somerville, but it is important to know that these issues have been forthrightly and directly brought to the attention of Somerville’s Mayor Curtatone since at least December, 2005. Again in 2006 and again in 2007, community development planning recommendations were offered to the City in a sincere (and seemingly futile) effort to enable Somerville to be a model city of inclusion. In 2007, members of the non-funded and non-staffed municipal DisAbilities Commission distributed an Access Survey at 21 locations throughout the City, and conducted over 60 on-the-street interviews. It was regularly found by Commissioners that residents feared documenting their responses- even anonymously- for fear of retaliation from City staff, City officials, and Housing Managers. 103 respondents completed the survey and that Community Access Report was sent directly to Mayor Curtatone as well as other City staff on November 15, 2007. The last 6 pages of this report contain a fascinating collection of resident comments.

These structural inaccessibility issues have the disparate effect of preventing thousands of city residents with mobility and sensory disabilities from equally participating in municipal programs and local government employment opportunities. Nevertheless, the response from the current administration has been consistent: to nickel and dime them. Can we infer that residents with disAbilities are not valued by our current administration? Should we be concerned about these civil rights issues that perpetrate low incomes, lack of municipal employment opportunities, and hopelessness?

Gender employment disparities are not limited to Somerville, yet it is important to note that the majority of local elected officials, status City Departmental positions and higher salaries are white males, despite the diversity of our community.

Health disparities for various immigrant and non-white cultures are not limited to Somerville, nor are they limited to Massachusetts. Yet Governor Patrick awarded Somerville’s Board of Health $35,000 to study racial and ethnic health disparities in 2007; and Tufts and the Immigrant Service Provider’s Group (ISPG), in collaboration with the Cambridge Health Alliance are currently addressing occupational health risks to immigrant workers in Somerville through a four year grant (‘05 - ‘09) funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Will the City have the capacity to undertake a meaningful response to these evaluation results?

Saying that our community is unique and diverse is not limited to Somerville, but it is important to note that the Mayor says this all the time! Somerville is a community that is especially identified, nationwide, as a “gateway community,” a “densely populated” community, and a “creative” community. But I can’t help wondering- and this is a human rights concern: are our resident cultural experts being exploited for PR and political ambitions that will not accrue to their benefit?

Today the City announced that, “The City has enlisted the help of Lauren Nicoll, a Public Policy Fellow from the Rappaport Institute at Harvard University, to obtain input from the creative design industry.”

While the Mayor is willing to supply fiscal resources to examine the potentials of our artistic community for economic and commercial growth, I can’t help but wonder: are they being exploited? Do the artists of Somerville continually provide design and decorative products to the City for free?

The talented youth culture of Somerville has brought public awareness to gentrification issues in Somerville. These are surely mirrored in the concerns of the Elders of Somerville who are not being given meaningful opportunities to access public hearings and meetings. I can’t help wondering (and this is a human rights issue): will their interests, and the best interests of all Union Square and East Somerville residents be barreled under by the winds of a seemingly-inevitable City-Hall schemed trajectory? Do we as a community have the vitality to organize, collaborate, trust our differences and remember our commonalities, to create effective political influence so that this community does not become fragmented and diluted by the interests of wealthy developers?

The Mayor’s FY09 Budget allows for only 2 Commission support staff members within a Health Department (staffed by 20 individuals), which is already heavily tasked with Board of Health, Regional and local Emergency Preparedness, School Nursing, Public Health Nursing, Substance Abuse Prevention, Tobacco Control, Healthy Lifestyle Activities, and Trauma Response Initiatives.

How those two staff members will be able to support and assist the Human Rights, Women’s Rights, DisAbilities Rights, GBLT Rights, and Multicultural Awareness Commissions- without the additional necessary full time staffing of at least one expert Principal Human rights Investigator, and also at least one knowledgeable and details- oriented ADA Coordinator- is truly a (human-created) mystery. IMHO, it certainly is rational to be concerned about the current structure of the Human Rights Commissions, considering the multiple civil rights issues that do interdependently affect over 100,000 ‘villens.

Lack of confidence in local government, fear of unwanted reprisals, perpetration of economic and social injustice, and privacy concerns are not limited to the Somerville community- but it is important to know that these issues have been brought to the attention of our local elected officials and city staff (relevant to Budget planning consultation) throughout the past three months- and, it appears, to no avail.