Posted by fberman at 7:34 am on June 10, 2009
Posted in Civic Action, Schools and Youth | No Comments »
Posted by fberman at 3:04 am on June 1, 2009
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.
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Posted in Politics | 6 Comments »
Posted by fberman at 3:01 am on February 23, 2009
On March 3rd, the Somerville Board of Aldermen will hold its hearing on the proposed Condo Conversion Ordinance. If you are a Somerville homeowner, you know that the Libertarian, Cambridge-based Small Property Owners Association (SPOA) -- which mailed letters to every Somerville homeowner -- is seeking to derail that legislation by disseminating inflammatory and baseless claims about how passage will result in plummeting property values and escalating property taxes.
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Posted in Development and Zoning, Government Reform, Housing | 18 Comments »
Posted by fberman at 5:29 pm on February 1, 2009
PDS Vice Chair Rachel Heller sent around information about the Democratic Party Caucuses scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 5th (see below). Readers may be wondering "Why bother to go to an "issues" convention ... or to the Caucus where delegates are elected? Here are my thoughts on why it's worth our time.
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Posted in Government Reform, Politics | 1 Comment »
Posted by fberman at 11:37 pm on December 29, 2008
Madeleine Masters, Planning Director with the Somerville Office of Strategic Planning & Community Development emailed an announcement about the upcoming meeting on the Union Square Open Space and Recreation Plan, which will be held on Tuesday, January 6th at 6:30 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chambers at City Hall.
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Posted in Development and Zoning, Environment and Open Space, Neighborhoods and Squares | No Comments »
Posted by fberman at 2:21 am on December 1, 2008
If you've been waiting to submit your written testimony to the Charter Advisory Committee, now's the time. If you haven't reviewed the Committee's preliminary recommendations, check them out
here. Here are my thoughts:
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Posted in Government Reform | No Comments »
Posted by fberman at 8:56 am on November 13, 2008
This past Monday, the Charter Advisory Committee held a public hearing ... Perhaps the most frequent themes of testimony were · Opposition to the appointment (instead of election) of School Committee members · Filling Vacancies on the BOA / Instant Runoff Voting as the means of
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Posted in Government Reform | 5 Comments »
Posted by fberman at 8:49 am on
In April 2008, Mayor Curtatone convened a Charter Advisory Committee "to examine the City of Somerville's current municipal charter and make recommendations aimed at modernizing city government." (snip) After a series of meetings between June and early November, the Committee held a public hearing on Monday, November 10 to present and receive comments about its preliminary recommendations...
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Posted in Government Reform | No Comments »
Posted by fberman at 2:30 am on November 6, 2008
In anticipation of next week's public hearing on Charter Reform, Fred Berman and Bill Bumpus interviewed local activist Bill Shelton, who favors a City Manager form of government, as compared with our current "Strong Mayor" form of government.....
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Posted in Government Reform, Politics | 2 Comments »
Posted by fberman at 7:43 am on July 4, 2008
Sustainable Somerville -- a nascent network of community organizations working to make/keep Somerville a great place to live, work, and play -- is sponsoring a Sustainability Scavenger Hunt at ArtBeat (Saturday, July 19th in Davis Square), to show how the common thread of sustainability connects the work of the
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Posted in Arts and Culture, Development and Zoning, Environment and Open Space, Housing, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted by fberman at 2:00 am on April 30, 2008
Warren Goldstein-Gelb, director of the Welcome Project, has asked for help in getting the word out about the need for volunteers this Saturday (May 3) in rebuilding the community garden at Mystic Housing, which was a casualty of the Somerville Housing Authority's need for space for a maintenance shed.
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Posted in Environment and Open Space | No Comments »
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