Winter Hill Neighborhood Association

Via: Be Somerville http://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/86859

Mayor Curtatone and the Board of Aldermen invite residents to the Fall 2018 ResiStat Community Meetings. ResiStat is both a great way to learn more about what’s happening in your neighborhood and around Somerville and a chance to talk with elected officials, City staff, and neighbors. Interpretation into Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole will be provided at every meeting. Meetings run from 6:30 to 8 p.m., with pizza and socializing at 6 p.m. The full schedule of fall meetings is as follows:

Ward 1 (East Somerville, Assembly Sq.): , Oct. 9, East Somerville Community School Auditorium, 50 Cross St.

Ward 5 (Magoun Sq., NE Ball Sq., Cedar & Lowell St. areas, NW Porter Sq.): , Oct. 22, The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave. (New location)

Ward 2 (S. Union Sq., Perry and Lincoln Park neighborhoods, Beacon St. area): , Oct. 30, Argenziano School, 290 Washington St.

Ward 6 (greater Davis Sq. neighborhood): , Nov. 1, Spaces co-working center , 54 Chester St. (New Location)

Ward 3 (N. Union Sq., Prospect Hill, Spring Hill, Central Hill): , Nov. 7, Somerville High School cafeteria, 81 Highland Ave.

Ward 4 (Winter Hill, Ten Hills):, Nov. 13, Healey School, 5 Meacham St.

Ward 7 (West Somerville, Teele Sq.): , Nov. 15, Tufts University’s Pearson Chemical Lab, room 104, 62 Talbot Ave. (New Location)

Let me cover the highlights from my side of the Hill:

Crime: city at a 30 year low, a 63% decrease since 1987. Same old stuff, a few house and car break-ins, package theft. More calls are of the nuisance and mental health (including substance abuse) issues. They are working on new strategies for handling those, more training. SPD committed to "procedural justice": fairness, transparency, opportunities for voice, impartiality. All police procedures now online + searchable.

NIT (neighborhood improvement team): program to address properties with chronic problems (abandoned, disrepair stuff). 38 cases from Sept 2016-Aug 2017. 20 active, 18 closed. Some of these need escalation to courts. They are working on them, challenges to closing them. But good to know that there's a way to kick these things into a process.

Airplane noise: considered the changes to Winthrop Tower plan a success for the city. Someone from da Ville is now officially on 33L Task Force. But still a known issue. 

https://www.somervillema.gov/somervision

Somervision review. 5 years into this process, where are we? Updates from several city departments. New jobs on track. Housing + affordable housing a hard problem in a hot market. But city has 100 homes permanent affordability initiative, trying to compete on buying units. Looking at developing a tool for tenants getting first option to buy property at market value (I'm not entirely clear on this, sounded like Denise Provost was working on this?). 

Development in "transformative" areas associated with Green Line. Includes an upcoming visioning meeting for Magoun-->Ball Sq area (see flyer here: https://imgur.com/a/j64rs ). Oct 24, 6-8pm at the VNA 259 Lowell St.

Green space: possibly the toughest thing in our high density situation. But re-furbing many existing parks, looking to create new. Look for upcoming meetings on Foss Park and Draw 7 park. 

Mobility issues: walking, biking, traffic calming strategies all underway. "Neighborways" slow street painting projects (might be one we want to look at as an event?). Watch for Vision Zero action planning meetings (reducing bike/pedestrian harm). Frustrated neighbor complained about insufficient bus service, city answer was unsatisfying. But MBTA is not easy to work with.

Sustainability/climate: carbon neutrality studies + planning underway. City wants input on climate--see this survey: tinyurl.com/y7dI4fc7  See also the Sustainaville site for these reports: https://www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville