opinion Archives

OPINION: CREATING CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN SOMERVILLE

I am a longtime community services program developer and I wanted to share some good news with my friends in Somerville: The Asian American Civic Association is working with the City of Somerville to diversify its workforce. The partnership will provide its low-income residents access to job training programs at

SUSAN CHIN August 1, 2022

Somerville City Councilor-at-Large Willie Burnley, Jr. Courtesy photo.

OPINION: MY PRIDE IS A RIOT AGAINST WHITE SUPREMACY

“As a Black and queer person, I know that when a person’s very existence is criminalized it inevitably results in fear, hate crimes, and death.” The rain poured down on me and a cadre of queer and trans youth in front of the bricked facade of Somerville’s City Hall. The

WILLIE BURNLEY JR June 7, 2022

OPINION: TYING UP SOME LOOSE ENDS

Reflecting on the “Curtatone era” and Mayor Katjana Ballantyne’s time, so far While I realize that it’s possible that no one thought twice about something I wrote about Joe Curtatone in my last column, I regretted it immediately after seeing it in print on December 22. And I am not

KEN BROCINER March 11, 2022

OPINION: SOME HOPES AND WISHES FOR 2022 AND BEYOND

Photo by Eric Kilby, Flickr “I hope and trust that our city will continue to thrive as it has for the last 18 years.” May the coming year (or two) be the last ones in which this damn pandemic hangs over the entire world like a never-ending plague. I hope

KEN BROCINER January 4, 2022

OPINION: THE ‘TAKEOVER’ OF SOMERVILLE FALLS FLAT

“Vows to ‘takeover’ our city’s political agenda clearly backfired.” The Boston chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America had a rude awakening on election day. The city of Somerville wasn’t ready to be taken over by a Boston-based group that backed a slate of candidates who did their best to

KEN BROCINER November 23, 2021

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

SEVERAL AUTHORS November 9, 2021

OPINION: ONE TOOL AGAINST DISPLACEMENT, RENT HIKES, SPECULATION

“TOPA would allow communities to slow displacement and gentrification by removing some homes from the for-profit, speculative, escalating market, and making them permanently affordable.” Speculators are driving up prices, blocking new home-buyers, and promoting destabilization of neighborhoods, displacement of long-time residents, and gentrification. Is this inevitable? Those issues were the

PAT JEHLEN November 2, 2021