East Somerville Gets New Open Space

Residents arrived at the Finance Committee meeting this evening to find that the Board of Aldermen and the Mayor had reached most of the points in a compromise to preserve a portion of Zero New Washington Street as open space. Of the slightly more than three acres, the City will keep about one acre as open space and put as much as the entire remaining space or at least 50-60,000 sq ft. up for sale. Negotiations with the MBTA which currently occupies approximately an acre of the remaining space are ongoing.

Alderman at Large William White, Ward Two Alderman Maryann Heuston and Ward Seven Alderman Robert Trane represented the Finance Committee. Alderman at Large Bruce Desmond, Ward One Alderman Bill Roche, Ward Three Alderman Tom Taylor, and Ward Six Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz were also present. Nine residents representing Wards One, Two and Six attended the meeting.

As Chairman of the Committee, Alderman White invited Mayor Joseph Curtatone to speak about the proposal. The Mayor stated that the FY07 budget depends on an additional $350,000 dollars from the sale of land. In addition to revenue, he identified two other issues related to the property: the MBTA is squatting on part of the land, and residents, particularly seniors who visit the Ralph and Jenny Center and East Somerville dog owners, have open space needs that are not presently being addressed.

Anne Thomas, Legal Counsel, presented a revised request for proposal describing approximately two-thirds of the 146,013 sq. ft. parcel as available for disposition. The property is bisected by an access road and the city would retain approximately one third of the property to the east of the access road for public open space accommodating two parks: one where people can socialize and exercise their dogs off-leash and one for seniors from the Ralph and Jenny Center to get out into the sun and fresh air.

Save It! Don't Sell It!

Great cities have great public open spaces.

Citizens who think that vacant land at Zero New Washington Street would be better utilized as open space than sold for industrial use will have an opportunity to share our vision for Somerville and our concerns for the future of the City with members of the Board of Aldermen at a meeting of the Finance Committee in the Committee Room at City Hall (second floor), Wednesday evening, November 1, at 6:30.

Zero New Washington Street is not on the agenda for the Board of Aldermen meeting tomorrow (Thursday, October 26).

City property belongs to the citizens of Somerville, and we entrust our elected representatives to dispose of our resources in our best interest. Please join us at the Finance Committee meeting, Wednesday evening, for a discussion of the proposal to sell Zero New Washington Street. If you cannot attend the Finance Committee Meeting, please contact the Board of Aldermen, c/o the City Clerk, John Long (617-625-6600 ext. 4100 or jlong *at* ci.somerville.ma.us), and tell them not to sell out Somerville's future: don't sell our open space!

Please continue reading past posts under the Cobble Hill section of the som|dog website for more background on the proposal to sell Zero New Washington Street.

Proposal to Sell Zero New Washington Street Discharged to the Entire Board

Eleven members of the general public and proponents of open space attended the meeting of the Finance Committee this evening to support a park for people and pets at Zero New Washington Street. Wards One, Two, Four and Five were represented.

Two members of the Committee on Finance, Alderman at Large, William White, and Alderman at Large, Dennis Sullivan, were present. Of the five-member committee, three members are necessary for a quorum.

In the absense of a quorum, the Chairman of the Committee, Alderman White, discharged the Mayor's proposal for the sale of Zero New Washington Street to the entire Board, which meets next on Thursday, October 26. It is likely that the Board will vote on the Mayor's proposal at the next meeting.

Please contact the Board of Aldermen, c/o the City Clerk, John Long (617-625-6600 ext. 4100 or jlong *at* ci.somerville.ma.us), and tell them to save our open space at Zero New Washington Street!

Park for People and Pets in East Somerville

Tuesday, October 17, 2006
6:00 p.m.
Committee Room (City Hall, second floor)
93 Highland Avenue
Finance Committee Meeting
meetings of the Committee on Finance are open to the public

UPDATE 3:40 p.m. I received a follow-up e-mail from Alderman White suggesting that constituents direct comments on Zero New Washington Street to the City Clerk, John Long* (617-625-6600 ext. 4100 or jlong *at* ci.somerville.ma.us), with instructions to share a copy of their comments with all eleven of the Aldermen.

*John Long is the City Clerk: I've always found him and his staff to be competent, friendly and helpful.

via e-mail:

the Mayor submitted his new proposal for the sale of Zero Washington Street. The Finance Committee meeting is scheduled for this Tuesday at 6:00 pm to discuss it.
Bill White

When Jacques Chirac, now President of France, was Mayor of Paris, he dramatically increased municipal open space:

There had been absolutely no addition to Parisian green space since 1945, but Chirac changed this dramatically. Over the period of his mayoral office, from 1977 to 1995, no fewer than 134 gardens [jardins] were created. This represented an increase of well over one-third above previous levels. The parks added 118 hectares of green space to the city aggregate [a hectare is almost 2.5 acres]—out of a total for Paris as a whole (excluding the Bois de Boulogne and Vincennes) of 484 hectares. . . . Some of the parks were created as a result of removing defective and over-crowded housing plots. . . . Others were located on the sites of former industrial plant[s] and the like. . . .

The imaginative creation of green space marked a concern for the Parisian (or tourist) pedestrian. . . (source: Paris: The Biography of a City by Colin Jones [Penguin, 2004], p. 462).

Since Fall 2005, members of the Mayor's administration, Stan Koty, Commissioner of Public Works, and Carlene Campbell, Director of Community Outreach and liaison to the City's Dog Owners Task Force, promised citizens that an OLRA at Zero New Washington Street would open simultaneously with the Nunziato ORLA (which opened in April 2006). Then, in Spring 2006, we learned that instead of creating new open space, the City had decided to sell the property.

Zero New Washington Street is located behind the Holiday Inn in East Somerville. The property has no immediate residential abutters, yet the site is easily walkable to residents of the Cobble Hill neighborhood—people who presently drive to the Nunziato OLRA, which, as the only public open space in Somerville where it is safe an legal for residents to socialize and exercise our dogs off-leash, currently sustains greater use than it can accommodate.

A Sullivan Square resident has observed that a park with an off-leash recreational area "would bring integrity to the area." A Cobble Hill homeowner describes the property and the desperate need for open space in East Somerville in "The Case for Zero New Washington Street."

Friends and residents of East Somerville have submitted a petition with over 350 signatures in support of a park for people and pets at Zero New Washington Street.

Please join us at the Finance Committee meeting, Tuesday evening, for the Committee's recommendation on the Mayor's proposal to sell Zero New Washington Street. If you cannot attend the Finance Committee Meeting, please contact the Chair of the Committee, Alderman White (617-625-9110 or william.a.white * at * verizon.net), and tell him the Board of Aldermen, c/o the City Clerk, John Long (617-625-6600 ext. 4100 or jlong *at* ci.somerville.ma.us), and tell them not to sell out Somerville's future: don't sell our open space!

East Somerville Neighborhood Dog Walk

The Somerville Dog Owners Group in partnership with Groundwork Somerville and Shape Up Somerville and in cooperation with Mayor Joseph Curtatone, Alderman William Roche and School Committee member Maureen Bastardi, cordially invites you to join us in the the East Somerville Neighborhood Dog Walk, Saturday morning, October 21, 2006, from 10:00 to noon (Rain Date: Sunday, October 22). The walk begins at 10:30 at the East Somerville Community School courtyard.

All dogs who enjoy the company of other dogs are welcome. Dogs must be leashed, licensed, and up to date on all vaccinations.

The route of the Walk is the East Somerville Neighborhood Walking Route, a 1.2-mile loop linking the Youth & Senior Center, the East Somerville Health Clinic, East Somerville Community School, Edgerly School, Glen Park and Garden, Grace Baptist Church, St. Benedict’s Church and historical buildings.

A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia found that 41% of dog owners walk, on average, 18 minutes per week longer than people without dogs. However, the majority of dog owners (59%) don’t walk their dogs at all, and actually record lower physical activity levels than people without dogs. The report authors estimate that if all dog owners regularly walked their dogs, the boost in physical fitness across the community would save Australia’s health care system about $175 million ($140 million USD) every year (source: WalkBoston).

A recent study at the University of Missouri-Columbia has found that having a pet can encourage owners to get more exercise and results in more weight loss than most nationally known diet plans.

"Our goal was to look for ways to increase the average exercise regimen, and we found being responsible for a pet, such as committing to walk a loaner dog, encouraged people who did not own dogs to walk more often and for longer periods of time," said Rebecca Johnson, associate professor of nursing and director of the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction. "Our first study group averaged a weight loss of 14 pounds during the one-year program." (Source: University of Missouri-Columbia News Bureau)

But you don't have to have a dog to enjoy the benefits of walking and the East Somerville Neighborhood Dog Walk: According to the Somerville Health Department,

More physical activity can improve physical stamina for work, school and play. It can also help prevent diabetes, heart disease, strokes and reduce weight. Studies have shown that just adding 2000 steps per day to a daily routine can help the average American achieve a healthier lifestyle. The East Somerville Neighborhood Walking Route has been established as a readily accessible and simple way for residents to walk 2000 steps.

For more information about the East Somerville Neighborhood Dog Walk and to learn how you can volunteer to be a walk captain, please e-mail somdog at somervilledog.com.