Crane Coming Down, Domestic Violence Vigil, Monster Mash, and More!
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CODIFYING A NEW CURB PHILOSOPHY
City proposes new ways of looking at street usage
Shorts
One Crane Coming Down
Weather permitting, Prospect Street will be closed to traffic between Somerville Avenue and Webster Avenue this Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 27-29, to facilitate crane disassembly and removal at the US2 development in Union Square.
The schedule is subject to change. Please observe posted detour signage. Emergency vehicles and pedestrians will be allowed to proceed.
Pedestrian access to the Union Square Green Line MBTA station will be maintained via the western sidewalk on Prospect Street. MBTA bus routes CT2 and 91 will offer modified service during the closure.
For more information, please email construction@somervillema.gov or call the Engineering Division at (617) 625-6600, ext. 5400.
Domestic Violence Vigil Indoors
The Annual Candlelight Vigil in Honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month will take place Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. Due to forecasted rain, the vigil will be held inside the Somerville Public Library’s West Branch, 40 College Ave.
Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, the Somerville Commission for Women, and RESPOND Inc. will host this year’s candlelight vigil, remembering those who lost their lives to domestic violence in 2022.
For more information about domestic violence, resources, or support services, visit respondinc.org. RESPOND offers a Support Line at (617) 623-5900 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, providing support to survivors of domestic violence, those concerned about a loved one, and community partners. Outside of those hours, survivors can call the statewide 24/7 toll-free domestic violence hotline, SafeLink, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline, both of which offer bilingual services in English and Spanish and can provide translation in more than 130 languages.
Catch Up With City Hall
City Hall Community Meetings, formerly known as the ResiStat program, is an effort to promote civic engagement through regular community meetings in each ward. Residents meet the mayor, their local councilors, and other key City officials, and receive ward-specific information as well as City-wide progress updates.
The final two meetings of this year are coming up. This Thursday, Oct. 27, Ward 7 will meet at the West Somerville Neighborhood School Cafeteria (177 Powder House Blvd.), and next Thursday, Nov. 3, Ward 6 will meet at the Somerville Community Baptist Church (31 College Ave.).
All meetings are held in a hybrid format and begin at 6:30 p.m. If you attend in person, there’s a meet-and-greet and refreshments beginning at 6 p.m. If you don’t know which ward you’re in, you can look it up with the My Somerville address lookup tool.
If you missed any of the eight presentations, including an all-City meeting held in Spanish, you can watch the videos, read transcripts, and inspect the presentation slides at the Community Meetings website.
They Did the Monster Mash … and You Can Too
Boo! The spooky and fun “SomerStreets: Monster Mash,” with live music, costumes, and family-friendly activities, takes over Somerville Avenue between School Street and Warren Avenue this Sunday, Oct. 30 from 2-6 p.m. (rain date Nov. 6).
Musicians will perform on two stages: one at 389 Somerville Ave. in collaboration with Mass Ave. Music, and a stage at 12 Warren Ave. featuring an array of local bands.
You’re invited to join the Halloween parade led by the School of Honk. Wear your costumes and meet them at 3 p.m. at the intersection of Warren and Somerville Avenue.
Estela Calzada will lead a Dia de los Muertos Celebration, while Cate the Great leads handstands, juggling, acrobatics, and comedy for all ages. There will be food vendors, games, magic tricks, and pumpkin carving, and surprises.
The Somerville Historic Preservation Commission and the Somerville Museum will lead “Ghosts of Milk Row Cemetery” tours at the historic (1804) Milk Row Cemetery at 400 Somerville Ave. from 2-4 p.m. This ghostly gathering treats visitors to a guided tour of the cemetery’s gravesites, tombs, and the Civil War monument. Suggested donation of $5 for those over 12. Proceeds support the preservation and educational activities of the Somerville Museum.
Monster Mash is the final SomerStreets festival of the year. Closing busy city streets to vehicles, SomerStreets aims to promote and encourage reconnecting with neighborhoods and local businesses in a thriving urban environment.
The following road closures and parking bans will be in effect:
- Somerville Avenue from School Street to Warren Avenue will be closed to all vehicular traffic from noon to 8 p.m.; no parking 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
- Quincy Street and Church Street will become two way streets between Summer Street and Somerville Avenue from noon to 8 p.m. to allow access for abutters.
- Bow Street will also be two-way for abutters.
- MBTA buses will be rerouted from noon to 8 p.m.
Photo credit: Construction cranes in Boynton Yards as seen from Union Square. Photo by Linda Pinkow. Copyright 2022 Linda Pinkow.
This article is syndicated by the Somerville Wire municipal news service of the Somerville News Garden project of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.
All Somerville Wire articles may be republished by community news outlets free of charge with permission and by larger commercial news outlets for a fee. Republication requests and all other inquiries should be directed to somervillewire@binjonline.org. Somerville Wire articles are also syndicated by BINJ’s MassWire state news service at masswire.news.
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Linda Pinkow is a reporter for the Somerville Wire. She is also a development consultant for the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.
