CHAIN REACTION
Coffee shop workers organize, inspire others Labor organizing in the Boston area has gotten a hip makeover. Two local coffee shop chains, Pavement & Darwin’s Ltd., have had their employees vote to form unions. These baristas have been the unlikely stars of the progressive left in Boston this past summer: The media exploded after the […]
NATIVE AMERICANS, QUINCY EXTEND “OLIVE BRANCH” TO BOSTON
Photo by Doc Searls Mayor Wu’s promise of halting the construction of the Long Island Bridge generates cautious optimism Following a tumultuous and historic election, Boston’s new Mayor Michelle Wu will start off her term facing innumerable challenges as well as opportunities. With political fervor receding, anticipation is growing over the fate of the proposed […]
SOMERVILLE WIRE: November 16, 2021 WEEKLY ROUNDUP
Sparkle the Dog and her battle with cancer, a citywide election recount, and Open Studio arts events in Somerville Survey SOMERVILLE LOCAL NEWS SURVEY The Somerville Wire is part of the Somerville News Garden project of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. News garden volunteers and BINJ staffers are trying to figure out how to […]
BUSINESS PROFILE: HOLIDAY MARKET
Discover something new from local vendors this season (Somerville Wire) – The Holiday Market is back! Run by the Somerville Flea, there will be three markets at the Armory, with vintage and local businesses fulfilling all of your shopping needs. Having been on hiatus in 2020 because of the pandemic, the market is festively returning […]
INVESTIGATING THE INTERSTATE: IN THE SHADOW OF THE HIGHWAY
How immigrants and working-class people have been impacted by I-93, across the years The Somerville Wire recently received a Kozik Environmental Justice Reporting Grant, through the National Press Foundation and the National Press Club Journalism Institute. This article is the fourth in a series about how roadways like I-93 and others in East Somerville have […]
FEATURE FOLLOWUP: REVISITING RECYCLING
It took decades for workers doing this dangerous job to get a living wage. But are their problems finally sorted out? For the first time ever, Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville are boosting the pay for the workers who sort their recyclables after resolving a decades-long stalemate with a regional company. Each city requires that workers […]
SOMERVILLE WIRE: November 9, 2021 WEEKLY ROUNDUP
A Highland Avenue redesign meeting, a Gilman Square street design meeting, and a concert at the Center for Arts at the Armory Survey SOMERVILLE LOCAL NEWS SURVEY The Somerville Wire is part of the Somerville News Garden project of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. News garden volunteers and BINJ staffers are trying to figure […]
OPINION: GIVE US 100 DAYS TO PLAN FOR 100 YEARS
“Last month, the Planning Division released a 138-page plan, nominally produced by consultants, but heavily influenced by planning staff, that was somehow worse than the draft they had been entrusted with eleven months earlier.” By Mystic View Task Force, Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership, Green and Open Somerville, and Union Square Neighborhood Council Twenty-three years ago, […]
OPINION: SOMERVILLE’S TIME-BOMB ISSUE
Part 2: What do we do? The City of Somerville’s buildings, roads, sidewalks, water distribution, and sewer systems are all at or near the end of their lifespans. A cogent memo to the City Council last spring detailed our infrastructure needs and estimated their costs. Its implications obligate reconsideration of basic assumptions guiding land-use policy […]
KATJANA BALLANTYNE TO BRING CULTURE OF INCLUSION AS MAYOR
The newly elected leader on a historic turning point in Somerville’s government (Somerville Wire) – Mayor-elect and City Councilor Katjana Ballantyne knows what it means to see things from the other side of the fence. As an orphan born in Greece, she was adopted by a Scottish man and a Czech and German woman, and […]