Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven defeated Kathleen Hornbyin the Sept. 3 Democratic primary for Somerville’s 27th Middlesex District, winning 69% of the vote. Uyterhoven earned 5,705 votes, while Hornby earned 2,571 votes.
In an interview with the Daily, Terrell, a senior advisor to the Kamala Harris campaign and current Tisch College Visiting Fellow, highlighted the importance of building relationships across the aisle and how her experience as a Tufts student helped shape her career.
Somerville Public Library staff announced on Aug. 27 that, starting Sept. 3, the library’s Central branch would close in the hours surrounding the dismissal time of nearby Somerville High School. The move comes as a result of unsuccessful talks between library leadership and Mayor Katjana Ballantyne’s office after years of violent behavior from teenagers.
Somerville residents of all ages joined members of the city’s police and fire departments at the 9/11 Memorial in Davis Square as the city commemorated the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Mayor Katjana Ballantyne joined Director of Veterans’ Services Jerome Thomas, Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven and City Councilor-at-Large Kristen Strezo to honor both victims and first responders.
Throughout the month of September, those passing by Somerville City Hall may notice the 14 purple flags flanking its front lawn. Each flag honors a Somerville resident lost to substance use disorder in 2023. Last year, 22 flags were placed, representing the 22 overdose deaths that occurred in Somerville in 2022. The city’s end goal is to have zero flags outside the city hall one day.September is National Recovery Month, and Somerville is regularly hosting naloxone distribution events and training sessions throughout the month. Naloxone, more commonly known by its brand name Narcan, is an easy-to-use nasal spray that can rapidly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Tufts sent out an advisory to the university community on Aug. 27 warning about a rise in mosquito-borne illnesses throughout Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has reported three human cases of Eastern Equine Encephalitis and seven human cases of West Nile virus so far in 2024.
The Somerville City Council passed a resolution on July 11 to endorse the “Natural Psychedelic Substances Act,” an upcoming proposition on the November ballot that would legalize the usage of psychedelics in Massachusetts. If enough voters vote “yes” to the act, which will appear as Question 4 on their ballots, it would allow adults 21 and older to legally grow, possess and use specific amounts of psychedelics that have been shown to have therapeutic benefits for certain mental health conditions.
Undergraduate students at Tufts’ School of the Museum of Fine Arts will receive free, unlimited rides on local subways and buses beginning this fall. Tufts is the first school to partner with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for this two-year pilot program, called the “University Pass.”
Medford and Somerville have partnered to create a new Area Plan for the Broadway Corridor, a one-mile stretch of street along the border between Medford and Somerville. Created with the help of community feedback and support from the Horsley Witten Group, the plan will address zoning challenges that have made it a challenge to develop the corridor.
In the largest protest Tufts has seen this semester, over 300 students, faculty, nearby residents and Somerville High School students rallied on Friday in solidarity with Gaza. The demonstration, stretching from the Academic Quad to the front steps of the Mayer Campus Center, follows a wave of heightened student activism across the country.
A new branch of the beloved Asian supermarket, H Mart, is expected to open in Davis Square, according to employees of company locations in both Burlington and Cambridge. Over the phone, one worker told the Daily that although the opening has been continuously delayed, she believes its doors will open this summer.
The City of Medford has received a grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s EmPower Massachusetts program to help low-income residents reduce their carbon emissions. Medford received $300,000, the maximum amount they could apply for, from MassCEC.
In March, Mayor Katjana Ballantyne announced that Somerville will begin a one-year guaranteed basic income pilot program this July. Approximately 200 households will receive monthly payments of $750 to use for self-identified expenses with the ultimate goal of increasing financial and housing stability. Much of this program’s funding comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, established in 2021.
After withdrawing its original rezoning proposal, Boston-based developer Rafi Properties has gone back to the drawing board with its plans to redevelop “Somernova,” a commercial facility in Somerville’s Union Square neighborhood.
At the end of January, Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne announced the resumption of the City of Somerville’s search for their next chief of police after three finalists for the position were ultimately rejected by the mayor’s office last November. The search will be led by the city’s Racial and Social Justice Department, its Human Resources Department and public-sector executive recruitment firm GovHR, which serves as the requisite external consultant to identify and certify potential candidates. This search has been ongoing since March 2020, when former Chief David Fallon announced his retirement. Interim Police Chief Charlie Femino has led the department since Fallon’s retirement took effect in December 2020.
CultureHouse, a nonprofit placemaking organization based in Somerville, transformed a vacant storefront into a vibrant community center in Union Square. Since its opening in January 2024, the pop-up, located at 64 Union Square, has offered a space to foster community and build intercultural and intergenerational relationships.
Established in 1963, the Somerville Municipal Employees Association has since grown to represent more than 260 municipal workers, with bargaining units that cover everything from the Department of Public Works to the library department to school nurses. For more than 20 months, however, these vital city workers, prohibited by Massachusetts law from going on strike, have been working without a contract.
Following a national trend of local newspaper closures, the Somerville Wire — a municipal news service which has now served the city of Somerville for the better part of three years — will soon close its doors for the final time.
On Feb. 6, Medford became the third city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel, following just over a week after the cities of Somerville and Cambridge called for the same. City Council Vice President Kit Collins proposed the resolution, passed in a 5-1-1 vote during last week’s city council meeting after public testimony from dozens of constituents.
In early January, Rep. Ayanna Pressley hosted a community roundtable with Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and local authorities to discuss affordable housing, specifically, the plans for the Clarendon Hill Redevelopment Project. This project seeks to add 375 apartments to Clarendon Hill’s original 216 units, totaling 591 units of mixed-income housing across three buildings and several townhomes.
