Here’s a first newsletter with some updates and info you may be interested in.

• Inauguration Celebration January 1
• Campaign Wrapup Thanks
• Upcoming Projects
  • Somerville Ave Streetscape/Sewer Work
  • Citywide Zoning Overhaul
  • Neighborhood Zoning Meetings
  • Union Square Neighborhood Council

INAUGURATION CELEBRATION JANUARY 1

You’re invited to the Somerville Inauguration! The city is hosting a ceremony at Somerville High School on New Year’s Day starting at 6pm that will feature speeches from Mayor Curtatone, Board of Aldermen President Ballantyne, School Board Chair Green, and Governor Baker. It will be immediately followed by a reception at the Holiday Inn with appetizers and a live band from 8-10pm.

You are invited to either or both! Details are online here, and the city has asked folks to send an RSVP email to inauguration2018@somervillema.gov if you plan on attending. I hope to see you all there to celebrate!

CAMPAIGN WRAPUP AND THANKS

Speaking of celebration, I’m also reaching out to say Thank You for all of your support during the campaign.

Municipal elections generally don’t draw many voters, and Ward 2 traditionally has the lowest turnout in Somerville. Not this year: we had 4x the votes cast in the last municipal election in 2015, and the highest number of votes since 1979. This was entirely due to the energy of our grassroots campaign and the tireless effort of our volunteers. As an engineer, I like data – and I can tell you that the data shows that the vast majority of these votes were cast by people we talked to face-to-face, one-on-one. I’ve always said that we can only change the world one conversation at a time, and this election really proved how powerful those conversations can be.

We truly have a political revolution here in Somerville. I was one of five new Aldermen elected, removing five incumbents – and now 9 of the 11 seats on the city council are occupied by candidates endorsed by Our Revolution Somerville. With this supermajority in place, I have high hopes for this term. We can do better for Somerville – and it’s all thanks to you.

Here in Somerville, there’s a lot of work ahead of us and I’m excited to be already digging in on it. I’m committed to governing in the same way I campaigned – one conversation at a time. In order to do the work ahead to increase Affordability, Transparency, and Accountability, I’m going to foster the creation and growth of neighborhood groups who can stay mobilized to keep those conversations going, support our legislative work on the Board of Aldermen, and continue to get new neighbors engaged in the political process. The revolution took a big step on November 7th, and I couldn’t be prouder of the results, but it can’t end here.

PROJECTS

Since the election I’ve spent a lot of time meeting with city staff and local residents, hearing more about your hopes and goals for the coming year and getting up to speed on all the projects coming up in the new year.

Somerville Ave Streetscape/Sewer Work – The city is planning a major piece of construction along Somerville Ave from the intersection at Washington and Webster all the way to McGrath starting in March or April of 2018. The city has placed the job out for bids, but still has a long way to go in terms of planning the schedule and publishing plans for traffic management during the construction. I’ll be staying in touch with Capital Projects to make sure that I can keep you informed of the plans for Union Square and Somerville Ave construction in 2018.

Citywide Zoning Overhaul – The city is also planning to propose a full overhaul of our city’s zoning code. This is an exciting opportunity to simplify our zoning code, enable more flexibility for homeowners to modify their houses, and open the way for more jobs and commercial development in Somerville. It’s also a vitally important time to make sure we get zoning that protects neighborhoods and encourages the kind of development we want to see – after all, the last time zoning got completely rewritten here in Somerville was nearly 100 years ago. The decisions that get made now will have long-lasting impacts on our neighborhoods. I expect the proposed zoning to be published in the first few weeks of January, but you can look at the preliminary draft information here.

Please take a look at it and let me know what you think of the zoning as written for your home and your neighborhood! I want to hear from you. To that end…

Neighborhood Zoning Meetings – I’ll be hosting a series of meetings in January and February across the neighborhoods of Ward 2 in order to try to get more people informed about and engaged in the process. I’ve posted an ambitious goal on my website of how to proceed, and I’d like to try to get each neighborhood involved. Right now, I’m looking at 7 distinct neighborhoods in Ward 2 as a way to break down the zoning discussion:

• Union Square – Mansfield/McGrath to Lake/Church
• Lincoln Park
• Spring Hill Ward 2 – from Church to Central, north of Somerville Ave
• Beacon St South – from Washington to Cambridge, including one block to each side
• Beacon St North – including Harrison/Ivaloo and Duck Village
• Prospect St/South St – including Oak, Webster, and neighboring street
• Brickbottom

I’ll be sending more information out as those meetings get scheduled, but if you’d like to help with organizing these meetings and getting your neighbors involved in the conversation, please send me an email! We’re all going to have to work together to get great zoning that meets our needs as neighbors.

Union Square Neighborhood Council – A founding board has been elected, and you can find out all about it here. The best way to get involved is to subscribe to their announcement list and go to one of their open meetings. Anyone can attend, and we want all of your voices to be heard! The ultimate purpose of this Council is to negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement with the Union Square developer US2, and to do continual community outreach to engage new people in the process of redevelopment. If you’ve been involved in Union Square development for years, or if you’re totally new to the process, please come out and/or get to know folks on the Council.

Thank you so much for your help! I look forward to working with you to do better for all of us. Please get in touch anytime.

JT Scott, Ward 2 Alderman-Elect