We’re working on educating the public about the incredible amount of money spent on weapon systems, and the need to get the government to redirect that money to basic human needs, such as jobs, education, housing, and health care. … and that’s where you can help. We’re going to ask the Board of Aldermen of Somerville to endorse the campaign. As preparation for that, we’re asking you to call your alderman/ woman to urge their endorsement of this campaign.

This new partnership will enable SV to collect and use tax-deductible donations from you so we can focus on producing high quality local stories that matter to you while SCAT (Somerville Community Access TV) gets to handle our filings to the IRS and also take a small cut for their help.
Q: Why is this important [...]

This Somerville ARRA Funding Watch is gleaned from the Massachusetts Area Planning Council’s Municipal Resource Guide on the Federal Economic Stimulus,
Pending all final approvals, Somerville is in line for $30,196,052 in American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. (The above-linked MAPC document was updated on May 13, 2009. )

1.  COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT (CDBG-R) [...]

Social media project that shows how social media affects online gaming networks in different countries and the slang and different use of words that are used over the internet.

A video we made expressing how facebook joins the whole world through one website.

Aunts,uncles and parents have gotten facebooks and myspaces. Where they can embarrass us, here in this video is an Aunt giving her niece a grammar lesson. You can watch it here.

This video was created for a TV and Media class. We were told to make a vlog about social networking and how sometimes it can get out of hand. This video describes the actions of what happens when someone gets a little too into Twitter.
Here’s the video we posted on Vimeo.

On Monday the 22nd of June at 7:30 at the Somerville High School the School Committee approved the Welcoming Massachusetts pledge. All the members said “Yes” to the pledge with great enthusiasm—Teresa Cardoso, one of the members of the School Committee, said “The School Committee is proud to support the rich immigrant population of Somerville.” [...]

In spite of the overwhelming cupidity of the Board of Aldermen, one or more may ask why or how the Mayor connects “access” to higher tickets across the board? … The obvious conclusion is that he cares nothing about access, and everything about money. While that may be good for his budget, it is at real cost to citizens and businesses, and, ultimately, to the management system that justifies – or rationalizes – that cost.

[ June 22, 2009; 6:00 pm; ] Hello my name is Clivia Camara I am a youth member of the Welcome Project.  As a supporter of the Welcoming  Massachusetts Campaign I’m forwarding this information hoping to see you at this such important meeting as part of your support to the Welcoming Massachusetts Compaign and the immigrant  youth of Somerville.

Dear friends,

As you know, [...]

[ June 27, 2009; 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. ] Please join us to support the Somerville Commission for Women at El Potro in Union Square… Appetizers and Live Music will be provided.

[ June 23, 2009; 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. ] Come out to the next Progressive Democrats of Somerville Meeting!
When: Tuesday, June 23rd, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Where: VNA, 259 Lowell Street, Community Room

If the entire city will be changed to permit-only parking, the permit system must be changed to allow non-residents to obtain restrictive permits and to easily allow more than 2 visitors on occasion.

[ June 19, 2009; 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. ] Please join us for a team meeting this Friday, June 19th, 6:30-8:30pm to discuss the blog and plans for community-funded reporting.

We’ll meet in the 1st floor private dining room at the VNA, 259 Lowell St., Somerville. This location is wheel-chair accessible.

Please RSVP to info(at)SomervilleVoices.org to let us know you’re coming.

[ June 17, 2009; 7:30 pm; ] Please join us for a meeting of the Educational Programs Subcommittee on Wednedsay, June 17 at 7:30 pm in the School Department Central Office, 181 Washington Street. The main agenda item will be a discussion of the District’s Middle Grades Initiative, which the School Committee has identified as one of its top priorities.

[ June 18, 2009; 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. ] Public meeting of the Somerville Human Rights Commission
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
6:30pm-8:30pm
2nd Floor social hall, Tufts Administration Bldg, 167 Holland St., Somerville

Agenda:

Introductions (10 min)
Discussion on DHS Surveillance Cameras in Somerville w/ SPD Chief Holloway, City Solicitor Gannon, Health Dept. Dir. Paulette Renault-Caragianes, and Nancy Murray of the MA ACLU (60 min)
Membership and Recruiting for the HRC [...]

[ June 22, 2009; 7:00 pm; ] DAVIS SQUARE TASK FORCE MEETING, will be held on Monday, June 22, 7 p.m., at the TAB Building, 167 Holland Street.  Open to all.
Agenda meeting:  Wednesday, June 17, Au Bon Pain, 5:30-6:00
To propose an agenda item, drop in on the meeting on June 17, or contact any one of the following:
Rebekah [...]

[ June 22, 2009; 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. ] We campaigned, we won and now we want to hear from YOU about changes you want to see in our community. Please join us on Mon. June 22nd at 6:30pm for a Cambridge-Somerville for Change community meeting

The Acting Director of the Office of Somerville Commissions and the Somerville Health Department have announced their plans for the celebration of National PRIDE week.
While the Pride flag will be flying all week on the City Hall Concourse the local LGBT community has expressed a preference for the City to, in lieu of a flag [...]

[ June 20, 2009; 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. ] The Friends of the Community Growing Center will be hosting an all-ages community sing along on Saturday, June 20th from 5-7.

We will be singing traditional and contemporary songs from a variety of genres – songs you know and love, songs you sung at camp, songs you’d want your kids to know, songs that don’t have [...]

These are my notes from the great Freedom of Information conference, held at the Boston Globe, 5/1/09 (Bill Shelton was there and had taken part in the planning of it as a member of the sponsoring New England First Amendment Coalition) As an aside, I will say I’ve already used www.pipl.com a bunch of times [...]

The message below was sent by Richard Saunders, Director of Music for the Somerville Public Schools. He is rightfully outraged by a bill currently being considered by the House of Representatives, (Bill H111)which would require school music department to sterilize instruments. Here’s a Globe article about it. The problem is that there’s no [...]

[ June 12, 2009; 7:00 pm; ] Join us for an Interfaith Pride service on Friday, June 12 at 7:00 pm at Havurat Shalom Congregation, 113 College Ave., Somerville, MA. The service, in English and Hebrew, will celebrate the theme of this year’s Boston Pride, “Trans-forming our Communities.” Services at Havurat Shalom are egalitarian, lay-led and usually involve a lot of singing! [...]

Join us for an Interfaith Pride service on Friday, June 12 at 7:00 pm at Havurat Shalom Congregation, 113 College Ave., Somerville, MA. The service, in English and Hebrew, will celebrate the theme of this year’s Boston Pride, “Trans-forming our Communities.” Services at Havurat Shalom are egalitarian, lay-led and usually involve a lot of singing! [...]

Unfortunately, the Green Tomato 2 has closed and the DARBI lunch and presentation planned for Wednesday 6/10 has been postponed until we can find another suitable location. We were holding our board meetings and luncheons there in an effort to help them promote themselves, but alas, it didn’t work.

I thought Somerville Voices readers might be interested in my recent newsletter about the state budget.  If you’d like to receive future newsletters, you can sign up at www.patjehlen.org

Dear Neighbors,
REFORM BEFORE REVENUE
SHOCK AND AWE BUDGET
REVENUE
RESTORATIONS
MUNICIPAL RELIEF
What’s Next?

Dear Neighbors,
With all the discussion of the budget, it’s easy to get lost in the talk of billions of [...]

Here’s a link to a map that shows 99 foreclosed properties in our city. Are we surprised that they are concentrated in the east and northeast?
Here’s a link to a somewhat shorter list without a map.
The fact that they’re not the same raises the question of whether either one of them is complete.
Do any real [...]

DARBI will be hosting our third networking lunch on Weds, 6/10 at Noon. Lunch will include a variety of delicious, freshly prepared salads and sandwiches, (with many veggie offerings), coffee, and beverage. There is also a toddler/preschool play area in eye and ear shot of our eating area. Open to all – members $8 non-members [...]

I thought it was strange that Boston was closing schools. I hadn’t heard of any cases in Somerville since that first lady that got it a couple of months ago. So, then when I heard of many absences at the Brown School, I wondered “What could it be?” Now the scuttlebutt from [...]

[ June 22, 2009; 7:00 pm; ] According to a recent report (pdf) by the city of Somerville, health care costs currently account for about 15% of the municipal budget and are out-pacing growth in revenues. A single payer plan would lift this burden, allowing cities like Somerville to maintain threatened services such as education, police, fire and libraries.

On Monday, June 22, [...]

On May 22 – 24 2009, I went to Anime Boston for the first time. Anime Boston is a convention where all Japanese animation lovers come together and buy or interact with one another. There are a lot of things going on in anime Boston. There is a concert and competitions of various different games. I [...]

How many Somerville residents blog or tweet regularly about life in Somerville? Which blogs or Twitter accounts do you check regularly? I’m not into the Twitter scene yet, but here are some of the local blogs I’d recommend.
Note: for the purposes of this post, I would include any type of blog, publicly viewable Google or [...]

[ June 12, 2009; 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. ] Drop off from 9 to noon, 1:00 to 5:00 – see list of items needed

Thanks to the hard work of many Somerville Residents, including but not limited to Barry Rafkind, FBerman, EIF, the Jehlens and lots more, SCAT has yet again won Number 1 Nationwide Community Access Television Station presented by the Alliance for Community Media. We are very proud, having been selected best in the country four [...]

Please join The Welcome Project on June 7 for a graduation celebration for some special people from cultures and countries all over the world. These are the students in our youth language interpretation and adult language learners programs who have just completed a year’s worth of learning as language interpreters and English language learners.

I kid you not.  There is a momma hen (Turkey) wandering around here.  She had seven chicks about a week ago, but yesterday I only saw one.  I’ve seen racoons, opossum and snakes in Somerville, and every siting is kind of a pleasant surprise.  The famous early Modern poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote that “nature [...]

Sorry about the cross-posting, but:
as some of you may know, the Agassiz Cooperative Preschool has been trying to find a home in Somerville since losing its lease in Porter Square after 34 years. Amazingly, they have found a space on Summer Street (corner of Spring and Summer) and if all goes well with the [...]

[ June 3, 2009; 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm. ] Change for a 10 Spot
Wednesday, June 3, at Johnny D’s from 8-11 pm
With a little help from our friends

We couldn’t do our work without friends like you! Join us on Wednesday,
June 3, 8:00-11:00 pm at Johnny D’s Uptown in Somerville’s Davis Square
for Change for a 10 Spot.

Tickets are only $10, available in advance or at [...]

[ June 14, 2009; 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. ] Historic Preservation Event: A Walking Tour entitled, “West Somerville- From Powderhouse Pickles to Ball Square Brickyards”, has been rescheduled to its rain date on Sun. June 14th rain date. The tour goes from 10:30 – 12:30 pm and starts at the Powderhouse Field House. See here for more information: http://www.somervillema.gov/alert.cfm?alert_id=203

At next week’s Mass. Democratic Party Issues Convention (Saturday, June 6 in Springfield), opponents of legalizing predatory slot machine gambling in Massachusetts will mount an effort to pass a Resolution “oppos[ing] the legalization of slot machines and any similar efforts to promote addictive and predatory gambling as a means of raising public revenues.” (The full Resolution is printed at the end of this posting.) WE NEED YOUR HELP collecting delegates’ signatures.

[ June 7, 2009; 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. ] From a flyer of The Welcome Project:

Join us at the Welcome Project for our Graduation Celebration!

Show your support for our Youth Interpreters and Adult English Language Learners!

The event will be held on June 7th from 4-7pm

Mystic Activity Center

530 Mystic Ave, Somerville, MA

RSVP by email to Warren Goldstein-Gelb at WarrenGG(at)gmail.com

Link to the Liaison Interpreter Program of [...]

[ June 3, 2009; 7:00 pm; June 10, 2009; 7:30 pm; June 16, 2009; 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. 9:00 pm; June 18, 2009; 7:00 pm; ] From the SPS homepage, entitled “A message from Tony Pierantozzi, Superintendent of Schools”
… The extent of the impact of the current financial crisis on fiscal year 2010 remains unclear. We do know that the impact of the revenue decrease at the State level will require creative solutions and difficulty in maintaining our services. We are [...]

[ June 4, 2009; 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. ] Celebrate student musicians in the Somerville Public Schools at the Spring String Fling on Thursday, June 4th. This free concert featuring student performers in grades 4-12 will begin at 7:00 PM in the Somerville High School Auditorium (81 Highland Avenue).

Instrumental music lessons are free in the Somerville Public Schools. To learn more contact [...]

[ June 24, 2009; ] The Somerville Public Schools offers free developmental screenings for 3 and 4 year olds not yet enrolled in the public schools. The next screening date is June 24th. Screenings are free but must be scheduled in advance. Contact Mary Eisner in the Somerville Public Schools Special Education Department (mesiner(at)k12.somerville.ma.us) to make an [...]

[ June 6, 2009; 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. ] June 6   Disability Reframed: A Community Film Series -

Come to a FREE matinee screening, as we kickoff our new film series. We will be showing Tim Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands” at MIT Stata Center, 32 Vassar St., Room 32-124

June 6, from 2 pm to 5 pm.  

The film will be followed by a moderated discussion about [...]

[ June 3, 2009; 7:00 pm; ] You are invited to attend a public budget hearing on Wednesday, June 3rd at 7:00 PM in the Somerville High School Library (81 Highland Avenue) to discuss the proposed FY10 budget for the Somerville Public Schools.

Information about the budget development process is on the Public Schools website. Please visit www.somerville.k12.ma.us. Click on “About [...]